Barron Dealing Nothing But Race Cards

Yesterday, the New York City Council voted on who would be the speaker for the Council. Christine Quinn won the reelection, but it was not without the detestable and despicable Charles Barron making a spectacle of himself in yet another attempt to make the issue about race. You see, Quinn is a white woman, while Barron is a black man. Barron brought in some of his lackeys to shout epitaphs and indignities on the proceedings.

The final vote was 48-1, with Barron voting for himself.

During a racially charged session, the City Council re-elected Christine Quinn as speaker Wednesday by a 48-to-1 vote over outspoken Councilman Charles Barron.

A small group of Barron supporters shouted "sell out" and "Uncle Tom" as every member present except Barron - who nominated himself without a second - unanimously voted to give Quinn another four-year term.

"We owe it to our children to stand up like men and women and say our time has come," said Barron, a former Black Panther and Brooklyn councilman since 2002.

The Council has a non-white majority for the first time, consisting of 27 members who are African-American, Latino or Asian and 24 who are white.

The Council clearly didn't want to rock the boat, and they clearly weren't going to support Barron's firebrand nonsense. Quinn has been as effective a speaker as the Council could hope for, and she was the first woman to hold the position (as well as first lesbian), so it's not like she was some kind of sellout. She's had to put up all manner of indignity, so this wasn't anything new.

Her politics were clearly acceptable to everyone in the chamber, except Barron.

Barron remains as he ever was - a despicable figure and demogogue who thinks only of himself and will name drop others in furtherance of his own agenda.