Birds Of A Feather See Racist Code Together

By Kleinheider Posted on November 13, 2008 at 10:12 am

Jeff Woods sees a Republican mailer sent out against Nathan Vaughn as racist:

Vaughn says the mailer, which is clearly labeled “Paid for by Tennessee Republican Party,” shocked many voters in his Kingsport district. He calls it a “pattern of despicable behavior” on the part of Republicans. He points out that House Republican Leader Jason Mumpower was quoted earlier as saying Vaughn was “better suited to be representing inner-city Memphis than the rural hills of East Tennessee.”

“They just showed overt racist attitudes,” he told Pith this morning by phone from his home. “You just don’t choose a blackbird to put my head on and say you didn’t mean to say anything about race. You don’t say I’m better suited to represent inner-city Memphis. They didn’t say Nashville or Knoxville. They made the reference specifically to inner-city Memphis. That says Memphis is a black city. These are remarks that have no place in the political process.”

The mailing went out in the last week of the campaign when Vaughn was “quite a ways ahead” in polling, according to Randall Smythe of the Democrat Resource Center in Johnson City.

“Then this mail piece landed on people’s doorsteps and Nathan Vaughn lost,” he says.

You can see the mailer at Woods’ house. Personally, I don’t see it. It may be a blackbird, but I wouldn’t have known that if you hadn’t told me.

The “inner city Memphis” bit, that I get. This? Not so much

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