McCain, Suspend Your Campaign

And this is where the satire ends and the Special Comment begins. Because this is not even remotely funny.

1:25
p.m. Eastern Time, today, in Scranton, Pennsylvania. During the warm-up
act by a red meat Congressional candidate aptly named Chris Hackett,
Hackett mentions Obama and a Palin audience member shouts, "Kill Him."

And
Gov. Palin, as usual, does nothing about it; says nothing to these
thugs and psychos. She may not have heard this one. It is impossible to
believe that by now she has not heard about the other ones.
Her silence is deafening. Just as, Senator McCain, you have done
nothing when violence has been asserted. Correction. You have done one
thing.

Asked why, in real time, you do not
repudiate this hatefulness, you act as if you are the victim. Speaking
today to our NBC Station in Washington:

McCain: "Sure and I
repudiated it as I have on several occasions. Unfortunately,
Congressman John Lewis is an American hero who I admire who made the
worst, most unacceptable statement a couple days ago that I have ever
heard. He accused me and Sarah Palin of being involved in segregation,
George Wallace and even made reference to a church bombing where
children were killed. Senator Obama has not repudiated that statement.
Senator Obama should do so immediately. Its the most outrageous thing
that I have heard since in politics...it is disgraceful."

Disgraceful?

Obviously,
Senator, you haven't heard your own speeches, and Gov. Palin's, and
what people shout during them. And you haven't heard your state GOP
Chair in Virginia, Jeffrey Frederick, giving talking points to 30 of
your field-operatives heading out to canvass voters in Gainesville,
Virginia, with a reporter present, telling them to try to forge a
connection between Barack Obama and Osama bin Laden to emphasize
bombings and terrorism. And you haven't heard those volunteers, your
volunteers Sen. McCain, shout back, "And he won't salute the flag" and
"We don't even know where Sen. Obama was really born."

Sen.
McCain, these people are speaking for you! And how dare you try to
claim Congressman Lewis was linking you to Gov. George Wallace's
segregation? He was linking you, aptly, to Gov. George Wallace's
lynch-mob mentality.

"As public figures
with the power to influence and persuade," said Congressman Lewis,
"Sen. McCain and Gov. Palin are playing with fire, and if they are not
careful, that fire will consume us all."

Sen.
McCain, your supporters, at your events, are calling Obama a terrorist
and traitor and are calling for him to be killed. And yet you keep
bringing back these same rabid Right Wing nuts to deliberately stir
these crowds into frenzies. And then you take offense when somebody who
remembers the violence in our political past, calls you on it. You,
sir, are responsible for a phalanx of individuals who are shouting fire
in a crowded theater.

There are some
things to respect and honor about you, Sen. McCain, but on this you're
not only a fraud, Senator, but you are tacitly inciting lunatics to
violence. If you want to again grand-stand and suspend your campaign
here's your big chance. Suspend your campaign now, until you, or
somebody else, gets some control over it and it ceases to be a clear
and present danger to the peace of this nation.