Here’s something I thought I’d never write: a moment of clarity from Charlie Rangel.  You can watch the entire interview with The Perez Notes at the link, but we’ll pick up where Rep. Rangel begins discussing how attack ads destroy credibility, starting with Joe Biden’s “they goin’ to put y’all back in chains” in Danville, Virginia.  Not only does Rangel describe the claim as laughable, he also says that the Obama campaign’s defense of it — that Biden meant economic hardship and not slavery — is ridiculous on its face:

After Vice President Joe Biden infamously told an audience that Mitt Romney is “going to unchain Wall Street,” and concluded they are “going to put y’all back in chains,” Mr. Romney’s campaign cried foul. This was an obvious and unfair allusion to slavery, Mr. Romney’s surrogates argued.

Well, count veteran Congressman Charlie Rangel among Mr. Biden’s critics on the Democratic side of the aisle.

“The Vice President said he’s going to put “y’all in chains,” Mr. Rangel told The Perez Notes in a recent free-wheeling interview. “Was he talking about slavery? You bet your ass he was. Was he using the vernacular? Yes, he was. Did he think it was cute? Yes, he did. Was it something stupid to say? You bet your life it was stupid.”

“It was something if a black had said it, we would have been laughing, because we would know deep down they may be beating the hell out of us, but they ain’t thinking about putting us into any chains,” he added.

Of course, it’s nothing new to hear Joe Biden say something he thinks is cute but everyone else recognizes as stupid.  Itis significant that Rangel publicly derides the Obama campaign for defending it — and for their accusation that Romney was somehow responsible for a cancer death because of a layoff of the woman’s spouse years earlier.  Rangel shrugs if off by saying, “If you want to win, you’ve got to play this filthy, obscene game.”

Hope and Change in Chains!

Update: JPeterman brings up a good question in the comments.  How long before we see a Cory Booker Hostage Video from Rangel?  Actually, I don’t think Rangel will care enough about Team Obama’s outrage to bother.

Also, let’s not forget that Obama is sending Vice President Filthy and Obscene out to Tampa for the Republican convention next week, after belatedly issuing his running mate a vote of confidence yesterday.  That should provide a lot of ammunition … for Republicans.