So a résumé that includes a law practice focused on criminal defense and workplace discrimination, a clerkship for Alabama federal Judge Myron Thompson (an African-American) and even an internship at the Southern Poverty Law Center is ignored so that Hilliard can actually criticize Davis for serving as an assistant U.S. attorney, where he prosecuted drug dealers.

(Not to mention the argument that prosecuting black drug dealers helps the black community, seemingly lost on those with Hilliard's view of the world.)

But that was nothing compared to a live TV interview on May 30, when Hilliard charged that Davis was forced to resign as a federal prosecutor "because of a date-rape charge."

Davis says he was "not surprised" by Hilliard's low blow, and believes the tactic backfired this time. After Hilliard made the charge, Davis' former boss, former U.S. Attorney Redding Pitt, now the state Democratic Party chairman, told the Birmingham News that there was "absolutely no basis" to Hilliard's charge. Davis says his campaign's polling numbers "showed that we surged dramatically after he said that."

"That's Earl Hilliard's pattern," Davis says. "Ten years ago Earl Hilliard put out racist fliers against a black opponent. Power is not surrendered easily."

Hilliard would not return calls for this story.

Davis' campaign against Hilliard in 2000 ended with Hilliard trouncing Davis, 58 percent to 34 percent. Two weeks ago, Davis had a strong enough finish in the primary, 43 percent to Hilliard's 44 percent, that he forced a runoff and the two will face each other again at the ballot box on June 25.

In some ways, Davis seems self-conscious about taking on a member of the revered old guard. "What we have tried to do is make the case that we are not challenging the civil rights generation, or questioning the civil rights movement," Davis says. "My candidacy and campaign are the products of the civil rights movement."

Hilliard, of course, blazed a trail in his first election to the U.S. House, in 1992, by becoming the first African-American to represent Alabama in that office since the 19th century. "It's no longer enough to be the first black elected since Reconstruction," Davis says. "Now it sets a high historical burden -- one that I honor but also one that I believe should obligate you to be a leader, to be one of the more effective and dynamic members of Congress." But on the contrary, Davis says, Hilliard has been among the least effective.

To say the least. Davis has no problem rattling off a list of Hilliard's ethics shenanigans. "He had unpaid taxes for a period of time. He was diverting county money to organizations that may or may not exist. He was diverting campaign money for personal use, and he was accused of misleading the House Ethics Committee about that. He has a wonderful penchant for getting into trouble." And unlike his bogus rape allegation, Hilliard's offenses have all been extensively documented.

As with Booker, the support Davis has been able to generate from "New" Democrats, many of whom are Jewish, has been used against him. At a political convention in April, someone distributed a flier about "Davis and the Jews," not surprisingly a combination described as "No Good for the Black Belt."

"Mr. Davis must simply understand that Jews the world over have never come to the aid of black or dark skin people because it was the right thing to do," the flier reads. "If the current invasions, murder and abuse within the Palestinian territory sound familiar, its only because in the not to distant past we seen the apartheid do exactly the same in the black villages of South Africa with Israel's support."

The sheet was signed, "By friends to re-elect Earl Hillard for Congress in the seven congressional district." Hilliard said he knew nothing about the flier, and accused Davis of generating it himself to drum up further Jewish support.

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