WASHINGTON — A prominent House Democratic leader showed his contempt for Republican voters Sunday, accusing a large portion of them of being racists.
“To a significant extent the Republican base does have elements that are animated by racism. And that’s unfortunate,” Long Island Rep. Steve Israel said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
Israel, who is chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, was only slightly less insulting to his Republican colleagues on Capitol Hill.
Asked if they were racists, Israel responded: “Not all of them, of course not.”
House Republicans tried to ignore the race-baiting jab.
“House Republicans are focused on passing legislation to help all Americans seek a better life, not the divisive ramblings of a desperate Democratic chairman on track lose a lot of seats this fall,” said a House Leadership aide.
Appearing on the talk show with Israel, Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore.) ripped the slur against Republicans as “both wrong and unfortunate.”
Walden, chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, said the GOP-run House had pursued aggressive oversight of President Obama not because he’s black but because of “a lot of executive overreaches by this administration.”
“The American people just want to know the truth,” said Walden. “They want to know the truth about what really happened in the targeting of conservative truths by the IRS, they want to know what happened in Benghazi. They want to know answers, that’s all we’re trying to do.”
Israel’s comments follow a week in which accusations of racism were repeatedly hurled at the GOP:
*Attorney General Eric Holder blamed racism for the aggressive question he encountered before a House panel and for opposition to President Obama.”
“Look at the way the attorney general of the United States was treated … What attorney general has ever had to deal with that kind of treatment? What president has ever had to deal with that kind of treatment,” he said at Al Sharpton’s annual National Action Network convention in New York.
“House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi said Republican lawmakers were blocking immigration reform because of their racist attitude toward Latinos.”
“I think race has something to do with them not bringing up the immigration bill,” the California Democrat told reporters at the Capitol. “I’ve heard them say to the Irish, ‘If it was just you, it would be easy.’”
Baseball Hall of Famer Hank Aaron compared Republicans to the Klu Klux Klan for opposing Obama’s agenda.
“Sure, this country has a black president, but when you look at a black president, President Obama is left with his foot stuck in the mud from all of the Republicans with the way he’s treated,” Arron, 80, told USA Today. “The bigger difference is that back then they had hoods. Now they have neckties and starched shirts.”
Obama has often refrained from making race an issue.
But at Sharpton’s conference, America’s first black president accused Republicans of trying to “undo gains” of the civil rights era with voter ID laws.
“This recent effort to restrict the vote has not been led by both parties. It’s being led by the Republican Party,” declared Obama.
Conservative columnist George Will said that liberals suffered from “a kind of Tourette’s syndrome these days.”
“It’s just constantly saying the word ‘racism’ and ‘racist,’” he said on “Fox News Sunday.”
“There is a kind of intellectual poverty now. Liberalism hasn’t had a new idea since the 1960s except ObamaCare and the country doesn’t like it,” said Will. “Foreign policy is a shambles from Russia to Iran to Syria to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. And recovery is unprecedentedly bad. So what do you do? You say anyone who criticizes us is a racist.”