Payne Calls Solomon's Remarks 'Racist'
By Louise Schiavone/CNN
WASHINGTON (April 3) -- Rep. Donald Payne (D-N.J.) attacked Rep. Gerald Solomon (R-N.Y.), the chairman of the House Rules Committee, Friday for what he called disgraceful, racist remarks about U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan.
Solomon recently said on the House floor he had "trouble handing out any more money to an organization whose secretary-general has just cut an appeasement deal with Saddam Hussein, said Saddam Hussein is a man he can work with, and called U.S. weapons inspectors cowboys. That is what this head of the U.N. said?
"He ought to be horsewhipped for saying it," Solomon declared.
Annan negotiated a deal with Iraq's president in February to enable U.N. weapons teams to enter any buildings they wish to inspect.
At a news conference, Payne said Solomon's remark about "horsewhipping" the U.N. secretary general was especially ironic as it preceded President Bill Clinton's visit to Goree Island, where enslaved Africans left their continent.
"To be on the floor of the House and say he should be horsewhipped, I think it's a disgrace, it's racist, it's an insult ... " Payne said.
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