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Charles Rangel sure seems to know how to get himself tangled up these days. While his tax liabilities remained a top story yesterday, he became the center of new controversy when he referred to Sarah Palin as "disabled."
In an interview with CBS's Marcia Kramer, Rangel was asked why Democrats were so afraid of Palin and her popularity. His response: "You got to be kind to the disabled." Rangel then clarified he was referring to Palin's lack of credentials saying, "It's a nightmare to think that a person's foreign policy is based on their ability to look at Russia from where they live."
Republicans naturally wasted no time in jumping on Rangel's comment as being "disgraceful." Peter King, the SI Congressman who heads the local campaign for McCain-Palin bashed Rangel's words calling them "wrong, wrong, wrong" and adding, "This is just another liberal Democrat who can't accept an independent woman running for president...And so to use the word disabled in the context of a female candidate for vice president who has a child who is disabled really is wrong."
Rangel had already been on damage control yesterday, announcing that he paid $10,800 in back taxes to cover 2004 through 2006 that didn't account for income he received from his villa in the Dominican Republic, as well as the 2004 sale of a Harlem apartment building. In a letter to constituents, he admitted his gaffes but said that Republicans were using him as a talking point as they engaged in "guerrilla war."
As backlash to his "disabled" comment heated up, Rangel said that the response from Republicans was "stupid" and showed that "they don't have any credibility" while admitting his use of the word was a "poor choice of words." Advocates for the disabled want more of an apology. Michael Imperiale of Disabled In Action Of Metropolitan NY shot back at the congressman, "A disabled president ran this country. He was disabled. His name was Roosevelt."
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Palin's lack of credentials?
Has he seen Obama's resume lately?
"In an interview with CBS's Marcia Kramer, Rangel was asked he Democrats so afraid of Palin and her popularity."
Who is copy editing? Is anyone even reading over this before it's posted. I know gothamist is a blog and not held up to the same journalistic quality as news outlets, but this is just bad.
EDIT!
I think he meant to say "retarded"
@3
We would have been better off just calling her an unqualified, poorly educated backwater dipshit.
disable
Verb
[-abling, -abled] to make ineffective, unfit, or incapable
disablement n
Let's give him the benefit of doubt on this one. I don't for a minute think that he was referring to Ice Lady's child. The first 2 definitions of the word should be the reference.
Peter KIng, that role model for stone age thinkers, should be the last one to be anybody's spokesman.
ITA with #3 and #4. Rangel was being very charitable by referring to her as "disabled."
Now, I would be the last one to defend Rangel, but Peter King should be the last one to cast stones, seeing as how he uses "liberal" about the same way Rangel uses "disabled."
Rangel's failure to "comprende espanol" qualifies as a disability too...
Keep talking Charlie, keep talking.
Okay, Wiseguy. Let's get this perfectly clear:
Barack Obama is Ivy League-educated, served as president of the Harvard Law Review, taught constitutional law and practiced as a civil rights attorney in Chicago, and carried two terms in the Illinois state senate. During the first two years of his term in the US Senate (for what's been called the "do-nothing congress") he's written and sponsored multiple bills for immigration reform, nuclear power regulation, government spending transparency, international relations/aid, and Veteran's aid regulations (during the Walter Reed scandal), most of which have been in cooperation with Republican senators.
Sarah Palin is an alum of about 5 rinky-dink colleges in Hawaii, Idaho and Alaska. Later she was a beauty pageant runner-up, failed sports reporter on Alaskan TV and print news, and PTA member. Served two terms each as Councilwoman and the earmark-grabbingest Mayor of a tiny town that she left with millions in debt. Then chaired the AK Gas Conservation Commission for less than a year before pissing on her own party for ethics violations she herself was guilty of. Cronied for now-disgraced Senator Ted Steven and his 527 brainwashing group, "Ted Stevens Excellence in Public Service". Served two years as governor, where she hired old school friends for cushy jobs, troopergate, bridge to nowhere, yadda yadda.
So yeah, they're about even, right? Anyone will tell you Harvard Law is about as good as University of Idaho's journalism department.
Face it, she makes Barack Obama look like John fuckin Adams.
Hey "emiredwood"
They now have really good medication for whatever it is that is bothering you so much.
So, see your doctor, take a pill (or two) and relax.
Calling someone disabled is so gay.
Who gives a sh*t what Charles "I'm up to my own ass in caca" Rangel has to say anyway? The PC crap abounds; all of a sudden the sensibilities of the GOP have been offended. Has anyone heard what came out of Mickey C's mouth recently, or Sarah P's for that matter? Assholes. All of them.
Plus...he was a community organizer, which not ONE white person knows what the F that is.
Yeah. I used to include the "Community organizer" bit in my shpiel about Obama's qualifications. That was before that combover ghoul somehow turned the concept into a laughingstock.
Apparently it's the height of absurdity to put stock in the "responsibility" of people who work for little pay to keep kids in school and off drugs. Or assist families with balancing their finances, taxes and medical needs. Even providing advocacy and legal aid in cases of discrimination or neglect. You know, looking after the interests of the common man when their local government is run by idiots who make homelessness illegal and put Emergency Services headquarters in a complex that has already been the target of terrorist attacks.