New York Congressman Charlie Rangel should have quit after having his wrist slapped by the Congressional Ethics committee. The poor guy is not as sharp as he used to be, either that or he has never been interviewed by the likes of Laura Ingraham.
Ingraham has been filling in for Bill O' Reilly this week. On Wednesday she interviewed, Allen West, Congressman from Florida (who is a real mensch!). Congressman West made a pretty controversial (but true) statement during the interview. The Lieutenant Colonel (ret.) made the point that the Democrats have been ignoring the Black voters for years, because they knew African-Americans will vote Democratic no matter what.
West Described himself a" modern day Harriet Tubman" who can help rescue blacks from the Democratic Party by leading them "on the underground railroad away from that plantation." West told Laura Ingraham that some black leaders "are nothing more than the overseers of that plantation."
In the interests of "Fair and Balanced" the next night Laura Ingraham had Charlie Rangel as a guest on the show so he could rebut Congressman West.
Rangel began his rebuttal with a rambling speech. He seemed to be saying that Lt. Col. West, an African-American, nor any other Republican of any race, had a right to use the terms Plantation, slavery or Harriet Tubman, etc.
Ingraham followed up by asking if Rangel meant that West couldn't use those terms. That's when the way past his prime Congressman began to lose it.
Rangel was too "all over the place to really understand what he was saying. Poor Charlie began to incoherently ramble terms such as Plantation, Tubman, we inherited, and GOP Caused.
At one point he even stumbled into a disparaging remark toward Ingraham.
“Bill O’Reilly told me he had a secret weapon– I didn’t know it was just a pretty girl.”Anybody familiar with Laura Ingraham's work knows she is a heck of a lot more than just"just a pretty girl." She is an intelligent advocate for the conservative point of view andat the age of 47 with children of her own I am resonably sure she hasen't considered herself a feminist"girl" for many years. But long an advocate of what the liberals consider woman's rights, you have to give Rangel the benefit of the doubt. I doubt if the 40 year veteran of Congress even knew what he was saying at that point.
As the interview proceeded, Rangel reminded me of Captain Queeg breaking down on the stand near the end of Caine Mutiny Court Martial, I'm sure that many in the audience were expecting him to start playing with little metal balls and and say something like:
Ahh, but the strawberries that's... that's where I had them. They laughed at me and made jokes but I proved beyond the shadow of a doubt and with... geometric logic... that a duplicate key to the wardroom icebox DID exist, and I'd have produced that key if they hadn't of pulled the Caine out of action. I, I, I know now they were only trying to protect some fellow officers...
Many conservatives(myself included) call for a constitutional amendment creating term limits for members of Congress. The rationale for such an amendment is when people are in Washington DC too long, even the most honest of people get sucked into the "special interests game." Glenn Beck calls it a" losing your soul."
I would submit to you that there is a second reason for term limits, to prevent people like Charlie Rangel, who served his country as an infantryman in Korea, and a Congressman for 40 years, from embarrassing themselves on Television.
You know something... When I was studying law, and Mr. Keefer here was writing his stories, and you, Willie, were tearing up the playing fields of dear old Princeton, who was standing guard over this fat, dumb, happy country of ours, eh? Not us. Oh, no, we knew you couldn't make any money in the service. So who did the dirty work for us? Queeg did! And a lot of other guys. Tough, sharp guys who didn't crack up like Queeg. - Character, Lt. Barney Greenwald, Caine Mutiny Court MartialI strongly believe that Charlie Rangel's political positions have never been right for this country, but he served this country for a very long time and until recently, very honorably. It is sad that just like Captain Queeg, Charlie Rangel's time passed years ago and it is sad to see him as feeble shell of what he used to be.
