Should Charlie really up the race-card ante at all?”
First it was Gov. Paterson. Now the dean of New York’s congressional delegation has played the race card — and just as the governor did, he’s using President Obama to do it. Rep. Charles Rangel said Tuesday that “bias” and “prejudice” toward Obama are fueling opposition to health-care reform. Those incendiary comments came on the heels of Paterson’s controversial comments about race that also mentioned the nation’s first black president. “Some Americans have not gotten over the fact that Obama is president of the United States. They go to sleep wondering, ‘How did this happen?’ ” Rangel (D-Manhattan) said Tuesday. Speaking at a health-care forum in Washington Heights, Rangel said that when critics complain that Obama is “trying to interfere” with their lives by pushing for health-care reform, “then you know there’s just a misunderstanding, a bias, a prejudice, an emotional feeling.” “We’re going to have to move forward notwithstanding that,” said Rangel, the powerful chairman of the H
Speaking at a forum on health care in Washington Heights, the longtime congressman suggested that anyone who had a problem with Obama’s policies on the subject was obviously responding in an emotional manner – with prejudice. Charlie took things a step further, comparing the fight for health care for the uninsured to the battle for civil rights; he talked about “doing the right thing” and the “right to live as human beings.” The White House, which was quick to disentangle itself from the racial web woven by Paterson, did not appear to have an immediate reaction to Rangel’s comments. Maybe that’s because Paterson made it personal and Rangel made it about policy. Nonetheless, critics of Obama’s plan lambasted Rangel for bringing up race, and some said he was just trying to draw attention away from his recent ethics troubles.
