Rangel’s Remarks
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
Few New Yorkers were holding their breath waiting for Congressman Rangel to issue an apology for telling the Congressional Black Caucus last week that “George Bush is our Bull Connor,” but at least they could have hoped that no one else would parrot the remark. Instead, the racial invective just keeps coming and coming. When Meghan Clyne, the reporter of The New York Sun who first reported the story, sought comment from other New York politicians, she discovered that, far from distancing themselves from the slur, they embraced it.
The reference was to Theophilus “Bull” Connor, the infamous 1960s segregationist who in 1963 turned fire hoses and attack dogs on blacks demonstrating for equal rights. Mr. Rangel said the Bush administration’s reaction to Hurricane Katrina calls for a revolution similar to the 1960s. The congressman seems to have grown grumpier, and less attached to reality, with each passing year.
As have his colleagues on the left. One of the tamer responses to Mr. Rangel’s remark came from the Democratic mayoral nominee, Fernando Ferrer. A spokeswoman for Mr. Ferrer told Ms. Clyne: “President Bush is an affront to the Democratic values Congressman Rangel and Fernando Ferrer share.” Elsewhere in the asylum, Rep. Major Owens told Ms. Clyne that “you have to give it to George Bush for being even more diabolical” than Connor, since at least the segregationist “never even pretended he cared about African Americans.” The Rev. Al Sharpton said, “We’ve gone from the fire hoses to the levees,” comparing anti-civil-rights-protest tactics of yore with the New Orleans flooding of today.
The reticence of Senator Clinton, who was present during Mr. Rangel’s speech last week, seems positively refreshing by comparison. She has shocked at least some New Yorkers by refusing to disavow Mr. Rangel’s remarks about Mr. Bush, whom her husband is now representing in connection with hurricane relief, but at least she isn’t repeating them. That seems to count as progress these days.
The black leadership network, Project 21, a conservative group, urged both Mrs. Clinton and the Congressional Black Caucus to condemn Mr. Rangel’s remarks remarks. Project 21 member Mychal Massie said “Charles Rangel’s comments are morally vacant and beneath the pale, but obviously not out of character for him and his supporters.” Another member, Kevin Martin, said that “While the differences between George W. Bush and Bull Connor begin superficially with the fact that Connor was a Democrat, it’s more important to note that President Bush has the most racially diverse administration in presidential history, and these appointees serve in some of the highest positions.”
Mr. Bush sent his attorney general to Michigan to defend affirmative action. His signature “No Child Left Behind” program works to ensure black students do not lag behind white students. For Mr. Rangel to say Mr. Bush in any way resembles Connor leaves one with the impression Mr. Rangel is off his rocker. At least he is also out of the vanguard in these policy disputes. Project 21 is itself a sign of the emergence of a minority intelligentsia that sees the world through a conservative worldview, one that is finding articulate adherents, from Ken Blackwell in Ohio to New York’s own Randy Daniels, who is readying a gubernatorial campaign. It’s a good thing, because this entire ugly episode is an unpleasant reminder that even one “eccentric” politician can still cause more than his fair share of trouble.