Left Outraged as Pol Urges Voters to Embrace Someone Who Looks 'More Like Us'

Here we thought we were living in a post-racial era where the color of someone's skin no longer mattered and we had moved beyond racial divisions. Sadly, there are still people out there who judge people by the color of their skin and not the content of their character or their qualifications. Clearly the Democrats and liberals have a point when it comes to castigating those who plays racial politics and divide the electorate.

Oh, wait, it's a Democrat icon preaching racial politics here.

Never mind.

Mayor David Dinkins encouraged voters to embrace a state Senate candidate because he looks "more like us."

"It's important, it is so very important, particularly for the people of this district who vote on Tuesday to recognize how important it is to understand that the city is changing," Dinkins said in his endorsement of state Senate candidate Assemblyman Adriano Espaillat on Thursday.

"Most people in the city are going to look more like us than others and that's just a fact," Dinkins said.

Espaillat opponent Mark Levine, who is white, yesterday called on Espaillat, who is Hispanic, to denounce the divisive comment.

Espaillat did not repudiate Dinkins' words.

"Mayor Dinkins is one of New York's finest public servants, and he's built his career around the principle that communities of different ethnic and economic backgrounds must work together if we want to bring about long-term change," Espaillat said in a statement.

Levine, who called Dinkins' comment "insulting to the district and electorate," also took issue with its timing.

"The fact that they were delivered on the first day of Rosh Hashana added to their inappropriateness," Levine said.

Dinkins is at least being consistent. After all he's the guy who was too busy watching tennis while the Crown Heights Pogrom went on for three days back in 1991.

How Low Can The O Go?

The Democrats and their media handmaidens can spin Tuesday's disastrous defeats as much as they want, but you know things are bad for Obama when he's getting dissed by David Dinkins, easily the worst Mayor in the history of New York City. When an incompetent, feckless, pusillanimous hack like Dinkins is questioning your street cred, it's time for some introspection.

The city’s first African-American mayor blasted the country's first black president for leaving Bill Thompson in the dust in the mayor’s race this year.

“The president should’ve done more. He found time to go to Virginia, he found time to go to New Jersey and he should’ve been here,” former Mayor David Dinkins, who was in office from 1990 through 1993.

He was referring to Obama’s stumping with New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine, who lost to Republican Chris Christie this week, and Virginia Democrat Creigh Deeds, who lost the gubernatorial race to GOP candidate Bob McDonnell.

By comparison, the country’s first black president gave the most lukewarm of endorsements to Thompson, who lost to Mayor Bloomberg by a mere 5 points on Tuesday.

First, Obama’s spokesman told the press on a Friday afternoon that he would support Thompson, who sought to be the city’s second black mayor, because Thompson and he are both are both Democrats.

The spokesman went on to praise Bloomberg.

Obama then gave Thompson a shout-out when he was in the city last month, saying, “Our great city comptroller, our candidate for mayor, my friend Billy Thompson is in the house.”

He gave similar shout-outs to the Democratic candidates for public advocate and comptroller.

The president never campaigned with Thompson, nor did he host any fundraisers for him.

Maybe the white part of Obama hates black people or something. Somohow this must be racist. Perhaps we need the renowned racial healer Al Sharpton to weigh in on this.

As if Dinkins questioning Obama's credibility wasn't bad enough enough, now even the hapless Governor of New York is getting in on the act.

Paterson, whose popularity currently hovers in the 20 percent range, was seriously wounded when Obama let it be known he didn't want Paterson to run because Republicans like Rudy Giuliani consistently beat him in the polls. But Obama's recent lack of success in backing local candidates, including New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine, has empowered Paterson.

"The President went to New Jersey five times for Corzine and wasn't able to turn that around, so I think here in New York, New Yorkers know everything is local," said Lynch.

But that's not all Paterson is doing. He's bringing on board campaign powerhouse Harold Ickes, who was former President Bill Clinton's Deputy Chief of Staff.

Charlie Rangel's Rental Disorder

The hits just keep on coming for corrupt Democrat Charlie Rangel. Up to his neck in ethics violations, tax re-filings and discoveries of new-found wealth, today we learn Nancy Pelosi's biggest headache reported no rental income from a rundown row house for an eight-year period.

Of course mentioning this is raaaacist, but we'll take our chances.

Rep. Charles Rangel reported no rental income for eight years on his rundown Harlem row house, even though public records show tenants were living there.

