CBC: McCain Camp "scraping The Bottom Of The Barrel" With Race Comments

By Daniel W. Reilly

(The Politico)  Members of the Congressional Black Caucus angrily defended Barack Obama from accusations of playing the race card on Thursday, saying the McCain campaign was “scraping the bottom of the barrel” by bringing up the issue.

“That is a very unfortunate statement,” said Democratic Rep. Elijah Cummings.

“They are just scraping the bottom of the barrel in an effort to appeal to appeal to people’s fears.”

On Thursday morning, Sen. John McCain’s campaign manager Rick Davis accused Obama of “playing the race card from the bottom of the deck,” after Obama delivered a speech in Missouri in which he said his opponents are attacking him because he “doesn’t look like all those other presidents on those dollar bills.”

Democratic Rep. Keith Ellison called the comments “a desperate attempt to salvage a desperate campaign” and called Davis’ comments “ridiculously outrageous.”

Cummings, who said he has worked closely with the campaign for months, said he has personally heard Obama state many times that he did not want to make race a part of the campaign.

“It’s ridiculous, it’s offensive and you have to wonder if there is a double motive for it,” said Democratic Rep. Artur Davis. “The McCain campaign can’t get any traction…So what do you do? You attack the other guy.”