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Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC) on Tuesday accused Republicans in Congress of using racial "code words" to undermine U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice even though they "can’t hold a candle to her intellectually."

In a letter written to President Barack Obama on Monday, 97 House Republicans said that Rice "is widely viewed as having either willfully or incompetently misled the American public" with her early assessment of the September attacks in Benghazi — which relied on CIA-approved talking points that did not mention al Qaeda.

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) has also pledged to block Rice if the president nominates her to become the next secretary of state, saying that she was "not qualified" and guilty of "not being very bright."

Speaking at a press conference last week, Rep. Marcia Fudge said that there was "clear racism and sexism" behind the attacks on Rice.

On Tuesday, Clyburn told CNN's Soledad O'Brien that he agreed with Fudge.

"These are code words," the number three Democrat in the House explained. "We heard them in the campaign. During this recent campaign we heard Sen. Sununu calling our president lazy, incompetent. These kinds of terms that those of us -- especially those of us who were born and raised in the South -- we've been hearing these little words and phrases all of our lives. And we get insulted by them."

"Susan Rice is as competent as anybody that you will find," he continued. "To say that she erroneously did it, I don't have a problem with it. But to call her incompetent, a Ph.D., a Rhode Scholar scholar being called incompetent by someone who can’t hold a candle to her intellectually, by someone who said — and Sen. McCain called her incompetent, as well — but he told us that Sarah Palin was a very competent person to be the vice president of the United States."

"That ought to tell you a little bit about his judgement."

(h/t: The Hill)

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Good for Rep. James Clyburn for taking Fox's Neil Cavuto to task for one of their favorite talking points over at Uncle Rupert's Republican propaganda channel -- that forty six percent of the country are a bunch of slouchers that "don't have any skin in the game" because they're not paying any income tax. As Clyburn pointed out to Cavuto, what he's really advocating for is raising taxes on the poor.

Here's more from News Hounds (emphasis mine) -- Rep. Clyburn Deftly Destroys Cavuto's "Tax The Poor More" Argument:

On yesterday’s Your World, Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC) spoke about taxes and spending. It didn’t take long for Cavuto to become argumentative over the thought of taxing the rich – and not the poor – more. Clyburn did a great job holding his ground and even managed to reframe the argument so as to put Cavuto on the defensive over Mitt Romney’s finances.

“We should also get serious about big revenue raisers… Our tax code is crying out for reform. Let’s reform this tax code. Let’s make sure that everybody has the same benefit, everybody’s playing by their same rules,” Rep. Clyburn said.

Cavuto responded, “So does that include, Sir, the nearly half of all households that pay no income tax right now? Would it be fair that they put some skin in the game?”

Clyburn answered, “If you don’t pay income tax, that means you’re aren’t making any income.”

”No, that’s actually not true,” Cavuto argued, “…Now a lot of these people are paying Social Security, Meidcare, what have you, but I can understand a few percent being not able to pay anything, and that’s fine, but 46%?”

”That’s why Richard Nixon… gave us the Earned Income Tax Credit,” Clyburn said.

”I know but we’re up to 46% not paying any income tax,” Cavuto said.

Clyburn had a great answer. “So what?”

”So what? That’s a big deal!” Cavuto said. But not a big deal that such a large percentage of the country doesn’t have a high enough income to pay.

”They’re contributing to the economic growth in the country,” Clyburn said. Read on...

If Democrats are going to go on Fox News, this is the way you treat Neil Cavuto and his ilk when they repeat these talking points which if followed through on would mean that those living in poverty would see their taxes go up along with senior citizens living on a fixed income and Social Security. It's an all too rare occasion, sadly, that these talking heads ever get any push back on just who they're claiming aren't paying their fair share in taxes. It was also nice to see Clyburn bring up the fact that it was a Republican, Richard Nixon of all people, who held the opposite views of today's extremists on the right and gave us the Earned Income Tax Credit.

Full transcript via Fox below the fold.

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As we've discussed and posted on here repeatedly, Newt Gingrich's use of racist "code words" or what some would call "dog whistles" have really been more of a siren because there's nothing veiled about them. There's nothing subtle about putting "Juan Williams in his place" or calling President Obama "the food stamp president" and equating being on food stamps to the black community, when in reality most of those using the program are white.

