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Rep. Charles Rangel: 'No Animosity' Toward Cheney
Rep. Charles Rangel feels bad - but not too bad - about directing a curse word at Vice President Dick Cheney.
Rangel, a Harlem Democrat who regularly exchanges verbal volleys with the vice president, called Cheney a "son of a b...." on Monday when asked by the New York Post about comments Cheney made about him in a television interview.
He repeated his comments in an interview with The Associated Press on Tuesday, but added, "I shouldn't have said it."
"I thought that he should be flattered, there's certainly no animosity in it," said Rangel, saying he had been making an observation about Cheney. "Some people just have that as part of their personality."
Cheney's spokeswoman Lea Anne McBride declined to address Rangel's off-color language.
Story Continues Below "The vice president is going to continue to talk about the clear record on taxes - Republicans voting to lower taxes . . . and he's also going to continue to talk about the Democrats' position on taxes," said McBride.
Rangel's name is invoked regularly by Republicans seeking to retain control of the House of Representatives in next week's midterm elections. If Democrats gain 15 seats to become the majority party, Rangel would become chairman of the powerful tax-writing Ways & Means Committee.
GOP leaders contend a Rangel-led committee would immediately move to undo the Bush administration tax cuts now set to expire in 2010.
Rangel said the charge is ridiculous, and he has not made any decisions about it.
"They can't get me to say I'm going to extend it. I say that just makes good economic sense to see what the status is of our economy before we start projecting what tax cuts we'll have in the future," said Rangel, dean of New York's congressional delegation. In televised interviews Monday, Cheney told CNBC that Rangel wouldn't keep "a single one" of Bush's tax cuts, and he later told Fox News Channel: "Charlie doesn't understand how the economy works."
More than a year ago, Rangel said he would like to think Cheney is "sick rather than just mean and evil," prompting Cheney to answer: "Charlie is losing it, I guess."
© 2006 Associated Press.
Editor's note:
Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
2006 Elections Inside Cover Stories
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