Perhaps jealous that Florida and California are taking away New York’s mantle of “craziest state,” politicians have jumped into action. Mayor Bloomberg is banning soda, the council is debating whether brunch should be legal, we’ll soon be able carry pot on the street . . .
. . . and now Charles Barron could become our next congressman.
Barron ranks among the city’s loopiest council members, a former Black Panther who dresses like the Beatles circa 1965, loves dictators, hates Israel, supports communism and the teaching of Ebonics.
This is the guy who, at a 2002 rally to demand reparations for African-Americans, said, “I want to go up to the closest white person and say, ‘You can’t understand this, it’s a black thing,’ and then slap him just for my mental health.”
It’s been 10 years riling up the City Council, denouncing Walmart and the NYPD, so Barron is getting restless. On June 26, he’s squaring off in a Democratic primary against Hakeem Jeffries for the 10th District seat, representing East New York. City politics being what they are, whoever wins that primary is guaranteed to take the seat in the fall.
Though Jeffries is backed by many in the Democratic establishment, Barron still appears to be a contender. He only lost to outgoing Rep. Ed Towns in 2006 by 8 points; last week, to the shock of many, Towns endorsed him.
On Monday, Councilman David Greenfield organized a rally against Barron out of sheer terror.
“What prompted me . . . speaking of people that just are not familiar with Charles’ record and they just don’t know who Charles Barron is, that’s a very scary thing. Right?” Greenfield said. “People are not familiar that there’s an individual who’s running, who we all know very well, who is an anti-Semite, who’s a hate-monger and who’s a bigot. I think it’s very important for us to educate the public and let them know who this individual is.”
In other words: If Barron makes it to office, you’ll long for bygone days of Anthony Weiner texting his junk.
Just how mad is Charles Barron? Here are some of his greatest hits. And if he prevails a week from Tuesday, expect to see more of them from the hallowed halls of Congress, as New York reclaims its place as the political state to mock.
On why he wants to replace the Thomas Jefferson portrait in City Hall with a bust of Malcolm X:
“It’s an insult. The man is a pedophile because he raped his slave Sally Hemings. Whether it was consensual or not is irrelevant.”
On black politicians:
“You get Barack Obama. And you get a David Paterson, or you get a David Dinkins. And you get these black governors and you think you’ve made progress, but whites usually select blacks that they’re comfortable with. And that’s going to continue the policies that keeps white interests protected.”
On his favorite dictators:
“[Moammar Khadafy] is a hero. He is a freedom fighter. And America doesn’t like him because they can’t control him and they want to control the oil of Libya. And the geopolitics in that area. And they do that to anyone that they can’t control.”
“I promise to stand with Robert Mugabe, an African hero.”
On Israel:
“Israel is out of control. They’re off the hook, they’re out of line, and Barack Obama has to stand strong and so do does Hillary Clinton, the secretary of state, to say that this kind of aggressive, terroristic behavior and act of piracy will not be tolerated and the blockade should be lifted immediately, immediately. There’s too many children and women and innocent men of Gaza dying because you’re isolating them and not allowing anything in. It’s like having a concentration death camp. It’s horrible, and the whole world is and should be outraged.”
“We are sick and tired of this country supporting dictators, supporting terrorists and then saying they have a homeland-security office to stop terrorism. Well, you want to stop terrorism? The biggest terrorist in the world is the government of Israel.”
“I am tired every time you criticize Israel, you are anti-Semitic. Well technically my pastor taught me about the Semitic people, the Semites are black.”
On Crown Heights:
“Even when leaders moved in to quell the violence, they never dealt with the perception that Jews get preferential treatment in Crown Heights. They only make up 20% of the population, but they’ve always walked these streets as if they owned them, and acted as if they are the only ones in the community that matter.”
On the Sean Bell case:
“If we don’t get an indictment, there’s going to be an explosion. We’re not the only ones who can bleed. Maybe the rest of us need to get a shot off.”
But can we handle it?
“When I married my wife I said, ‘Inez, before you say yes, you need to know that God has called me to be a catalyst for the liberation of my people. Can you handle it?’”