But regardless of the fact that the game Gingrich is playing is as obvious as the nose on his face, CNN's Candy Crowley plays coy here in this interview with Rep. James Clyburn and pretends she doesn't see it and isn't aware of what Lee Atwater's Southern Strategy was. I find it pretty pathetic that she forced Clyburn to have to explain it to her as though she's oblivious to the race baiting.

I also wonder what it's going to take for any of these so-called "journalists" and I use that term lightly, to recognize the fact that our economy was hemorrhaging jobs when George W. Bush left office and the job losses we've seen are not primarily the fault of the Obama administration when he's had to deal with a record amount of obstruction from the Republicans and Republican governors all across the country doing their best to sabotage the economy for the benefit of the wealthiest among us. Clyburn shouldn't have to be explaining to her why the Obama administration has had trouble turning the economy around either, but that's how he spent the latter part of the interview.

Full transcript below the fold.

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CNN's John King talked to the Assistant Minority Leader, Rep. James Clyburn about President Obama's recent bus tour and his continued unwillingness to call the Republican leadership out directly for obstructing bipartisan legislation. Tons of bills that are pending in both houses of Congress to get Americans back to work.

And I agree with the Congressman's statement at the very end of the segment, after venting some of the frustration he and other members of the Congressional Black Caucus have had with the president for focusing on things like deficit reduction instead of jobs and for not going to some of the areas that have been hardest hit in this economy.

KING: Do you prefer -- you're the assistant Democratic leader, you're in the minority now. The Republicans control the House. Would you prefer the president not blame the people in Washington or the Congress and specifically say the Republicans?

CLYBURN: Yes, I would prefer that and I've had those discussions with the president on other occasions --

KING: And why won't he get tougher with them? Why won't he get tougher with them?

CLYBURN: Well, I hope he will. I don't know. I think the president by nature wants to be diplomatic. I'm the same way. I call myself a southern gentleman, but there are times when I put that aside and go right to the core of the problem. The problem is that the Republican leadership refuses to allow a jobs bill to come to the floor. I have one that's got bipartisan support. It has a companion bill over in the Senate that has bipartisan support. The co- sponsorship is bipartisan.

But we cannot get them to bring this to the floor. And I think the president sooner or later is going to have to lay this right at the doorsteps of the Republican leadership. We did not vote for all of these things that's got us in this problem today. Democrats have supported his agenda and we still look forward to supporting him in the future. He needs to call the Republicans out. That's who is stopping this legislation, not the Democrats.

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Ed Schultz managed to find the one black man in America willing to defend Rush Limbaugh's racist remarks about James Clyburn... former Dick Cheney aide Ron Christie. Ed... Ed... Ed... PLEASE STOP having this man as a guest on your show. He's obnoxious, truly obnoxious.

Christie claimed that his buddy Rush Limbaugh was taken out of context and then he attacked President Obama for his remark that Republicans should sit in the back of the car, which the talking heads at Fox have been hammering on for weeks as being racist. He's probably lucky Joe Madison wasn't sitting in the same room as he was because Joe looked like he wanted to slug him.

Here's what Christie was defending from our friends at Media Matters.

Rush proposes a new leadership position for Rep. Jim Clyburn: "Driving Miss Nancy"

Jon Stewart had a slightly different take than Ron Christie and the Fox yappers on President Obama's remarks. From the Nov. 1st edition of The Daily Show. Relative portion starts at just past the three minute mark.

Indecision 2010 - Republicans Can Go to the Back of the Car

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Cenk filled in for Dylan Ratigan again and wrapped up Friday's show with a spot praising the Democrats for finally looking like they're striking the right chord with their latest political ad going after Republicans for their views on privatizing Social Security and handing the funds over to Wall Street with a few very huge qualifiers following that praise that I could not agree with more.

Uygur: Finally, the Democrats getting it. This is such an obvious winning strategy and the Republicans gave you the Queen here when John Boehner and Mike Pence came out and said, hey you know what, maybe we should raise the age of Social Security before you even get it, or when they said maybe we should cut your benefits.

