Imus Offers to Paint Michel Faulkner's House With a Toothbrush if He Unseats Rep. Charles Rangel.
Before welcoming political newbie and Republican Congressional candidate Rev. Michel Faulkner to the show today, Imus had some complainin’ to do. “My throat hurts, I’m losing my voice, I have cancer, and emphysema,” he said. “Not that this should be about me.”
And it wasn’t, for the next ten minutes or so, surely setting some sort of record.
Faulkner, who is running against the veteran Rep. Charles Rangel in New York’s 15th District, told Imus his poll numbers were surging, and that he was looking forward to a victory on Tuesday. “Well, that’s not going to happen, of course,” Imus said tactfully.
But Faulkner, a former New York Jets lineman, insisted otherwise. “Charlie Rangel is a creation of the power structure, the powers that be,” he told Imus. “Forty years ago, he was put there by liberal Republicans, and kept there by liberal Republicans. For half the time that Charles ran, he actually ran on the Republican and the Democrat line. So the people in the 15th District really haven’t had a choice.”
Hoping to be the alternative Harlem has been waiting for, Faulkner went to the base of the traditional Republican Party—the poor—and discovered they wanted a way off welfare, a route out of public housing. The so-called “Liberal agenda,” in Faulkner view, purposely perpetuates their dependence on government.
“But all those folks want is an opportunity, all they want is a chance,” he said. “They want a job, they want legitimacy. They want their dignity back, and they’re saying to Liberals, ‘Get out of my life.’”
Faulkner considers himself a “traditional” Republican, and sees his Party as a means to set people free. “This is about self-determination, individual freedom, respect for life,” he said. “Those core values resonate with the people.”
A longtime community activist, Faulkner has run homeless shelters, helped open soup kitchens, and worked on AIDS walks. He has dealt with the Nation of Islam and the New Black Panther Movement, and brushes off accusations that he is somehow a traitor because he is a black Republican.
“I’ve got street cred,” he said, adding, “I’m not ashamed of who I am, and what I believe in.”
Faulkner was “born again” into Christianity in 1979, but does not think only Christians can go to heaven. “Lots of theologians disagree on that, but God has a plan for the Jews; they are His chosen people,” he said. And while he believes Jesus is the Messiah, he told Imus it’s not his role to condemn anybody who thinks otherwise. “Religion is man’s attempt to reach God based on his own merit—what you do, what you say, what you think—as opposed to receiving what God has done for you,” he said.
Imus was admittedly charmed by Faulkner, but was reluctant to offer his whole-hearted support. “The problem is we have Tony Powell, and he does Charles Rangel,” Imus said. “I don’t think he does you.”
Not yet, anyway.
-Julie Kanfer
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