GOP's 'Uppity' Cover Blown

GOP's 'Uppity' Cover Blown
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In a year of murky debates about racial code, one Republican congressman at his party's national convention just sidestepped subtlety for the plainly overt.

Rep. Lynn Westmoreland, who represents Atlanta suburbs, commented about Barack and Michelle Obama in talking with reporters on Thursday. "They're a member of an elitist class . . . that thinks that they're uppity," Westmoreland said.

"Uppity, you said?" he was asked.

"Yeah, uppity," Westmoreland replied.

Many Obama supporters have long complained that those who call the Democratic nominee "elitist" are really trying to evoke the word "uppity," a derisive term applied to ambitious African-Americans.

Indeed, the unspoken "uppity" theme has underscored much of Republican nominee John McCain's campaign attacks on Obama. How inconvenient for McCain that Rep. Westmoreland just blew his cover.

Craig blogs daily on CQPolitics.com

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