Chris Matthews charges GOP with playing race card — he’s right!

Don’t miss the excellent and fair story in The Hill
by Jonathan Easley about the exchange between Chris Matthews of MSNBC
and RNC Chairman Reince Priebus in which Matthews suggested Republicans
are playing the race card.

Chris is right. You bet they are. When I called on President Obama to
condemn the Priorities USA ad suggesting Romney bears
some responsibility for a woman dying, my piece was posted on the Romney
campaign site and quoted on Fox News. I hope they will equally quote
this: Mitt Romney should pull off the air his race-baiting and factually
fraudulent welfare ad and publicly apologize not to Obama but to the
black, Hispanic and poor Americans Romney slandered in that ad, and
apologize to President Clinton for misusing his name and his program.

Let me be clear: I am not accusing Romney of running a race-card campaign against the president’s race. I am accusing Romney of running a race-card campaign against blacks and Hispanics generally, and trying to appeal to white voters (whom Romney insults with these appeals) by trying to pit them against minorities and the poor.

{mosads}The problem is not merely that Mitt Romney invoked the birther issue, which is pathetic and revolting.

The problem is not merely that one of Mitt Romney’s sons has invoked the birther issue, which is revealing and pathetic.

The problem is not even that Romney’s Medicare ad is factually fraudulent and dishonest. Equally bad, when Romney’s Medicare ad says “free coverage” is expensive, what the Romney dog-whistle is really saying is that those blacks and Hispanics and poor people who get “free” coverage are taking money from the white people he implies are paying for this “free care.”

If Mitt Romney wants to talk about “free” welfare or healthcare, he should release his tax returns and look at the welfare for the wealthy that has allowed certain wealthy tax evaders, probably including Romney, to legally get a tax free ride for much of their wealth.

There is a pattern to Mitt Romney, who casually asserts that some people and cultures are superior and others are inferior, and who insults whites as well as Hispanics and blacks with these dog-whistle race-plays that are now a daily practice of the Romney campaign.

Chris Matthews is right and I give him a standing ovation for having the clarity and courage to say it.

Mitt Romney insults the Republican legacy of Abe Lincoln and insults the Republican legacy of George Romney, who would be ashamed and embarrassed by the way Mitt Romney is conducting his campaign.