Friday, September 23, 2005
Charles Rangel Turns Fire Hose on Bush
The New York Sun is reporting that Congressman Charles Rangel (D-NY), compared President Bush to infamous segregationist Bull Connor at a Congressional Black Caucus event September 22, to "wild applause and cheering":Comparing President Bush to the Birmingham, Ala., police commissioner whose resistance to the civil rights movement became synonymous with Southern racism, Rep. Charles Rangel said yesterday of the president: "George Bush is our Bull Connor."Other participants in the event, according to the Sun, included Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY), Senator Barak Obama (D-IL), former entertainer Harry Belafonte, Rep. Danny Davis (D-IL) and Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX).
Mr. Rangel's metaphoric linkage of Mr. Bush to the late Theophilus "Bull" Connor - who in 1963 turned fire hoses and attack dogs on blacks, including Martin Luther King Jr., demonstrating in favor of equal rights - met with wild applause and cheering at a Congressional Black Caucus town hall meeting, part of the organization's 35th Annual Legislative Conference...
Project 21's response is here.
Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee represents Houston. I'd have thought she might have been too busy helping constituents yesterday to attend a hate conference, but perhaps I am being too hasty. Maybe she was there on hurricane-related business: Lobbying to get Hurricane Rita renamed after an ethnic minority.
The Sun article says the Congressional Black Caucus event was a four-day legislative conference. Other participants included Rev. Al Sharpton and former Rep. Kweisi Mfume (D-MD). Cindy Sheehan also was present, perhaps attempting to prove that no black legislative conference is complete without a speech from a white woman who has no legislative experience.
Posted by Amy Ridenour at 2:01 PM
