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Rep. Clyburn Wants Race, Gender in the Back Seat
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ShareJanuary 15, 2008 3:00 PM
ABC News' Z. Byron Wolf Reports: Rep. James Clyburn urged the Democratic presidential candidates and the media to put race and gender on the backburner in the campaign and focus instead on policy issues.
Clyburn, who as House Majority Whip is the top-ranking African-American lawmaker in the Democratic party, told reporters on Tuesday that he would not break a year-old pledge to abstain from endorsing a presidential candidate before the Democratic primary in his home state of South Carolina on January 26th.
A New York Times story indicated that Clyburn was frustrated with former President Bill Clinton and his wife Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., over comments the senator about Martin Luther King, Jr. and President Lyndon Johnson last Monday. Her comments have sparked a large controversy that has overtaken the campaign for the past week.
Since the New York Times article appeared, Clyburn said he has been on the phone with both Clintons - Bill twice - as well as Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., who in Sen. Clinton's Johnson/MLK, Jr. analogy, plays King to her Johnson.
In each conversation, Clyburn said he urged the candidates and their surrogates to take the issues of race and gender out of the campaign.
"I told all of them I'd do all I can to get the campaign back on the issues," he said.
Clyburn added, "There have been great women to lead other countries. We've never had a woman lead this country," he said. "There have been great people of color lead other countries, but we have never had a person of color lead this country. But that should be secondary to leading the country."
"Nobody who knows any of these candidates would doubt their commitment to equal rights," he said.
He rejected the statement from Sen. Clinton that Obama is not qualified to lead the country after he's served three years in the Senate.
"No, that is not a valid argument at all," Clyburn said, pointing out that the last President to be elected directly from the Senate was John F. Kennedy. In that regard, he said both candidates are open to criticism about their qualifications.
Today, Clyburn said everyone involved in the civil rights movement had their own role to play. In splitting credit between King and Johnson, Clyburn pointed out that everyone forgets the role Congress played in passing the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Specifically, he pointed to the contribution of Everett Dirksen, the Republican Senator from Illinois at the time and then Senate Minority Leader, who helped break a filibuster of the Act.
"Doctors need plumbers. Plumbers need lawyers. We all need each other," Clyburn said after a long anecdotal story about a speech he once gave at a vocational school. "You can't go back and make a value judgment of who was the more important person. We all have our roles to play."
January 15, 2008 in Bush, George W., Kucinich, Dennis | Permalink | User Comments (5)
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For once we have a sane person bringing some perspective to a volatile situation not a racial hustler like Charlie Rangel. By the way, isn't time for Charlie to retire?
Posted by: G - money | Jan 15, 2008 3:35:35 PM
Unfortunately and ironically, it was this man's comments about the issue that blew it up in the 1st place. He said he was offended Friday and the Clintons got freaked out. Damage control, blame game, distract, and blame some more. Now he's acting like a wise Master Yoda, all innocent. Funny.
Posted by: ROB | Jan 15, 2008 4:02:16 PM
Smart move.. Let's keep it there, and we'll win the White House.
Posted by: J.Murphy, CA. | Jan 15, 2008 4:28:21 PM
Amen Mr. Clyburn!
Posted by: Mike Brittingham | Jan 22, 2008 2:18:45 PM
Sen. Clyburn. I listen to you talk about the Dem. party, and how the Clinton's are hurting it. You Sir. are the one that's hurting the party, by you comments. Let the little people speak first. You are for Obama and it comes across when you speak, why not just say so. The black people left the Clinton's fist, where was their support? With the black canidate, not the person who has always been for them. I'm of Scottish and American decent, my ancestor's fought for this country, and married the true Indiana Americans, get off the race card. My family was poor and own no slaves. We are all Americans, not African nor Scottish American, just good old American. If we thought that way, maybe we could all get along!! Peggy Keator Vernon. Fl.
Posted by: Peggy Keator | May 6, 2008 12:37:58 PM
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