The powerful chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee said he received nothing from 1993 to 2000 on the six-unit building, according to federal financial disclosure forms.

But one current tenant told The Post she had lived at the building for 20 years -- and paid rent during that period.

Another said her former boyfriend called 74 W. 132nd St. home for many years, paying about $500 a month in rent.

While Rangel claims to have taken in not a dime in eight years, at least four tenants lived in the building during that time, The Post found.

His nephew, Christopher Rangel, still lives there.

The Democratic lawmaker, who is being probed by the House Ethics Committee for a laundry list of alleged financial misdeeds, has had a hard time keeping his story straight on the apartment building.

Rangel's grandfather bought the red-brick house in 1923. Rangel's sister transferred the property to the congressman's wife, Alma, in 1973 for $10,000, city records show. Rangel sold it in 2004 for $410,000 -- a hefty profit -- to the First AME Church Bethel.

He filed amended disclosure forms last month showing that in 2004 he failed to reveal between $500,001 and $1 million in capital gains and rent from the building.

Rangel's reporting of his yearly rental income for the building has swung widely -- from nothing to up to $50,000, the federal disclosure forms show.

* In 1987, he claimed the building brought in between $5,001 and $15,000.

* In 1991, he amended his 1990 form to say the property produced a loss.

* Less than a month later, he said the gross rent was between $15,000 and $50,000, the same amount he reported in 2002.

* In 1993 and 1994, he failed to enter anything about the property's income.

* From 1995 to 2000, he checked a box to show he earned no income.

* In 2001, Rangel claimed income for the building, reporting between $2,501 and $5,000 a year. He did the same in 2002 and 2003, then amended the reports to show income between $15,000 and $50,000.

Even if expenses on the building brought his take to nothing in certain years, he was required to report the gross rent.

Meanwhile, some Rangel defenders with their heads in the sand came out to show solidarity with the corrupt Democrat yesterday.

Though he's facing critics in Washington over financial improprieties, Rep. Charles Rangel got nothing but love at home Saturday.

"I'm here to show support for my brother," said former Mayor David Dinkins who was among 75 local politicians, church leaders and union members who rallied for Rangel in Harlem.

"He's a very powerful member of Congress, and they would like to take him down. But that's not going to happen."

Who is this they the worst mayor in the history of New York City speaks of?

I find it amazing how Pelosi wants to drag Joe Wilson up on the House floor to "apologize" for pointing out the fact Barack Obama is a brazen liar yet she continues to look the other way at obvious criminal behavior by a senior Democrat.

Instapundit links. Thanks!

A Really Dumb Idea

You have to wonder why on earth a New York City Councilman would want to name a street after one of the worst human beings in the city's history. But sure enough, Councilman Al Vann thinks it's a good idea to honor racial arsonist Sonny Carson.

Kudos to City Council Speaker Christine Quinn for blocking a bill that would have renamed a Brooklyn street after racist and urban terrorist Sonny Carson.

Councilman Al Vann, who introduced the bill, says he expects the council eventually to approve it, given that the renaming has the support of Community Board 3 and the council "routinely" approves such designations.

We hope that this time councilmembers show a little more common sense.

Since his death in 2002, many New Yorkers may have forgotten just who Sonny Carson was. But his record of hate dates back to the contentious 1968 school strike on Ocean Hill-Brownsville, where he stood out for his demagoguery.

A decade later, he was convicted of kidnapping and attempted murder and served a stretch in prison.

Carson's backers claim this is when he changed, devoting his life to fighting drugs and police brutality. But those who followed his career knew otherwise.

In 1990, Carson personally led the campaign of boycott and physical intimidation against Korean-owned delis in Brooklyn's black neighborhoods, marching with signs that read, "Don't Shop With People Who Don't Look Like Us."

Defy the boycott and you were spat upon and threatened: "In the future," he said, "there'll be funerals, not boycotts."

A year later, he hailed the Crown Heights lynch mob that killed Hasidic scholar Yankel Rosenbaum, saying he was "very proud" of what had happened.

Accused of anti-Semitism, he replied: "I'm anti-white - don't limit my anti's to one group of people."

Carson was among many thugs (does the name Al Sharpton ring any bells?) who ran amok during the disastrous David Dinkins administration and the notion he'd be given such an honor is nauseating.

This bill needs to be scuttled forthwith.