Clyburn Interview Sets Off Political Firestorm

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By: Frederick Cosby

If you don’t call it the R-word is it still racism?

It’s an interesting question posed as House Assistant Democratic Leader James Clyburn, the highest-ranking black in Congress, is pushing back against a newspaper article that said he blamed most of President Barack Obama’s political problems on racism.

In a May 26 letter posted Monday on the opinion Web page of The State newspaper of Columbia, S.C., Clyburn said he never used the word “racism” in the widely-reported story that touched off a firestorm last week.

“Those who know me know that I have always abhorred the word ‘racism,’” Clyburn wrote. “I never use it. I believe it is a lethal term, and I am offended that my honest responses to a reporter’s clearly designed agenda would be distorted in such a manner.” CONTINUE....

Clyburn: Opposing Stimulus Slaps Blacks' Faces

By: Page Ivey

COLUMBIA, S.C. - The highest-ranking black congressman said Thursday that opposition to the federal stimulus package by southern GOP governors is "a slap in the face of African-Americans."

U.S. Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.) said he was insulted when the governors of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and his home state, which have large black populations, said they might not accept some of the money from the $787 billion stimulus package.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry said Wednesday he would accept the money, and none of the others has rejected it outright. The Republican governors of Idaho and Alaska also said they had reservations about whether the money would come with too many strings attached, but Clyburn said he was particularly taken aback by southern governors who said they might decline it.

"These four governors represent states that are in the proverbial black belt," Clyburn said.

A spokesman for South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford accused Clyburn of playing the race card.

Clyburn: Opposing Stimulus Slaps Blacks' Faces....

BILL CLINTON DEFENDS NAPPING DURING MLK EVENT

As Hillary and Bill Clinton continue to catch heat for remarks criticized as reducing her Democratic presidential rival Barack Obama to "the black candidate," the former president was a guest on the ABC Radio-syndicated Doug Banks and DeDe McGuire Show Friday and spoke about the issue of race becoming a factor in the two campaigns.


Trouble seemed to have started last December when Bill Clinton said Obama's lack of experience would make his presidency "a roll of the dice." A few days before the New Hampshire primary on Jan. 8, he described Obama's early opposition to the Iraq war as "the biggest fairy tale I've ever seen." Many blacks took the "fairy tale" phrase as a dismissive attack on the first African American with a real chance of becoming the president.


James Clyburn, a senior, black Congressman, called on Bill Clinton to “chill a little,” saying that he should not “engender the kind of feelings that seem to be bubbling up."


Defending his words, Bill Clinton told Banks Friday: "First of all, the facts I said were absolutely accurate, but I do think I was a little too hot. I had gone through a year of watching [Hillary] being attacked by the other side. She was called untruthful, manipulative, all those things they said. And she's my wife and I love her. I also think she's a great public servant and I didn't think it was fair. I think the people that told me to chill out were giving me great advice."

As for nodding off at Harlem's Convent Avenue Baptist Church during a recent event honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Bill Clinton blamed it on a severe lack of proper rest during his wife's busy campaign.


"I had had three hours sleep two hours in a row, and it was hot and I had to sit there for four hours," Clinton explained to Banks, drawing raucous laugher in the studio. "The truth is, even when I was younger, I would've had a hard time going two nights on three hours of sleep both nights, and sitting in a hot church for four hours. I woke up when Shirley Franklin popped me and I thought I gave a good talk there."