You know what the numbers are? The American people hate that idea. A new AARP poll says 85% of the country oppose cutting Social Security. 68% say even though the budget is really important, that we shouldn't cut Social Security or Medicare to trim the deficit according to a recent Greenberg poll.

Look, the American people are absolutely clear on this. When the Republicans asked over and over as Bush did and now Pence and Boehner are doing, "Hey can we cut your Social Security?" the American people say "Hell no you can't!" to quote John Boehner.

So given this golden opportunity, why don't you attack on this? Make Boehner the new Gingrich and say if Boehner is in charge of the House, what he's going to do is he's going to come after your Social Security?

That has the added benefit of being true. But how do the Democrats screw this up? Look, it's a good ad and a good campaign to start with but they've already shot themselves in the foot because already Steny Hoyer who's one of the leaders in the House came out and said "Well maybe we should consider trimming Social Security or raising the age that you would have to retire and then James Clyburn came said very similar things.

Now that's the trouble for the Democrats in the House, but how about Obama? Obama, a Democratic President that promised change has got a deficit commission where 14 out of the 18 people involved in the commission are fiscal conservatives.

The likely result of that deficit commission is, they're going to come out and say let's cut Social Security.

That's insane!

Yes it is. As Cenk said it's not too late for them to make this a defining issue if they had an ounce of political sense at all. Given Gibbs brain dead remarks this week, I've got to wonder. I've said this before and I'll say it again, if they think the public is going to sit quietly if they decide that the Social Security trust fund doesn't have to be paid back after they raided it or that Americans are going to be duped into turning it over to Wall Street, they've got another thing coming. Get rid of the cap and make the rich start paying their share. And while you're at it lower the rate for all of us when you do that.

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A candidate in South Carolina's Democratic Senate primary has called for an investigation into his defeat. Former Rep. Vic Rawl announced Monday that he was protesting the election that resulted in Alvin Greene as the Democratic candidate.

"There is a cloud over Tuesday's election. There is a cloud over South Carolina, that affects all of our people, Democrats and Republicans, white and African-American alike," according to a statement released by the Rawl campaign.

"The strange circumstances surrounding Tuesday's vote require a thorough investigation. For better or worse, this protest process is the only platform currently available for that investigation," said Rawl.

In the statement, Rawl suggested that the voting systems in South Carolina were in question. "And let me be clear: regardless of the outcome of this protest, a full and unblinking investigation of this election and the overall integrity of South Carolina's election system must go forward."

Appearing on MSNBC's Countdown Monday night, Rawl furthered a theory that voting systems are suspect.

"There are numerous complaints. Everything from having my name show up on a Republican primary ballot to all sorts of issues with regard to the computer cards, with regard to the difference between the absentee votes versus the actual vote during the day of the machine voting. We are convinced that there is something amiss with regard to either the software or the machines themselves," Rawl told MSNBC's Keith Olbermann.

"My understanding is they're machines that have been -- there have been serious problems with them in Arkansas and Florida and Louisiana and other places. They have a history. The biggest problem, of course, they didn't have a paper trail whatsoever," Rawl continued.

Since the election, Democrats have become increasing convinced that something was amiss with Greene's unlikely win.

Greene handily defeated opponent Vic Rawl in Tuesday's primary, winning with 59 percent of the vote to Rawl' 41 percent, despite not having run any sort of visible campaign, not having set up a campaign Web site, and being unemployed. And it quickly emerged that Greene is facing a felony obscenity charge over an incident in which he allegedly showed a college student obscene photos from the Internet.

House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-SC) suspects Greene is a "plant." Clyburn is familiar with dirty tricks in South Carolina elections. "I know a Democratic pattern, I know a Republican pattern, and I saw in the Democratic primary, elephant dung all over the place. So I knew something was wrong in that primary. And this result tells us that," Clyburn told CNN Sunday.

NBC's David Gregory asked Senior White House Advisor David Axelrod Sunday if Greene was a legitimate candidate. "It doesn't appear so to me. It was a mysterious deal," said Axelrod.

The Brad Blog's Brad Friedman has also theorized that voting machines may have been tampered with. Green managed to receive more votes that were actually cast in 25 counties. And while Rawl won the absentee ballots by 68 points, Greene won on election day by 18 points.

