Hilliard, backers rap Davis at bridge

Earl Hilliard is pulling out all the symbolism he can muster, holding a rally at the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma and therefore tacitly comparing himself to Martin Luther King. What a jackass...

The current Hilliard line is that Artur Davis, his challenger in the runoff for the Democratic nomination in the 7th Congressional District, has been bought and paid for by "out of state interests". I won't say what interests he's talking about, but they start with "J" and rhyme with "news". Leaving aside that there were an awful lot of non-Alabamians -- including not a few rhymes-with-news -- at the Selma-to-Montgomery march, Hilliard and Davis have raised about the same amount of money, and in both cases the majority has come from out of state. In fact, more of Hilliard's came from out of state, from what the News can tell; 87 percent versus 77 percent for Davis.

State Sen. Hank Sanders, D-Selma, chairman of the Alabama New South Coalition, held the news conference near a monument to 1965 march leader Hosea Williams.

"People in New York, people in New Jersey, people in California are simply trying to buy this district," said Sanders. "That's just completely unacceptable. We worked too hard. We already paid for it. We paid for it with sweat. We paid for it with blood. We paid for it with sacrifice. So it's not going to be bought with money if we have anything to do with it at all."

I've seen that speech before. It was on Eyes on the Prize, and I think George Wallace was making it. Or Orval Faubus, Bull Connor, Lester Maddox. Someone like that. I'm sick.