House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan says he’d like to get past name-calling and fight poverty in America.
In an interview with Bill O’Reilly on Fox News, Ryan said he recently talked to former Congressional Black Caucus leader Barbara Lee about controversial comments he made about men in inner cities.
Ryan said his original remarks were “inarticulate,” but Lee, a California Democrat, called them a “thinly veiled racial attack.” They spoke after Ryan’s comments earlier this month in an interview with Bill Bennett sparked an uproar.
“She knows that I don’t have a racist bone in my body,” the Wisconsin Republican said in the Fox interview that aired Tuesday.
Paul Ryan can say all he wants about how he doesn’t have a racist bone in his body, but people who don’t have a racist bone in their bodies don’t typically quote white nationalists when talking about African-Americans.
Dood, let go of it. Ryan is no more a racist than you are.
It’s unfortunate when a smart person is unwilling to listen to a comment, may disagree or not understand and immediately fling the race card. It is a cop out.
I’ve never cited a white nationalist in any conversation about African-Americans, while the same can’t be said for Paul Ryan.
The fact that you’re defending him speaks volumes though.
The volumes are directed at those who avoid an issue and falsely accuse others of racism in doing so. That too is a cycle of failure.
He also doesn’t have a compassionate spot in his heart for those in this country who have fallen upon hard times because his supply side economics have supplied his rich backers and trickled no where near the poor of this nation.
independent guy- He may or may not be racist; but he’s undeniably elitest.
CJ, great, Ryan no more a racist than you or I. Not sure about Zach. 🙂
Elitest? I don’t know that really matters. Is Clinton, Bush, Reagan, Pelosi, Obama,.. elitest? Sure, but doesn’t mean they are bad people or leaders. Not defending them, only pointing out they are all over the place.
If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck and references known ducks to back up its’ points, then it is probably not a swan no matter what it insists it knows in its bones, heart, or other anatomical bits.
I submit that the person who is unwilling to listen to or understand comments with which he disagrees in this case is Rep. Paul Ryan. Without his cherry-picked “facts” his foregone conclusion is indefensible; thus he attacks his critics for “mishearing” what he clearly and intentionally says. The best defense may be a good offense, but a duck is a duck is a duck.
When Paul Ryan asks the job creators why they keep buying the duck poop he keeps selling them I’ll believe he really has some interest in helping the poor to improve their lives, inner city or outer boondocks.
Charlie Pierce was right when he said Ryan’s comments weren’t dog whistles, they were air-raid sirens. He knows exactly what he’s doing and is working the room, even those not enjoying the show, like a pro.
Wonderful, Rep. Ryan. I look forward to your policy proposals to tackle poverty. BTW, might we assume they will not be financed with revenue generation from taxing hedge and private equity funds as ordinary income, decreasing corporate welfare, and a financial transactions tax? http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/industries.php?cycle=2014&cid=N00004357&type=I
Probably those revenue generators wouldn’t work anyway? Cause trickle-down or something.
“I do not have a racist bone in my body” is how my late grandmother announced that she was about to tell a predictably racist story. She started doing this in the last years of her life, after she had lost the “filter.”