Fwd: RANGEL HANDS OUT FREE TURKEYS IN HARLEM

-------- Original Message --------

Subject:	RANGEL HANDS OUT FREE TURKEYS IN HARLEM
Date:	Wed, 24 Nov 2010 17:11:52 -0500 (EST)
From:	claguerra245@aol.com
To:	Rhomp2002@earthlink.net

check out the part I highlighted in red!

Rangel Hands Out Free Turkeys in Harlem
November 24th, 2010   
   

From an admiring New York Times:

Thanksgiving Ritual Gives Rangel a Respite

By DAVID M. HALBFINGER     
November 23, 2010

[O]n Tuesday, Representative Charles B. Rangel seemed almost  willfully upbeat as he strode into his old Harlem political club to hand  out turkeys to needy constituents, a Thanksgiving ritual that  allowed him to speak publicly about something other than his political  future. If only for a moment.

Im putting today in front of me, Mr. Rangel told reporters curbside at 128th Street and Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard, as dozens of bundled-up and mostly elderly women the lucky holders of about 120 tickets that were given out by several community groups waited inside for the congressman to start loading their grocery carts.

These people here are not the least bit concerned about  anything but how theyre going to get their families together on  Thanksgiving, Mr. Rangel said. It just seems to me that I have a moral  obligation to take care of them and then, when I get to Washington,  take care of me.

Inside the political club, as photographers captured his forced  smiles, Mr. Rangel loudly took charge, herding recipients toward the  free groceries and whistling with two fingers to clear a path to the  door. For about 20 minutes, he handed out 18-pound Butterballs   donated by the nearby Fairway supermarket, a club member said and  bags of fixings, accepting heartfelt thank-yous, handshakes and  expressions of loyalty in return.

 

Imagine, the great man handed out turkeys for 20 minutes! But notice  that Mr. Rangel didnt have all that much to do with this generosity.  "Community groups" organized the lottery, and the turkeys themselves  were provided by Fairways a store which even advertises on the Rush  Limbaugh show.

But in the best tradition of Democrat machine politics, they did  their best to make it seem like the turkeys were coming from Mr. Rangel.

 

Hes good; I dont care what they say, said  Mary Reed, who was given a ticket for a turkey because of her  participation in the tenant patrol in the Manhattanville Houses, a city  housing project. He does help the people. Thats the important thing.

The political club, named for the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King  Jr., has been distributing turkeys for years, but the giveaway on  Tuesday was overshadowed by Mr. Rangels problems.

Aides choreographed it to look like a spontaneous show of  support; Mr. Rangel called the turnout a very pleasant surprise. But  the stagecraft suggested a calling-in of debts.

 

Or it could have just been that people showed up who wanted a free turkey.

 

A campaign worker and former House aide, holding a  bullhorn scrawled with Mr. Rangels initials, got onlookers to chant  the congressmans name as he arrived.

The onlookers and volunteers, too, consisted largely of  people who owed something to Mr. Rangel, including more than a dozen  loudly chanting construction workers in hard hats from a job-training  group called Positive Workforce.

Mr. Rangel, who was the chairman of the powerful House Ways  and Means Committee before relinquishing that post during the ethics  investigation, earmarked $240,000 for Positive Workforce to buy and  renovate an East Harlem building this year. The group received $250,000

 

Yes, Mr. Rangel is good to his people. (And what a timely argument this is against earmarks.)

But did anyone from the media think to ask if the building they are  renovating is one of Mr. Rangels rent controlled apartments?

 

[A] middle-age man walked up and edged his way  into the media scrum next to Mr. Rangel. Keep the faith! the man said,  his hands shaking as he spoke. Yall should all look at all the  goodness that this man has been doing.

Mr. Rangel, grinning broadly, turned back to the cameras, saying, He makes a lot of sense.

 

Lets hope Mr. Rangel gave this shaky middle-aged man an extra Fairways turkey for efforts.

Still, could anything be more symbolic of the sad state of politics  in our country? Even Hugo Chavez would blush at such an obvious and  pathetic show.