The vast majority ballots cast on voting day were on unverifiable electronic voting machines, according to Friedman.

South Carolina uses ES&S' 100% unverifiable Direct Recording Electronic (DRE, in this case touch-screen) voting machines at the polling place. The machines, also used in many other states (such as Arkansas, where we recently reported exclusively on the disappearance of thousands of votes on May 18th, which neither state nor local officials are able to explain to this day) are both oft-failed and easily manipulated in such a way that it's almost impossible to detect the systems have been gamed.

Rawl has assembled a panel of experts to advise him on filing the protest.

"We feel from the three different sets of experts that we're dealing with, one, of course, is dealing with the statistical analysis of the data. The second of course is the political outcome of the races historically and the third group is dealing with the software and computer science aspect of it. All three groups indicate that there are difficulties, and it appears to be systemic," said Rawl.

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James Clyburn smells elephant dung in the South Carolina Democratic primary race for U.S. Senate and heaven forbid Mrs. Greenspan has her Villager sensibilities taken to their limit by Rep. Clyburn using the word dung in polite company as he did on CNN's State of the Union. Sadly she did not appear nearly as concerned about someone stealing an election in South Carolina and potentially rigged voting machines with no paper trail. Get over it Andrea. He should have just called it what it is, bullshit, but if he'd said that they might have needed the smelling salts for Andrea.

CROWLEY: Before we go back to the '60s, I don't think we're going to settle this tax cut argument. But, Congressman, I need to turn you to something a little more local. And that is your nominee for the U.S. Senate, Alvin Greene, came out of nowhere. You think he's a Republican plant. He is calling now for the Democratic establishment to get behind him. That he, in fact, has been elected to be the nominee. Do you foresee yourself getting behind Mr. Greene?

CLYBURN: No, I don't see myself getting behind Mr. Greene. The fact of the matter is, of course, Candy, I never said he was a Republican plant. I said he was someone's plant. And it turned up after the elections, we found out, as I said earlier, something untoward was going on.

Now all of a sudden, we see that Congressman Joe Wilson -- his campaign manager, was, in fact, managing the campaign of my primary opponent. I saw the patterns in this. I know a Democratic pattern, I know a Republican pattern, and I saw in the Democratic primary elephant dung all over the place.

And so I knew something was wrong in that primary. And this result tells us that. People intentionally circumvented the law, the rules and regulations, did not file any disclosures, did not file any of their campaign finances, yet they spent hundreds of thousands of dollars running this campaign and broke every law.

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James Clyburn responds to Mike Pence's assertion that the Democrats shut the Republicans out of the health care debate. That's all you hear out of these people is start over. After a year of having them participate and getting absolutely no votes as Rep. Clyburn just pointed out, do they honestly think anyone believes they'd behave any better the next time around?

I've got to give it to them though. They've got their lies and they're sticking to them, reality be damned. And most of the media is happy to go along for the ride without bothering to call them out for it, Ed Schultz being one of the exceptions. We're sure as hell never going to get that kind of messaging discipline out of the Democratic caucus with the Blue Dogs, ConservaDems and old Joementum Lie-berlips in there mucking up the works.

SCHULTZ: Congressman, I think the president needs to really talk to the base tonight, solidify the base, because there`s a lot of folks out there in the middle class that have seen a lot of things go to Wall Street. Now, with that in mind, to present to the American people that the Republicans have been obstructionists, they`re getting their backup when they hear that.

Earlier today, on Dylan Ratigan`s show, I made a comment about just that, and it drew this response from Congressman Pence...

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PENCE: I`ve got to tell you, that was the one thing -- and THE ED SHOW is popular. It`s not my cup of TV, but he`s good radio and good TV. But look, Ed just said the president ought to consider shutting Republicans out.

Ed, news flash. House Democrats in this administration have shut Republicans out of the entire process in the House and in the Senate for the last year.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHULTZ: I tell you, those Republicans are amazing. I didn`t say they should shut out the Republicans. I just said that you should move on without them. If they want to get in the process, that`s fine.

But Congressman Clyburn, he said that, "House Democrats in this administration have shut Republicans out of the entire process in the House."

Is that true?

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James Clyburn with the understatement of the day on the racist remarks of South Carolina Republican Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer.