From Jeffersons vs. Hemingses to McCain vs. Obama

[Gunit Hussein Sangh]

A key organizer of John McCain's meeting Saturday with former supporters of Hillary Clinton is best known for her role in another bitter American fight: The effort by some white descendants of Thomas Jefferson to keep his possible African-American descendants out of family gatherings.

Paula Abeles emailed Politico yesterday to complain that her group had gotten short shrift in a blog item, writing, "I initiated the teleconference with McCain on Saturday and was solely responsible for the guest list." Another Clinton backer at the event, Will Bower, confirmed that she was "integral" to assembling the group.

But Abeles first made the news in 2003, when she and her husband, then-Monticello Association President Nat Abeles, led the fight to keep members of the Hemings family -- descendants of Jefferson slave and, some historians believe, mistress Sally Hemmings -- out of a gathering of the Monticello Association, which is made up of lineal descendants of the third president.

Abeles drew national attention for her role in an episode of online espionage.

The AP reported in May of 2003:

The wife of a Thomas Jefferson family association official said Friday that she masqueraded as a 67-year-old black woman on an Internet chat room in a bid to keep descendants of a reputed Jefferson mistress out of this weekend's family reunion.

"It might have been somewhat unethical," said Paulie Abeles of Washington, D.C., who participated for eight months in the Yahoo! message board created for relatives of Jefferson slave Sally Hemings.

"It might have been childish, but I really think I was working in the best interest of the majority of the family members to make the reunion a calm and civilized gathering," she said.

http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0608/From_Jeffersons_vs_Hemingses_to_McCain_vs_Obama.html

Yes ... someone has to make sure those NEGROS stay in their proper place.

[Mr. Dirlewanger]

Thomas Jefferson did not have any children with Sally Hemings. Now don't you feel ridiculous?

http://www.ashbrook.org/articles/mayer-hemings.html

http://www.tjheritage.org/scholars.html

I know that liberal Whites like to patronize Negroes but it just makes you both look silly.

[Gunit Hussein Sangh]

Update: Sure to please McSamiacs

After Saturday's teleconference, McCain made some interesting promises to the handful of assembled rabid fans and above-mentioned racists, who organized the call. According to multiple sources, McCain insinuated he would appoint moderate judges and even looked kindly upon civil unions for gays.

From Slate:

Suckers! Part XVIII: John McCain met privately with some Clinton supporters in the diehard group Party Unity My Ass (PUMA), and tried to wobble his way into their hearts:

"He stayed for a good almost half hour afterwards shaking hands, listening to our concerns, talking to us," said PUMA founder Will Bower, who said he thought many of the people there would vote for McCain.

Former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina stayed to mingle with the crowd, whose members also included Clinton backer Harriet Christian, made momentarily famous on YouTube for getting ejected from the Rules & Bylaws press area.

Bower said he'd liked McCain's answer on judges, in which he "pointed out that he supported Bill Clinton with both Ginsberg and Breyer." [E.A.]

http://www.slate.com/id/2193674

And, again, from Politico:

Another person who was present, but asked not to be named to avoid conflict with fellow Democrats, said he'd pressed a McCain staffer on McCain's position on same-sex marriage.

The staffer "said it was the same as [John] Kerry's position," he said

http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0608/McCain_mingles_with_Clinton_supporters.html

I'm sure all of this will be welcome news to the GOP's hard right.

[Mr. Dirlewanger]

Yeah! Those racists should stop insisting that the truth be told. 

[conley]

i want to see more video of the crazy hillary supporter woman from manhattan who said obama was only running because he had a chance to beat a white woman. now THAT was a rant!!

can you say reality show?