Legal Commentary

Dick Durbin?s Double Standard

I have MSNBC?s ?Morning Joe? on to provide background noise, and I just heard (about 7:45 AM) Sen. Dick Durbin give a breathtakingly novel defense of why Rep. Charlie Rangel should keep his chairmanship. You have to understand, Durbin said, that when Rangel went in the army he was assigned to a segregated barracks, and that?s why we have to keep him.

Really. Durbin said that. I?ll provide a link when a transcript becomes available.

It wasn?t clear whether the point (if there was one) underlying Durbin?s rationale is

a) that the House needs the ?diversity? that having a Ways and Means chairman who experienced segregation can provide;

b) that Rangel deserves compensation in the form of suspending rules and regulations that apply to other Congressmen; or

c) that those who personally experienced segregation have been so damaged by their experience that they cannot be expected to meet the same legal and ethical standards expected of others (but they can be trusted to write the tax laws that others must obey).

Full post as published by Discriminations on March 01, 2010 (boomark / email).