(UPDATED - adds McCain spokesman comment)
KANSAS CITY - Missouri voter Mary Kay Green has had enough.
The supporter of Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama filed a lawsuit this week over what she claims is dangerous “hate speech” coming from the rival campaign of Republican presidential nominee John McCain.
Green, a 66-year-old grandmother and “semi-retired” civil rights attorney, filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Kansas City this week accusing McCain, his running mate Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and their campaign manager Rick Davis of “intentionally, recklessly and irresponsibly” portraying Obama “as un-American, a terrorist by association, and ‘not like us,’ a non-white individual.”
Palin, Green alleges in her lawsuit, has at her rallies used false statements to work supporters “into a frenzy causing them to make death threats” against Obama.
The lawsuit claims that Green “suffers terror of the heart, anxiety and grave fear for the life of Presidential candidate and U.S. Senator Barack Obama” because of the McCain campaign’s efforts to invoke hatred against Obama.
A McCain spokesman said the charges were without merit.
“It’s a great country — anyone can file a lawsuit anytime on any matter, whether it has merit or not,” said McCain spokesman Brian Rogers. “As Sen. McCain explained in detail in last night’s debate, charges like this have no merit. He will compare his record of setting the record straight to any of his overzealous or inappropriate supporters against Sen. Obama’s any day.”
Green is seeking damages of $6 million, “and prays that they cease and desist their reprehensible campaigning.” She told Reuters that she will not drop the lawsuit unless McCain’s camp repudiates the death threats and tones down the rhetoric.
“It is a federal crime to threaten the life or a presidential candidate … they are participating in that crime,” Green said.
Click here for more Reuters 2008 campaign coverage.
- Photo credit: Reuters/Carlos Barria (McCain at a rally in Pennsylvania on Thursday)
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50 comments so far
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Greene, are you related to Cynthia McKinney? Why don’t you try to ‘moveon.org’, get a real life and quit wasting the courts already overburdened schedules with your dribble!!!!
- Posted by Eda BatesReminds me of the song ” It’s been a long time coming”.
- Posted by BettyApplause for you Mary Kay. I can’t understand why this hasn’t been done before. Only the un educated and mis informed could fault you. Not the sharpest tacks in the box. Best of luck !
This lady is absolutley right, somebody has to have the courage to stop this undeserved abuse and character assassination. If any one of us said these horrible and untrue things about another human being –and said that in such a way that people feel driven to threaten to assassinate a presidential candidate, we would be in jail. We wouldn’t allow the KKK to blatantly encourage murdering people. Why should a Presidential or Vice presidential candidite be allowed to do it? Not only is this sort of behavior very shallow; it just encourages someone who is a little bit “off” or fanatical to do something crazy.
- Posted by kathyMcCain and Pailin are depending on Christian Evangelicals and Conservatives to get them elected. But I can’t think of anything more Un-Christian than attacking people, lying and hate mongering. All the claims that McCain and Pailin make have been investigated and found false. If Obama really was a terrorist, he never would have passed the background and security checks that are conducted before a person has access to classified government information.
Personally, I think this is a situation of “People who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones”. All we have to do it look at the personal lives and records of McCain and Pailin to see that both have been involved in very public scandals, their spouses have been involved in scandals, and neither of them is fit to serve in any public capacity. They belong in jail for racial and ethnic hate crimes; not in public office.
I am an attorney too, and in my opinion this lawsuit is frivolous, ridiculous and a complete waste of the Federal Court’s resources where it is filed. I hope the Federal Judge uses the Federal Rules at his disposal to sanction this plaintiff and member of the bar (who should know better) for wasting his or her court’s time.
- Posted by George A. kiserAll of you McCain supporters ought to get a grip. Although I have not yet decided who to vote for, Taxes always represent a redistribution of wealth. The most recent, extreme example of this is the appropriation of 750 Billion to bail out banks and Wall Street, which we as Taxpayers are going to pay for in the end. Those of you who do not believe that’s a redistribution of wealth are living in a dream world. I lean towards the Democrats this year because of the negative attitude of the Replublicans. We should all be upset with the way the campaign has been going because to overcome the economic crisis and put this country back on track, we will all have to get along and work together. We should condemn demagoguery and unite to solve common problems and to reach common goals.
- Posted by Alaska Non PartisanInciting violence is not protected by the first amendment. I’m glad that someone is standing up to McCain’s deplorable tactics.
- Posted by AntiPalinRepublicanBlatant assault on free speech.
Luckily for us the 9th Circuit has already ruled that it’s OK for politicians to outright lie during their campaigns, not that the ruling would be needed anyway.
- Posted by IdrisIt is distressing to hear one presidential candidate call another a terrorist. Yes, you might say no one said so, but the only reasoning for such repeated statements is that you get that image into your head.
McCain might equally be called by association a Nazi sympathiser (how does that go down with the Jewish voters?), but that too would be nonsense!
Such statements are however the tactics of Neo-Nazis and other fascists banging the fear drum, and evidence of a disrespectful attitude towards others.
The McCain tacticians must believe we are all (or enough of us) dumb cattle driven mainly by instincts rather than critical thought. (Let’s hope we have evolved a bit.) This is for me the only logical conclusion from having heard this terrorist thing again and again.
(By all means similar does speak true for many such messages used in campaigning. After all, too long and complete a message could fry your brain, so keep it short, radical and sticky.)
This is a game at the lowest level…
Please do not vote for any candidate using, what I call, fascist like rhetoric.
- Posted by PJOh it’s rich watching the same members of the left who have spent the last eight years joking about presidential assasination crying “hate speech” about an incident that from all accounts tell us a reporter made up.
- Posted by slfI was wondering when someone was going to demand justice, and have the nerve to call this hate speech what it is. For those of you who think it is a waste of time to pursue civil justice in the event of hate speech against a political candidate, read your country’s history of people like JFK, Lincoln, and RFK, where hate speech and racism lurked in the political atmosphere.
It was inexcusable then, and it is now. I support this lawsuit.
- Posted by Belle