Herman Cain, the African American Republican presidential candidate whose become the star of the party, struck back at civil rights icon Rev. Joseph Lowery’s accusations that he’s become a paid mouthpiece of white aristocrats.
At the Values Voters Summit in Washington, Cain said the country doesn’t need to accommodate minorities in the United States. Lowery, celebrating his star-studded birthday celebratory concert in Atlanta, said Cain is being used and that he should be smart enough to know better.
Cain, getting unprecedented access to the media in light of his surprising surge to the front of the GOP race, quickly shot back at all civil rights leaders, particularly the beloved Lowery.
“I have all the respect in the world for Rev. Lowery, but Rev. Lowery is dead wrong,” Cain, known as a personality who’s not afraid of confrontation, shot back. “If he knew me, he would know I wouldn’t be used by anybody or any party. The reason Rev. Lowery and other black Democrats and other black liberals criticize me and name-call is because that’s the only tactic they have in order to try and silence me. I have news for them — it’s not going to work.
Cain’s Republican ascension is the talk of the country. Some polls have him tied with Mitt Romney for the top spot, and Zogby has him up 20 points on the field.
Meanwhile, Cain’s new book is now the No. 7 best-seller on Amazon.com. Cain claims that he did not see all this success happening, but he says has not been focusing on that.
“Here is what we saw coming: we have been building gradually in the entire campaign. We’re not worried about being the flavor of the week or anything like that,” he said.
–terry shropshire
