In Memphis on MLK Day, Clinton Calls for Cabinet Post on Poverty

[DeepModem Mom]

In Memphis, Clinton Calls for Cabinet Post on Poverty
By ELISABETH BUMILLER and JOHN M. BRODER
Published: April 5, 2008

MEMPHIS — Hillary Rodham Clinton called for a cabinet-level poverty czar and John McCain said he was wrong to vote a quarter century ago against a federal holiday in memory of Martin Luther King Jr. as both presidential candidates converged here on Friday for the 40th anniversary of Dr. King’s assassination.

From the Memphis church were King delivered his last sermon on the evening before he was gunned down by James Earl Ray, Mrs. Clinton gave her support to an idea long advocated by the King family, a cabinet position that she said would be “solely and fully devoted to ending poverty as we know it, that will focus the attention of our nation on this issue and never let it go.”

Mrs. Clinton added: “No more excuses, no more whining, but instead a concerted effort.”...

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In her remarks at the Temple Church of God in Christ, delivered in a meeting room behind the main sanctuary to a small group of religious and civic leaders, Mrs. Clinton called for the poverty czar — a proposal that would endear her to John Edwards, the former Democratic presidential candidate whose endorsement she is seeking — as one in a list of things she said America needed to do to redeem Dr. King’s promises. Included on her list was ending the war in Iraq, strengthening the labor movement and passing hate-crimes, anti-discrimination and equal-wage laws.

At times Mrs. Clinton’s voice broke, as when she recalled learning of Dr. King’s death as a student at Wellesley College. “It’s hard to believe it has been 40 years,” she said. “And it is also heartbreaking to know that Dr. King has been gone from this earth longer than he was here.” She recalled her often-described meeting with Dr. King when she was a 14-year-old girl “from an all-white school and an all-white church and an all-white suburb.”...

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/05/us/politics/04cnd-campaign.html?hp

[Burma Jones]

1. You know, it's too bad that the President isn't thought to be a "Poverty Czar"

If the Departments of HUD, HHS, Education, Transportation, Justice, Commerce and Treasury were working for Citizens rather than political donors, we'd be doing a lot better...

[DeepModem Mom]

2. What a great point, new! What are these agencies for, if not for citizens? nt