Fumo distances himself from slavery remarksHARRISBURG - State Sen. Vincent J. Fumo's remarks that the General Assembly would enact slavery if given a chance were met yesterday with anger and disbelief, even as the Philadelphia Democrat sought to distance himself from his own words.
Fumo made the slavery comments during an Appropriations Committee hearing Tuesday in Harrisburg on a bill that would define marriage as between a man and a woman - a measure Fumo opposes.
"What you are advocating here is that we take away the rights of a minority. And I don't think that's right," Fumo told Gilbert Coleman Jr., senior pastor of Freedom Christian Bible Fellowship in Philadelphia, during the hearing. ". . . If we introduced a bill on slavery, it might pass. That doesn't make it right."
"I doubt that, sir," responded Coleman, an African American who testified in support of the measure.
"Oh, don't bet on it in this General Assembly," shot back Fumo, who is preparing to leave the legislature after 30 years. "I know some people up here, especially on a secret ballot, it would be almost unanimous."
The comments were met with a quick rebuke by the chairman of the committee, Sen. Gib Armstrong (R., Lancaster).
"Sen. Fumo, that's out of line," he said.
David Atkinson, a top aide to Armstrong, said those present reacted "with disbelief at what they were hearing."
"It was kind of like watching an auto wreck while standing on the curb," he said. "It's not the kind of thing that you would ever anticipate."
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…in an April interview that aired on the Pennsylvania Cable Network, Fumo likened President Bush's former top political strategist to the Nazis' Ministry for Popular Enlightenment and Propaganda.
"Karl Rove, I've said on the floor, so I'll say it again, is the greatest propagandist since Joseph Goebbels, who was Adolf Hitler's propagandist," Fumo said in the televised retrospective of his 30-year career.
Fumo will retire from the Senate at the end of his term this year to devote his attention to his scheduled September trial on 139 federal corruption counts.
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