To: calgal who wrote (5967 ) 9/1/2004 1:56:22 PM From: calgal Respond to of 27181 Rangel Won't Choose Between Hillary and Condi New York Congressman Charlie Rangel complained Tuesday night that the GOP hadn't done enough to elect blacks to high office. But when asked who he'd support in a hypothetical 2008 presidential match-up between Hillary Clinton and Condoleezza Rice, the Harlem Democrat declined to say. Story Continues Below "Anyone who belongs to a party that doesn't have one black in the House of Representatives, one Hispanic or one Jew, that's one heck of a record," Rangel told NewsMax from the GOP convention's Radio Row. "If you're talking about who's in the band, then Republicans are right," he complained. "They've got more blacks and Latinos playing music here than at the Democratic convention." "The truth is, GOP convention delegates come from communites where it's not that they don't know [blacks]. It's that they don't want to know." Rangel chided the GOP for not giving prominent convention roles to Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice, who had previously told reporters they were staying away to avoid politicizing their offices. But the top House Democrat maintained, "I have no clue as to why they're not here." He discounted Republican claims that Rice and Powell's roles as senior members of the Bush adminsitration showed the party was becoming more diverse, because they hadn't hadn't been elected to any office in their own right. "As effective and efficient as they are, they have no constituency," he said. "I don't even know if they're registered [Republicans]. But asked if he would support Rice over Hillary Clinton in a hypothetical 2008 presidential match-up, Rangel dodged the question with a joke, telling NewsMax, "I probably at that time will be a candidate [for president] myself."newsmax.com