Introducing...Your Tennessee Democratic Party
John Rodgers has an unbelievable story in The City Paper today about how Democratic Congressman Lincoln Davis has refused to endorse Barack Obama for president. Well, that's not the unbelievable part: No one has ever accused Davis of principled leadership, but check out this flat-out racist comment from Fred Hobbs, a state Democratic Party Executive Committee member, who was trying to defend Davis' unwillingness to support Obama.
“Maybe [it's] the same reason I don't want to—I don't exactly approve of a lot of the things he stands for and I'm not sure we know enough about him. He's got some bad connections, and he may be terrorist connected for all I can tell. It sounds kind of like he may be.”
Unreal. So will the Tennessee Democratic Party exile Hobbs from a leadership post? My guess is no. There are too many people like him in the party. Besides, if Hillary runs again in four years, she's going to need her base.
Update: Wade Munday, the flack for the Tennessee Democratic Party, blames Fred Hobbs' casual racism on--wait for it--Republicans. Here's his statement:
“The Tennessee Democratic Party is united behind our party’s nominee, Senator Barack Obama. Mr. Hobbs is obviously misinformed, and his statement highlights the perpetual efforts of the Republican Party, especially here in Tennessee, to turn internet smears and highly offensive gossip into their party’s message against Senator Barack Obama as we head into the General Election. Instead of debating the issues, the Tennessee Republican Party continues to rely upon slanderous and salacious tall tales. They are borrowing from the playbook first written by Richard Nixon and employed in the race against Congressman Harold Ford Jr. Tennesseans of every political persuasion are tired of these tactics.”
Update Part II: A conversation between Pith and Munday:
Pith: So will Fred Hobbs be asked to step down from his leadership post?
Munday: "We haven't had time to discuss that."
Update Part III: So you want to contact Lincoln Davis? This is a good time to make that as difficult as possible.
Comments
I don't know if the TNDP could really get rid of Hobbs...he's an elected official, voted in by the people of the 13th Senate district, and one of 70 some odd members of the Executive Committee. Though it certainly would be nice if the aptly named Hobbs were to "clarify" his statement.
Posted 06/13/2008 at 10:41:42 AMLincoln Davis DC office contact info:
Phone: (202) 225-6831
Fax: (202) 226-5172
District office contact info:
Phone: (931) 879-2361
Fax: (931) 879-2389
Beecher Frasier email address: Beecher.Frasier@mail.house.gov
Fred Hobbs' e-mail address:
Posted 06/13/2008 at 02:22:51 PMhobbsf@realtracs.com
Dear Mr. Hobbs,
If you, a Democratic party leader and all, don't know about whether Sen. Obama has terrorist connections, I suggest you get up off your seat and figure it out. That is your responsibility as a public figure in our party. It is a pretty easy assignment too, and if you are not up to the challenge, I suggest you leave our party, or resign so that we can find a better representative.
I think you know perfectly well that Sen. Obama is an upstanding patriotic American, whose life story should be an example for all of us to follow. I think, actually, that you just don't like that he doesn't look like you, and that his name is different. In my town we call that bigotry. It is ugly, and has no place in our party.
Sincerely,
Robert Curley, lifelong Democrat
Posted 06/13/2008 at 03:31:27 PMSent to Mr. Hobbs via email:
Dear Mr. Hobbs,
If you, a Democratic party leader and all, don't know about whether Sen. Obama has terrorist connections, I suggest you get up off your seat and figure it out. That is your responsibility as a public figure in our party. It is a pretty easy assignment too, and if you are not up to the challenge, I suggest you leave our party, or resign so that we can find a better representative.
I think you know perfectly well that Sen. Obama is an upstanding patriotic American, whose life story should be an example for all of us to follow. I think, actually, that you just don't like that he doesn't look like you, and that his name is different. In my town we call that bigotry. It is ugly, and has no place in our party.
Sincerely,
Robert Curley, lifelong Democrat
Posted 06/13/2008 at 03:32:30 PM"Flat-out racist." Glad I wasn't the only one who noticed that. This will not play well in Memphis.
Posted 06/13/2008 at 03:59:22 PMI look even better and more intelligent in person than in this photo...
http://www.grovercollins.com/meet_our_agentfhobbs.htm
Posted 06/13/2008 at 06:43:13 PMThere are many of us out here in the real world that do NOT TRUST obama . I am glad someone in the political arena had the Guts enough to speak up . I don't trust obama and will never vote for him .
Posted 06/13/2008 at 10:35:49 PMWatch out for those black helicopters while you're at it.
Posted 06/13/2008 at 11:34:47 PMDear Fred Hobbs,
I would like to applaud your recent statement implying Barack Obama is a terrorist. We here at Bigots United for McCain know that John can not possibly win on the issues. We need fine upstanding Americans like you to muddy the waters and cast doubt on the character and frankly the citizenship of the presumptive Democratic Nominee. We simply do not need a black man in office. Do we want our grade school children pointing to Africa on the map thinking it is where they live? No Sir!
If Obama gets in we will not be able to privatize Social Security and the country may very well spend a lot of money on health care for its populous instead of fighting wars in far off exotic lands. By the way, did you know Obama is Exotic? He is! And you can call him that on TV and not have to apologize!
John McCain can’t say so but he appreciates your support so I will say it for him. We love your strong commitment to your race and to the Presidential race being won by a real American who is not black.
Remember! Race, Party and then Country!
Michael Meehan
Executive Director
Bigots United for McCain
Bigots United for McCain dot com
Posted 06/14/2008 at 10:04:09 AMjust another lie by republicans who have a record of one failuer after another . so they don't want to talk about issues just sling mudd and lie...
Posted 06/15/2008 at 07:13:40 AMThank you Mr Hobbs for directing us to your website. It was good for a laugh. I learned that you "graudated" from high school.
Posted 07/01/2008 at 01:50:26 PM