MARTIN LUTHER KING DAY HOLIDAY CONTROVERSY
Hillary's hardballIn MLK day speech, Sen. Clinton slams the Bush team, saying GOP Congress is 'run like a plantation'
BY BRYAN VIRASAMI AND GLENN THRUSH
STAFF WRITERS
January 17, 2006
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton sparked a Martin Luther King Day political firestorm yesterday by describing the GOP-controlled Congress as a "plantation" during a speech before an African-American congregation in Harlem.
"When you look at the way the House of Representatives has been run, it has been run like a plantation, and you know what I'm talking about," Clinton (D-N.Y.) told an audience at the Canaan Baptist Church of Christ during an event sponsored by the Rev. Al Sharpton's National Action Network.
"It has been run in a way so that nobody with a contrary view has had a chance to present legislation, to make an argument, to be heard," she added to thunderous applause.
It was a rare bout of bombast for the Democratic presidential frontrunner, who often dodges far less combustible topics when pressed by reporters.
Clinton's comparison - likening Republicans to slaveholders - prompted a furious reaction from the congressional GOP, which has been beset by lobbying scandals recently and the indictment of Majority Leader Tom Delay (R-Texas) last year.
"It's always wrong to play the race card for political gain by using a loaded word like plantation," said Rep. Peter King (R-Seaford), who has enjoyed a cordial relationship with the Clintons. "It is particularly wrong to do so on Martin Luther King Day."
A spokeswoman for the Republican National Committee said, "On a day when Americans are focused on the legacy of Martin Luther King, Hillary Clinton is focused on the legacy of Hillary Clinton."
Clinton spokesman Philippe Reines defended her comments, saying Congress was "a top-down system that is fundamentally at odds with how the people's House should operate."
In her speech, Clinton also took a swipe at the Bush White House, predicting, "This administration will go down in history as one of the worst that has ever governed our country."
Clinton's performance may have made the gathering of fellow Democrats in attendance wince, but it pleased the event's host.
The senator's remarks echoed "what a lot of us have been saying a long time about the Bush administration," Sharpton said.
Nassau County Executive Thomas Suozzi, a potential candidate for governor, left the event before Clinton arrived, his campaign spokeswoman Kim Devlin said, adding that he was unavailable for comment.
This isn't the first time the former first lady's utterances have provoked an uproar. In 1992, during a "60 Minutes" interview about her husband's infidelity, when he was running for president, Clinton said, "I'm not sitting here as some little woman standing by my man like Tammy Wynette." Wynette complained and Clinton apologized.
A few weeks after the interview, Clinton defended her decision to practice law after the birth of her daughter, saying, "I suppose I could have stayed home and baked cookies and had teas." She also apologized for those remarks.
In the same campaign, Bill Clinton criticized rapper Sista Souljah for using racially inflammatory language in the wake of the Los Angeles riots.
This story was supplemented with a wire report.
"When you look at the way the House of Representatives has been run, it has been run like a plantation, and you know what I'm talking about," Clinton (D-N.Y.) told an audience at the Canaan Baptist Church of Christ during an event sponsored by the Rev. Al Sharpton's National Action Network.
It was a rare bout of bombast for the Democratic presidential frontrunner, who often dodges far less combustible topics when pressed by reporters.
Clinton's comparison - likening Republicans to slaveholders - prompted a furious reaction from the congressional GOP, which has been beset by lobbying scandals recently and the indictment of Majority Leader Tom Delay (R-Texas) last year.
"It's always wrong to play the race card for political gain by using a loaded word like plantation," said Rep. Peter King (R-Seaford), who has enjoyed a cordial relationship with the Clintons. "It is particularly wrong to do so on Martin Luther King Day."
A spokeswoman for the Republican National Committee said, "On a day when Americans are focused on the legacy of Martin Luther King, Hillary Clinton is focused on the legacy of Hillary Clinton."
Clinton spokesman Philippe Reines defended her comments, saying Congress was "a top-down system that is fundamentally at odds with how the people's House should operate."
In her speech, Clinton also took a swipe at the Bush White House, predicting, "This administration will go down in history as one of the worst that has ever governed our country."
Clinton's performance may have made the gathering of fellow Democrats in attendance wince, but it pleased the event's host.
The senator's remarks echoed "what a lot of us have been saying a long time about the Bush administration," Sharpton said.
Nassau County Executive Thomas Suozzi, a potential candidate for governor, left the event before Clinton arrived, his campaign spokeswoman Kim Devlin said, adding that he was unavailable for comment.
This isn't the first time the former first lady's utterances have provoked an uproar. In 1992, during a "60 Minutes" interview about her husband's infidelity, when he was running for president, Clinton said, "I'm not sitting here as some little woman standing by my man like Tammy Wynette." Wynette complained and Clinton apologized.
A few weeks after the interview, Clinton defended her decision to practice law after the birth of her daughter, saying, "I suppose I could have stayed home and baked cookies and had teas." She also apologized for those remarks.
In the same campaign, Bill Clinton criticized rapper Sista Souljah for using racially inflammatory language in the wake of the Los Angeles riots.
This story was supplemented with a wire report.
AND SHE SAID IT SOMEWHERE ELSE TOO - CNN Transcript from 2004, I only left the part about the "Plantation" because I could care less what else she siad:
AMERICAN MORNING
Hillary Clinton Gives Background on Library; U.S. Confirms Nuclear Site in Iran; Are Senate Republicans Misusing Power?
Aired November 18, 2004 - 09:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
O'BRIEN: Another thing we were talking about in the news today, of course, is the House Republicans changing the rules to essentially inoculate Tom DeLay if, indeed, he is indicted.
No, don't laugh before I finish my question here. What do you make of that this morning? We're hearing lots from -- from Capitol Hill about this.
CLINTON: Well, I mean, what can I say? It's just so typical. I mean they're running the House of Representatives like a fiefdom with Tom DeLay as, you know, in charge of the plantation.
I think it's kind of a sad commentary. I don't think it's good for democracy. I don't think it's good for the Republican Party.
But again, I don't have a vote in the Republican Caucus in the House. They'll decide what they want to do.
But one would hope that they would not be so quick to change the rules when it affects their leader. They certainly wanted to apply the harshest of rules to Democratic leaders for so many years. I think we need to call a truce to all of this back and forth, and you know, let's have rules that apply to everybody. It's like the idea that some want to change the filibuster, which has been a time-honored tradition in the Senate.
You know, absolute power corrupts absolutely. And I think that we have an administration and Republican leadership that, you know, is very powerful. And power should be handled carefully in a democracy.
So, again, I don't have a vote in any of this, but I hope that, you know, more thoughtful minds prevail over what should be done going forward.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
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