Newspaper: The NAACP's smear: Crumbling credibility

An excellent editorial in The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review pointing out the bigotry exhibited by the NAACP in labeling the Tea Party movement as racist because it opposes the Obama big government agenda.

The NAACP's smear: Crumbling credibility

Still in search of its lost relevancy, the NAACP, at its annual convention last week, smeared the tea party movement as "racist" based on nothing more substantial than anecdotes and inaccuracy.

Or is the civil rights organization simply following marching orders from the Democrats' high command and its incandescent hatred for tea partyers?

Talk about bigotry.

At "issue" is tea partyers' "continued tolerance for bigotry and bigoted statements," says Ben Jealous, president of the National Association for the Advancement for Colored People. NAACP's Washington bureau chief Hilary Shelton cites specifically the tea party's protest during the congressional vote on ObamaCare, when activists "spat on (congressman) John Lewis."

Except Mr. Lewis wasn't the fella who claimed he was spat on; that was Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, who later told The Washington Post that it wasn't conscious spitting so much as an angry man yelling at him "allowed saliva to hit my face." Allegations of racial slurs that weekend have turned up equally empty.

And tea partyers' hand-held signs against President Obama are no more "racist" than public placards against past U.S. presidents throughout history.

By playing this "bigot" card the NAACP weakens further its crumbling credibility.