We will never know the moment when Rep. John Lewis lost his courage, but the sharecroppers son turned Civil Rights leader of the 1960’s, once admired for his commitment to his ideals, turned himself into just another politico when under extreme pressure from African-American leaders he retracted his support for his longtime friend Hillary Clinton and re-endorsed his fellow African-American, Barack Obama.

Politics is an ugly business.  It doesn’t get its reputation for being the scrappy biz that it is for nothing. Politicians are often accused of being unscrupulous, nasty, down and dirty opportunists who will do whatever they need to get what they want.  

Senator Barack Obama has based his entire campaign in opposition to this brand of politics.  Ironically it is exactly the kind of politics that got its reputation because of slugs like Rep. John R. Lewis, Obama’s newest endorser.

“I have looked at all the candidates, and I believe that Hillary Clinton is the best prepared to lead this country at a time when we are in desperate need of strong leadership, Rep. Lewis said on October 12, 2007 when he made his official endorsement of Hillary Clinton. “She will restore a greater sense of community in America, and reclaim our standing in the world.”

Now a mere five months later Lewis has changed his mind. In addressing his switch to Senator Obama, Rep. Lewis justified what he called his “agonizing decision” by citing the overwhelming preference for Obama in his Atlanta, Georgia district as a reason for his change of heart. He referred to Obama's campaign as a transformational moment, an opportunity born of Lewis' own sacrifices in the 1960s civil rights movement.

Rep. Lewis had been a Freedom Rider and the head of the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee and was the leader of the “Bloody Sunday” march in Selma, Alabama where in 1965 police beat him nearly to death during the protest

"Something's happening in America, something some of us did not see coming," Lewis said, referring to his abandonment of Hillary Clinton, the white woman he insists is “family.” "Barack Obama has tapped into something that is extraordinary. It's a movement. It's a spiritual event," Lewis said of the surging Obama campaign. "It's amazing what's happening."

Lewis' original endorsement of  Senator Clinton, a longtime friend, over Obama, the nation's first truly viable African-American candidate for the presidency, angered many of Georgia's black constituents and numerous civil rights elders who had once fought for black voting rights alongside Lewis.

He has paid a political price for supporting Senator Clinton. In the past he has run for Congress unopposed. The Rev. Markel Hutchins of Atlanta recently announced his plans to run against Lewis in this year's Democratic primary because he says that Lewis has lost touch with his constituency.

In an attempt to justifying his disloyalty to Senator Clinton, Lewis said that "Sometimes, you have to be on the right side of history." He insisted that his decision was “harder than his famed March on Selma.”

Probably true, because Congressman Lewis knew that he had been forced to make a grim choice in order to remain the representative from his district.

He made that choice and while he might remain the congressman for his district he left himself a profile not in courage.