The congressman who brought us the “sugar coated Satan-sandwich” imagery to describe a debt-ceiling deal last year is now warning the Republican Party of a future in the “reptile cemetery.”
“I’m not calling anybody a name. Let me just say, I’m using imagery as you and I do in the real world, the ministry,” said Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.) on Al Sharpton’s MSNBC show yesterday when asked whether Republicans will work with President Obama on his second-term agenda.
“But if a snake does not cast its skin, the snake will eventually be cast into the reptile cemetery. You have got to change or you are going to die. And that’s the reality,” Cleaver continued.
“However, keep in mind that the 87 Tea Party Republicans are still there and having heard earlier today of the Tea Party spokesperson saying that they lost because they nominated a moderate and a bad candidate and that they need to be more conservative does not bode well for what the nation says it wants, this nation is going to continue to have major economic problem.”
The chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus tweeted earlier, “The saying is often together we stand, divided we fall. In Congress, it is together we stand, divided we stall.”
Cleaver suggested that upon returning to Congress next week, nobody should bring up “any of the incendiary issues.”
“Let me just say, I agree that John Boehner wants to make the trains run on time and I think he is an old-time Ohio politician. It’s not him. It’s the Tea Party guys and if they are coming back after this break saying, we are not ready to compromise, we believe that compromise is capitulation, then ladies and gentlemen, around this country, it’s going to be a rough ride between now and January 1,” he said of the lame-duck session.
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