Rangel Calls Laura Ingraham 'Just A Pretty Girl'

LAURA INGRAHAM, GUEST HOST: In the "Unresolved Problem" segment tonight: a huge reaction to a segment we did last night on "The Factor" about frustration in some parts of the African-American community with President Obama. As we mentioned, the black unemployment rate in the United States is now at about 16 percent, which is a lot higher than the overall unemployment rate, which is about nine percent. We spoke with Florida Republican Congressman Allen West, who leveled some very serious charges against the entire Democratic Party.

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REP. ALLEN WEST, R-FLA.: You have this 21st century plantation that has been out there where the Democrat Party has forever taken the black vote for granted. And you have established certain black leaders who are nothing more than the overseers of that plantation and now the people on that plantation are upset because they have been disregarded, disrespected and their concerns are not cared about. Look at the devastation in the black communities. You look at what has happened to the inner cities of Chicago or Detroit.

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INGRAHAM: With us now to respond, New York Democratic Congressman Charlie Rangel, a longtime member of the Congressional Black Caucus. Congressman, it's great to see you. I know you watched last night. You have some thoughts. What are they?

REP. CHARLES RANGEL, D-N.Y.: I'm really surprised at Congressman West going back to Harriett Tubman, who was a historic figure during slavery time, and I know he is new and he is a freshman and the more TV you get before an election is very important. But he doesn't come from a political party that can ridicule plantations and that type of thing. I really think at this time with the unemployment that you have recently shown, it's not just blacks, even though we doubled the national average, but it's every American. And they are fed up with us down in Washington fighting each other. All we have to do is come together on job creation, then we can go on and fight. There are plenty of things to fight about.

INGRAHAM: Well, there certainly are. And so you are saying that Congressman West, as an African-American, cannot use a plantation analogy? He is not allowed to use that? I'm trying to figure out what words we can use and what words we can't use. I'm very confused by this.

RANGEL: What do you mean we can't? Are you confused about whether or not you can use plantations when you're a black Republican?

INGRAHAM: No. He believes and the substance of what he says, I think, is very clear. Others such as Walter Williams, Tom Sowell, I guess they are not authentically black either, so they can't say that. They've also made similar analogies.

RANGEL: Let me…

INGRAHAM: Let me finish, sir.

RANGEL: OK.

INGRAHAM: What they said is that basically the war on poverty might have been started with a great deal of good intentions has been an utter failure for many minority communities in the United States, in the inner city and the school system. We have seen increasing problems, both within the family, within unemployment, across the board problems. Has the war on poverty been a success in your mind?

RANGEL: Now, this is something entirely different from what you just asked.

INGRAHAM: No, it's actually all tied together.

RANGEL: Laura, you just -- you were talking about Harriett Tubman and plantations.

INGRAHAM: It's a criticism. It's a substantive criticism.

RANGEL: I don't care what he says. If you want to deal with the fact that something worked, then you are 100 percent right. We can talk about unemployment.

INGRAHAM: Has it worked?

RANGEL: No. But why…

INGRAHAM: Is liberalism working for the black community right now?

RANGEL: I swear, I wish I knew. You got a whole lot of different things. If you want to talk about the Empowerment Zone, which I passed and we have them all over the United States. That has worked.

INGRAHAM: I asked a simple question. You won't answer the question.