Rangel then added, "That’s a hell of a move to make for a redneck, which is all he was."

Asked on Tuesday morning if he really thought Clinton was a redneck, Rangel told WWRL Radio's Steve Malzberg and Karen Hunter: "Of course he is. He's from Arkansas."

Later in the interview Rangel tried to backpedal, telling Malzberg he thought the Clintons were "terrific people."

"You have to remember, you know, Lyndon Johnson was one of the best presidents we had and he was a redneck out of Texas," he explained.

The congressman's non-pejorative pejorative comes just days after Sen. Clinton stiffed him on the Diallo case, a move the New York Post described on Monday as "a slap in the face to Charles Rangel."

Without Sen. Clinton's help, Rangel's legislation to grant Kadiatou Diallo and her family permanent resident status crashed and burned in the 2003-04 Congress and has attracted no other support this year.

Editor's note: