Rep. King: Rangel Should ‘Tone It Down’
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.
WASHINGTON – Amid growing furor over recent statements from Rep. Charles Rangel comparing President Bush to an infamous Southern segregationist and mocking Vice President Cheney’s heart condition, at least one elected Republican is starting to return fire, saying the congressman’s behavior is “inexcusable.”
Last month, at a Congressional Black Caucus town hall meeting, Mr. Rangel, a Democrat of Harlem, compared President Bush to Theophilus “Bull” Connor, the former police chief of Birmingham, Ala., who in 1963 turned fire hoses and attack dogs on blacks demonstrating in favor of equal rights. Amid the lingering firestorm from that comparison, Mr. Rangel appeared on NY1 Friday night, when he added to his criticism of the Bush administration by denouncing Vice President Cheney’s age and past poor health.
The accumulated provocations from Mr. Rangel generated dismay from another member of New York’s congressional delegation, Peter King, Republican of Long Island. Mr. King said yesterday that while he was a longtime friend of Mr. Rangel, his colleague’s recent statements about the Bush administration were “inexcusable.”
“I’ve been really disappointed over the last several months” with Mr. Rangel’s more provocative comments, Mr. King told The New York Sun. “Comparing Iraq and the Holocaust, George Bush and Bull Connor, the remarks about the vice president’s heart condition, they’ve all gone too far. They’re really, really inappropriate.”
Mr. Rangel, Mr. King said, “should just tone it down and get things in perspective.”
During the NY1 interview, Mr. Rangel had said that Mr. Cheney, 64, was “too old for the job and doesn’t have the experience.” Mr. Rangel, 75, added, “I would like to believe he’s sick rather than just mean and evil.” The vice president has had four heart attacks and multiple coronary surgeries.
Mr. Cheney fired back on Monday, as he made the rounds of conservative talk shows on television and radio to defend the president’s nomination of Harriet Miers to become the next associate justice of the Supreme Court. On Rush Limbaugh’s radio program, the vice president said Mr. Rangel was “having some kind of problem. Charlie’s losing it, I guess.” Later Monday on Fox News’s “Hannity & Colmes,” Mr. Cheney lamented the formerly “pleasant” congressman’s turn to the “nasty,” adding, “I don’t know what I did to offend him.”