Hillary's Howler

Hillary Clinton, who is a lawmaker I have very high hopes for, really disappointed me yesterday. At a MLK Jr. event in Harlem, she decided that, somehow, it was a appropriate opportunity to slam the Republican-run House of Representatives for being run like a plantation. From the NY Times:

At the ceremony, Mrs. Clinton, the junior Democratic senator from New York, said that Democrats were largely responsible for much of the nation's progress in areas like civil rights and women's rights.

But she suggested that things had changed in recent years with the Republicans in control of the White House and Congress, according to a transcript of her remarks.

Mrs. Clinton added that the House has been "run like a plantation" under Republicans. "And you know what I am talking about," she said. "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."

My first, and the most obvious issue, is the fact that she is standing up to speak, on a day that remembers a man who fought for the civil rights of his severely downtrodden people, and comparing a democratically elected house of government to an system of slavery that treated blacks as subhuman. Personally, I find this an objectionable comparison, especially given the timing Clinton chose to make it.

Second, I think Clinton is guilty here of calling the kettle black. As noted in a report published by NYU's Brennan Center for Justice, the NYS legislature is arguably the least democratic, most dysfunctional government body in the United States. From the report's introduction:

New York State’s legislative process is broken. This report documents five key weaknesses and compares New York’s process with those in other state legislatures and in the U.S. Congress. Together, the problems identified here deprive New Yorkers of the government they deserve. Indeed, New York’s legislative process limits legislators’ consideration of legislation – whether counted in hearings, debate, amendments, readings, conference committees, or even simply legislators’ presence when they vote – far more than any other legislature. Neither the U.S. Congress nor any other state legislature so systematically limits the roles played by rank-and-file legislators and members of the public in the legislative process.

Hillary, you want to use racially loaded sound bites to encourage reform in the Republican-led Congress? Bravo. But before you focus on your presidential run, why don't you remember that you are still the NY State U.S. Senator. As a member of the State Democratic Party, how about you put put some of that effort into cleaning a legislative house run by your own party - the Democratic NY State Legislature. You have no oversight over the House, but chose to use its dysfunction to make a political point. Feel free to do the same about your state party. It would make me feel a whole heck of a lot more charitable about the comments you made yesterday. Give it a shot.

Yesterday could have been worse, though. As Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia's Center for Politics, said of Clinton's comments:

At least she didn't mention Hitler.

I guess.