Charlie Rangel: Obama Cabinet Diversity 'Embarrassing As Hell'

Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-N.Y.), the second-longest serving African-American congressman in the House, slammed the lack of diversity in President Barack Obama's second-term cabinet Thursday.

"It's as embarrassing as hell," Rangel said on MSNBC's "Jansing & Co." of Obama's top picks. "We've been through all of this with Mitt Romney. And we were very hard on Mitt Romney with the women binder and a variety of things."

"I kinda think there's no excuse when it's the second term. If it's the first term, you could see people got to know who is around and qualified in order to get this job, number one," he continued.

"I had thought that it could be the Harvard problem where people just know each other, trust each other. And women and minorities don't get a chance to rub elbows and their reputations and experience is not known ... so in the second term, these people should be just as experienced as anybody, any other American."

Obama's picks for Treasury, State and Defense are all white men. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is leaving, as is Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis. A photo of Obama's inner circle highlighted by The New York Times showed just one woman addressing the president, Valerie Jarrett. The Times reported that about 43 percent of Obama's appointees have been women, about the same as President Bill Clinton but about 10 percent more than President George W. Bush.

Loading Slideshow

• Vice President Joe Biden

  (Win McNamee/Getty Images)

• Secretary of State John Kerry

  (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

• Secretary of the Treasury Jack Lew

  (Jessica McGowan/Getty Images)

• Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel

  (Alex Wong/Getty Images)

• Eric Holder, Attorney General

  (Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images)

• Secretary of the Interior Kenneth Salazar

  (Win McNamee/Getty Images)

• Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack

  (SAUL LOEB/AFP/GettyImages)

• Acting Secretary of Commerce Rebecca Blank

  (Paul Sancya/AP)

• Acting Secretary of Labor Seth Harris

• Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius

  (Kris Connor/Getty Images)

• Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Shaun Donovan

  (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)

• Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood

  (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

• Secretary of Energy Steven Chu

  (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

• Secretary of Education Arne Duncan

  (Olivier Douliery-Pool/Getty Images)

• Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric Shinseki

  (SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images)

• Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano

  (T.J. Kirkpatrick/Getty Images)

• White House Chief Of Staff Denis McDonough (Cabinet-rank)

  (Cliff Owen/AP)

• Environmental Protection Agency Acting Administrator and Deputy Administrator Bob Perciasepe (Cabinet Rank)

• Office of Management and Budget Acting Director Jeffrey Zients (Cabinet-rank)

  (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

• U.S. Trade Representative Ambassador Demetrios Marantis (Cabinet-rank)

  (NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP/Getty Images)

• U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice (Cabinet-rank)

  (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

• Council of Economic Advisers Chairman Alan Krueger (Cabinet-rank)

  (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

• Small Business Administrator Karen Mills

  (Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

Comments

[Darrell Davis]

10:01 AM on 03/14/2013

What else is embarrassing is Public Housing residents in Peekskill NY asking the ALL Democratic mayor and council for help against a housing director who women say sexually harasses them, who walks into their apartments uninvited and was sued for sexual harassment in New Jersey prior and the response is police at the council meetings, the mayor and council walking out on the residents, a "no-clapping" law directed against the residents and four police cars sent to break up a legal tenant association meeting. You know who is on this city council? Darren Rigger, a member of Rangel's staff.

[elaine billstrom]

02:44 PM on 01/13/2013

Utopian, perhaps, but what about there being one race..THE HUMAN RACE?

[Isaiah Ellison]

01:42 AM on 01/13/2013

I wonder if this has anything to do with the broadwell-pertraus affair.

[zaggy]

09:51 PM on 01/12/2013

Time for Obama to start paying the piper!

[zaggy]

09:44 PM on 01/12/2013

Rangel is a crook!

[Maureen Kelly]

04:52 PM on 01/12/2013

My opinion is to appoint the best qualified person for your team. If he is doing this to appease the Republicans it's one thing but if he's doing it because he's got the people he wants to work with its another.

[tom7845]

04:00 PM on 01/12/2013

Rangle and Obama are both examples of how disappointing our government is to all taxpaying
citizens.

[eaze0916]

09:15 AM on 01/23/2013

fiirst off-it's Rangel.2nd-it's president obama.and 3rd-never say all because that's inclusive.if you're not happy-that's your own personal gripe.i'm quite happy with our president as are most of the public-ummm-over 50% voted for him.so i'd have to say your ignorance is showing.

