Charlie Rangel On Tea Party, Republicans, And Immigration

Charlie Rangel On Tea Party, Republicans, And Immigration

We haven’t heard from Charlie Rangel in a minute, but here he is at 83-years-old talking some hefty (and cuss word ridden) yang to The Daily Beast on immigration, the new Pope, and more!!!

Via The Daily Beast:

There is little question that Rangel is nearing the end. First elected 43 years ago, after having defeated the man whose name adorns the building where the congressman keeps his office, he is musing aloud now about what he once forbade anyone to discuss with him: his own retirement. But even at 83, dressed in a blue bow tie and crisp gray suit, Rangel is relentless toward those who he feels are slowing the forces of progress.

House Republicans? 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.” The Tea Party? Defeat them the same way segregation was beaten. “It is the same group we faced in the South with those white cr**kers 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.”

Surely there are some good Republicans though, right? “Chris Christie, who is a big Northeasterner, and people only go for Christie because he is reasonable. He says something nice about the president helping out Jersey and now he is on the hit list by Republicans,” Rangel said. “And now my friend Peter King is on their hit list. Peter King, a Republican, is considered a go*damn communist.”

Down in Washington, Rangel has turned his attention, along with the rest of the nation, toward immigration reform. House Speaker John Boehner, he says, “is basically a nice man, but he would rather be speaker than challenge that part of his party. And the proof is that nobody is asking him to support Democratic ideals, but just release his members and not demand that they have this ridiculous loyalty.”

He sees in some of the reluctance to move forward on immigration reform a fear, one that white people have of non-whites. “Every white son of a gun from Europe has found a way to get here, and these barriers I think have a lot to do with color and the awkwardness or the uncomfortableness that a lot of whites feel about people of color,” Rangel said.

Asked, though, why black congressmen, who have traditionally resisted liberalized immigration laws, are now supportive of them, Rangel rejected the premise. “You are not going to go back to Abe Lincoln now and that bullsh*t are you? Blacks were tied to Abe, who freed the slaves, and so we followed the Republicans”—and called on all segments of society, including the Democratic Party, including religious institutions, to do more to help the downtrodden.

Thoughts???

Read the piece in its entirety HERE.

WENN