With a doff of the chapeau to Kleinheider, we note Jeff Woods’ reporting in today’s Nashville City Paper:
Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey renewed his demands Monday for Tennessee’s attorney general to challenge the constitutionality of the newly passed national health care reform legislation.
But at a news conference, House Democratic caucus leader Mike Turner criticized the Ramsey-backed Tennessee Health Freedom Act as political grandstanding. Turner suggested President Obama’s conservative critics have racist motivations.
Asked his view on the Health Freedom Act, which orders Attorney General Bob Cooper to sue to overturn any federal mandate to buy insurance, Turner said: “I have one thing to say about that: Appomattox.”
“We’ve got a lot of bills on states’ rights here, state sovereignty and all that,” he added. “We went through that fight once before. All of a sudden, we have a black man elected president and everybody wants to start acting like something’s wrong with our country. I didn’t agree with a lot of things George Bush did, but I wasn’t ready to secede from the union.”
Asked to elaborate afterward, Turner said, “I think some of the people who are against Obama are just against Obama because he’s African-American.”
Bully for Mike, we need MORE of this, please. Other Democratic leaders, take note: THIS is how you support your party and fight back against a GOP meme!
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