Friend or foe?

John Lewis was born a sharecropper's son. In the 1960s, he played a prominent and active role in the civil-rights movement, enduring dozens of arrests and suffering countless beatings. John Lewis is now Rep. John R. Lewis, a Democrat elected by the citizens of Georgia's 5th District to the U.S. House of Representatives.

With all due respect to the long, difficult and admirable road he's traveled, Rep. Lewis is still John Lewis, Civil Rights Icon -- and that, for better or worse, means that the incendiary issue of race infuses (or is imposed upon) everything he says.

Yesterday, Rep. Lewis issued a statement saying that he's "deeply disturbed by the negative tone of the McCain-Palin campaign."

Many of us are; many of us have said so. But when John Lewis says so -- and when he draws parallels with the civil-rights era, especially when he compares the toxic air of McCain-Palin rallies to the "atmosphere of hate" cultivated by former Alabama Gov. George Wallace -- it's bound to provoke a defensive response.

Sen. John McCain took exception to the idea that his campaign "could be compared to Gov. George Wallace, his segregationist policies and the violence he provoked," calling the accusations "unacceptable" and asserting that they have "no place in this campaign." Naturally, he called on Sen. Barack Obama to "repudiate" what Rep. Lewis said.

"Sen. Obama does not believe that John McCain or his policy criticism is in any way comparable to George Wallace or his segregationist policies," said Obama-Biden -- but the campaign's statement went on to say that "John Lewis was right to condemn some of the hateful rhetoric that John McCain himself personally rebuked...as well as the baseless and profoundly irresponsible charges from his own running mate...."

Enough already with the dueling statements -- it's time to call this the way it is.

Rep. Lewis, for his part, spoke like he'd forgotten who he is. He couldn't possibly have been unaware that he was lobbing racially charged grenades into a climate that's already strayed too far from issues that should preoccupy the candidates. Rep. Lewis is no freshman -- he should've known better.

Sen. McCain's indignation, however, is only so credible. His campaign has relied on and, in the case of Gov. Sarah Palin and other surrogates, actively encouraged flamethrowing. Only recently has Sen. McCain tried to douse the fires.

Oddly enough, McCain-Palin actually does beg a parallel to George Wallace, although not specifically in terms of fostering outright racism.

"I don't have much strategy," Gov. Wallace once said of his 1972 bid for the Democratic nomination. "I'm just putting the hay down where the goats can get it."

In my view, that's an eerily apt description of McCain-Palin’s quiet tolerance of supporters' fear and hatred.

Finally, how does Sen. Obama come out of this weekend's back-and-forth? Only with a pressing need to control the damage -- most of which, ironically, was inflicted by a friend, not a foe.