[KKojei]

01:33 PM on 01/12/2013

This is not a matter of race. It's a matter of representative government. Obama is operating like he has as much political debt as he does federal debt. Yet his picks for important cabinet posts show no regard for the political debt he owes the African American community. Neither do his policies. In neither administration has he even attempted to confirm any one of the many exceptionally able African Americans available to fill cabinet posts. That is most definitely a concern when he relied, in both cases heavily, on the African American vote. I don't like to but I have to agree with Rangel on this one.

[walk1111]

02:12 PM on 01/12/2013

You voted for the man. Live with it.

[KKojei]

02:33 PM on 01/12/2013

Sorry. I didn't vote for him.  I long ago learned first hand that American Democracy is a big con game. 

[eaze0916]

09:18 AM on 01/23/2013

once again-he is not the president of african americans.he is the president of the united states.i'd be more concerned if he picked some underqualified black guy just to fill some perceived "quota"in our community(yes i am black and i have no problem with his picks whatsoever) and btw-as a new yorker i will say rangel is probably one of our more crooked politicians so there may be a bit of sour grapes with him as well.

[KKojei]

03:56 PM on 01/23/2013

Trust me.  We have a lot of highly qualified individuals in our community, capable as everybody else to function at cabinet level.  Obama, frankly enough has not strayed far past all the usual suspects in America's political status quo.  This is unimaginative and stunts new growth in our political reality.  Washington politics has long needed blood purification so to speak. 

[scificarolinaguy]

12:46 PM on 01/12/2013

"...about 43 percent of Obama's appointees have been women, about the same as President Bill Clinton but about 10 percent more than President George W. Bush."

No matter what President Obama does, it will never be enough to some people. Sad, isn't it?

[Paul Kearney]

12:27 PM on 01/12/2013

As long as he picks the most qualified person able, and willing to do the job, then there should be no mention of race or gender. Those who seek to make everything an issue based on such things do far more to continue racial friction than not, it is up to us to make things such as this a non issue.

[ATOM]

11:53 AM on 01/12/2013

Can you imagine if a REP had done this.?????....but you libs all line up to make excuses for his ( lack of) diversity!,

[HammerOfThought]

11:42 AM on 01/12/2013

Look at modern US history. Obama is liberal only in comparison to the 2013 GOP. Gay rights are great, but largely unimportant in the larger scheme of things, and I'm sure he is aware of that. But since many people still very much dislike the idea of gay people receiving the same rights as straight married couples, its a good way to "throw us a bone" as far as liberalism goes

[jngm]

11:07 AM on 01/12/2013

He is a disgrace to all mankind. Get him off the payroll.

[lhadley62]

10:37 AM on 01/12/2013

Someone said consider what Obama has done for the black folks. Think about it they put him in so they could get free stuff. Not all of course but a lot of them

[drbopperthp]

10:49 AM on 01/12/2013

The pronouncement of a small and mediocre intellect.

[Naive Soul]

11:06 AM on 01/12/2013

The "small and mediocre intellect" was still able to see reality. Here a a few quotes from the press, probably below the liberal radar level:
"The unemployment rate among black Americans rose in October to 14.3 percent. For the 18- to 29-year-old demographic, the unemployment rate is even higher: 21.4 percent. That's astonishing, and it doesn't even tell the whole story. Hundreds of thousands of young black men and women have given up looking for work altogether and, thus, are not included in the statistics."

“A Census Bureau report on Wednesday revealed nearly 46.2 million people (one out of six Americans) live in poverty in President Barack Obama's economy. Yet, the Obama administration touted the country's horrific poverty figures and attempted to spin the statistics in its favor”

“Obama has served almost four years in the White House, and African-Americans’ median wealth has crashed, their wages have flat lined, their unemployment has spiked, and their political power has waned.”

Mediocre intellects seem more capable to understand reality

[No More Party of NO]

10:21 AM on 01/12/2013

To me Obama's cabinet choices are about appointing the best people for the job because he believes there is an enormous opportunity to cement his legacy and one of the most accomplished Presidents ever and he needs the right people in place to accomplish those goals. It doesn't matter if they happen to be men, or women, or black, or latino, or asian, or white. It matters that they are doers and go-getters.

[OhNoUdinnit]

10:44 AM on 01/12/2013

That's a complete joke! As if Democrats are primarily concerned about a nominee's accomplishments/qualifications. To pretend that other factors, primarily race, gender and ideology, are not the primary factors in determining which Dems now receive nominations - be they to Presidential, cabinet or state-level positions, is to ignore reality. Oh, and Obama doesn't need any advice from some old, corrupt crook like Charlie Rangel!

[Derrick Bennett]

10:46 AM on 01/12/2013

accomplish what? destroy america?