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Civil Rights era leader and icon Rep. John Lewis gave one of the more powerful speeches at the Democratic National Convention this Thursday evening which moved many of the convention goers to tears and I've got to admit, myself as well. It is truly tragic that we're still having to fight these battles and that the Republicans are trying to take us backwards.

h/t Pam Spaulding for the transcript:

I first came to this city in 1961, the year Barack Obama was born. I was one of the 13 original “Freedom Riders.” We were on a bus ride from Washington to New Orleans trying to test a recent Supreme Court ruling that banned racial discrimination on buses crossing state lines and in the stations that served them. Here in Charlotte, a young African-American rider got off the bus and tried to get a shoe shine in a so-called white waiting room. He was arrested and taken to jail.

On that same day, we continued on to Rock Hill, South Carolina, about 25 miles. From here, when my seatmate, Albert Bigelow, and I tried to enter a white waiting room, we were met by an angry mob that beat us and left us lying in a pool of blood. Some police officers came up and asked us whether we wanted to press charges. We said, “No, we come in peace, love and nonviolence.” We said our struggle was not against individuals, but against unjust laws and customs. Our goal was true freedom for every American.

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Andrea Mitchell invited civil rights icon Rep. John Lewis on her show this Thursday, and after opening the segment by showing his recent take-down of fellow Rep. Paul Broun on the House floor, for pushing an amendment that would have stripped funding for enforcement of Title V of the 1965 Civil Rights Act, Lewis spoke to Mitchell about how dangerous the recent efforts by Republicans to take our country backwards with are all of these voter suppression laws being passed in states across the country.

What I'm surprised they did not discuss are the recent efforts by the House Democrats to fight back against voter suppression:

Today, House Democrats did something really important. Something fundamental to our democracy. Today, House Democrats unveiled the Voter Empowerment Act - a legislation that would roll back many GOP state-sponsored efforts and laws to suppress the vote.

The bill will protect voters from restrictive voting measures that have been enacted in states across the country over the last year. These measures make it harder for millions of eligible voters to register or vote, and disproportionally affect our service members, the disabled, minorities, young people, seniors, and low-income Americans.

The bill will protect voters from restrictive voting measures that have been enacted in states across the country over the last year. These measures make it harder for millions of eligible voters to register or vote, and disproportionally affect our service members, the disabled, minorities, young people, seniors, and low-income Americans.

You can read more details on the bill in the link above. Mitchell also asked Lewis about President Obama's recent endorsement of gay marriage and as Think Progress reported, it looks like the numbers are starting to turn around on that issue in the African American community now as well: The Obama Effect: Growing Number Of African Americans Come Out For Marriage Equality:

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Phil Gingrey joins the ranks of John Boehner, Eric Cantor and Michael Steele who went on the Sunday talk shows and called the racist and bigoted rhetoric from the Tea baggers as just "isolated incidents". When Michael Smerconish asks Gingrey if it's fair to hold the GOP leadership accountable for the conduct of some of the protesters he lets Gingrey get away with this.

GINGREY: Of course not. The Tea Party activists don't even represent themselves as Republicans. They have a policy in regard to what they stand for. But I mean when you have literally thousands, I don't know, there may have been twenty five thousand people on Saturday and I stopped and spoke to many of them and they're good red blooded Americans and good honest people who traveled thousands of miles in some instances, some drove, some took buses, so you know, they're frustrated.

In any crowd like that you're always going to get somebody who goes a little bit over the line in regard to their remarks, what they shout out or the signs they carry, but I think Jim Clyburn who's a good friend, I respect the Majority Whip and John Lewis of course in my own delegation, the senior member of the Georgia delegation is a great human being. And we, I think they understand that people sometimes get out of line. But they're not representative certainly of the Republican Party and I don't think of the Tea Party movement in general.

Michael Smerconish failed to ask Phil Gingrey about his participation at that protest which consisted of quite a bit more than just stopping and speaking to a few of them. If you go look at the screen shot in this video, that's Phil Gingrey standing behind Michele Bachmann while she thanks Sean Hannity for providing a forum for her to organize the health care reform protests. Smerconish didn't bother to ask Gingrey how anyone could say that Dick Armey's fake grass roots organization Freedom Works could not be considered just an arm of the Republican Party.

As Thomas Frank pointed out, the Tea Party Movement is Led by Characters from the Jack Abramoff Story. Fox News and Republican astroturf groups started this movement and Michael Smerconish allows Gingery to paint them as some independent group that isn't being used by the Republicans for political gain. Pitiful.