In a recent interview, Charlie Rangel named his favorite “good Republicans.” The long-time, left-wing Democrat said he liked New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and New York Congressman Peter King the most. But, Rangel said, he thinks conservatives are as worse for the country than “terrorists.”
In the interview at The Daily Beast, Rangel, who recently suffered a House censure for ethics violations, said that the reason he likes Chris Christie is because “he is reasonable.” But what Rangel liked best about both Peter King and Chris Christie is that they are currently being criticized by the right wing of American politics.
The Daily Beast did include a short paragraph about Rangel’s recent ethics violations:
[T]he last couple of years have been an unseemly capstone,” in Rangel’s career, the website notes. “There was the keeping of an extra rent-regulated apartment, the taxes on a Dominican villa, the use of congressional stationery to fundraise for the school of public service at the City University of New York, to name but a few. In the end, he was censured by the House and stripped of his chairmanship.
In the interview, though, Rangel was quite explicit about his hatred for the right. He told The Daily Beast that he thinks conservatives are worse than al Qaeda and are little different from the long disappeared, pre-civil rights, Jim Crow-pushing racists he has railed at for his entire career.
“House Republicans?,” The article asks. “Have done more damage to American competitiveness than al Qaeda ever could. ‘What is happening is sabotage. Terrorists couldn’t do a better job than the Republicans are doing.'”
And of Tea Party conservatives?
The Tea Party? Defeat them the same way segregation was beaten. “It is the same group we faced in the South with those white crackers and the dogs and the police. They didn’t care about how they looked. It was just fierce indifference to human life that caused America to say enough is enough. ‘I don’t want to see it and I am not a part of it.’ What the hell! If you have to bomb little kids and send dogs out against human beings, give me a break.”
Like all hard left Democrats, Rangel thinks that the U.S. is fading as a world power because it doesn’t give away enough benefits and money. But Rangel entwines his Keynesian social democrat ideals with religion, saying that the give-away policies should be lumped in with a what-would-Jesus-do mentality.
In a rambling reply, Rangel said that giving away tax money is just following religious ideals:
It has to do with whether or not in God we trust. I don’t know how much God played a role in the country, but it is everywhere… And I used to be an altar boy so that I can say, if you are talking about Jews and Christians and probably Muslims and Mormons, [there’s] the whole idea that… we are supposed to help the aged and provide health care and give kids a break and do all of these good things. What are we Democrats fighting for? We are not fighting for salvation and going to heaven. But we are fighting for Medicaid, Medicare, health care, education, jobs, helping old folks. And I’ll be damned, besides same-sex marriage, I don’t hear the voice of the church. As a matter of fact, the pope is talking he can’t judge gays. Well, damn it to hell, ask for another message from God. Here we were born. I mean, why is there a silence on old folks and a silence on poverty and a silence on kids?
Rangel is headed out of Congress after 43 years. But he “isn’t going quietly,” The Daily Beast says. The website reported that he is trying desperately to hand pick his successor but it has been tough going due to recent redistricting.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.