By Rep. Cynthia McKinney

I would like to take this opportunity to commend my sister colleague from California for introducing comprehensive poverty legislation of which I am a proud co-sponsor. It's high time we talk about poverty. And when we talk about poverty, I would like for everyone to see this beautiful black face, this beautiful black baby who has a tear rolling down her cheek, which epitomizes in so many ways the conditions of Black America, which now has been revealed for all the world to see.

But I came down here not to take very much time, but to say to my sister colleague that she said wasn't going to play the race card. Well, Congresswoman, you don't have to, because Congressman Richard Baker already has, if the reports from The Wall Street Journal are correct. And so I would just like to read into the record what it is that The Wall Street Journal says that Congressman Baker had to say.

He said, according to the The Wall Street Journal:

"We finally cleaned up public housing in New Orleans. We couldn't do it, but God did."

Now, when Congressman Baker made that comment, he was talking about that baby. And there are some of us, some of my colleagues outside of this body, who are very concerned about what Congressman Baker her to say. But I also know that mainstream media don't always get it right. So I would like to hear publicly from Congressman Baker to see if this is exactly what he said and what he meant, because if it is, I can guarantee you there will be many people who will have something to say to him.

The public policy we make here is all about attitudes, and when you've got this kind of an attitude making public policy, you can't help but have teardrops rolling down the faces of America's children. Thank you, Madame Congresswoman.