Representative Chuckles Rangel is a racist crackpot.

Exhibits A and B

Exhibit A -- Text of a phone message left by Rep. Charles B. Rangel, New York Democrat, on the Inside the Beltway telephone line this week:

"This is Congressman Rangel ... The quote you assigned to me in a recent Inside the Beltway column [Monday, Aug. 22] is probably the dumbest thing I've heard of. I don't know where the hell you got the Willie Lynch story, but it would be helpful if you checked it out and find some way to say you made a mistake."

Exhibit B -- Text of a speech, as it appears in the Congressional Record, attributed to "Hon. Charles B. Rangel of New York in the House of Representatives, Monday, July 25, 2005":

"Mr. Speaker, I rise today to alert my colleagues of a dangerous condition that threatens the health of our society -- the destruction of the black family. The black family has yet to recover from the destructive effects of slavery.

"In 1712, British slave owner Willie Lynch was invited to the colony of Virginia to teach his methods of keeping slaves under control to American slave owners. Almost three hundred years later, the techniques that he prescribed seem to have not only been successful in controlling slaves, but lasting as a means of weakening and destroying the black family."

As Mr. Rangel read in our column earlier this week, the "Willie Lynch" he cited is an urban legend based on a document widely circulated via the Internet in recent years.

Mr. Rangel has not returned phone calls since leaving the message.
(Thanks to The Washington Times/Inside the Beltway)

Don't be ashamed Chuckles (not that you ever have been). Look what happens when you search for "Willie Lynch" ("lynch" ? Get it? How gullible can you get? I'd like to think I could sniff out something like that. You know, something that reinforced my ignorant bigotry.) on the net.

You know what they say: "1.7 million web pages can't be wrong."