Senator Likens House to Slavery, Drawing Rebukes From Some
January 17, 2006
Martin Luther King Jr. fought four decades ago to free black Americans from the legacy of slavery. Yesterday, Senator Clinton compared the Republican leadership of the current House of Representatives to the very idea the civil rights leader dedicated his life to fighting.
“When you look at the way the House of Representatives has been run - it has been run like a plantation,” she said. “You know what I’m talking about.”
Mrs. Clinton, who was addressing a packed house at the Reverend Al Sharpton’s annual Martin Luther King Day event at Canaan Baptist Church in Harlem, continued: “It has been run in a way so that nobody with a contrary point of view has had a chance to present legislation, to make an argument, to be heard. The Senate’s not that bad, but it’s been difficult. It’s been difficult.”
Later in the afternoon, Mrs. Clinton’s press secretary, Philippe Reines, declined to comment on the senator’s allusion to slavery, but he said she was simply discussing “a top-down system that is fundamentally at odds with how the people’s House should operate.”
(Excerpt) Read More At New York Sun
