Rep. Charles "Chip" Pickering is hopping mad about some unflattering comments Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton made in Iowa about folks in Mississippi, calling them closed and lacking in community values -- or at least that's what she told the Des Moines Register.

And that got the retiring congressman hopping mad. It's also sort of strange for a presidential candidate to put down one state to try and boost their cachet in another, considering you have to campaign everywhere. Or maybe Mrs. Clinton just doesn't care about Mississippi, or expanding the Democrats political map.

Ah, politics. Here is what Chip had to say.

PICKERING CHALLENGES CLINTON'S REMARKS
Rejects Presidential candidates slurs against Mississippi

(WASHINGTON DC) – Tuesday, October 23, Presidential Candidate Hillary Clinton, in explaining why she was not doing well in Iowa polls, was quoted in the Des Moines Register saying, "How can Iowa be ranked with Mississippi? That's not what I see. That's not the quality. That's not the communitarianism, that's not the openness I see in Iowa."

Today Congressman Pickering responded, "Senator Clinton clearly doesn't know the people of Mississippi, the people I represent. Her comments were inappropriate, inaccurate, and unnecessary. A candidate for President of the United States should not use stereotypes to define a region of the country. It is sad that a leader like Clinton doesn't understand a state and neighbor, or she simply believes the south is close-minded and lacking in community and quality. Those who seek to lead the entire country should be strong and confident in themselves and in our people."

"Mississippi has a diversity of culture, politics, life, and business- we have leaders across a vast spectrum of backgrounds. Currently Dr. Martha Saunders serves as President of the University of Southern Mississippi and we have elected outstanding female mayors, supervisors, and supreme court justices as well as two Lieutenant Governors, Amy Tuck and Evelyn Gandy. We lead the nation in the number of African American elected officials."

"This is a state whose generosity, according to the IRS, is consistently higher, per capita, than any other state in the nation with charitable contributions. A state who had the first ever heart transplant, lung transplant, and kidney autotransplant. A state who has produced more awarded and honored writers than any other. Mississippi is the birthplace of the blues, of famous athletes, and entertainers."

"After Katrina, we proved the strength and quality of our communities as a unified, strong, and resilient people. You would think that old stereotypes and myths should be put aside after such an event. This shows the difficulty Democrats will have in Mississippi when a leader like Clinton shows no understanding and no respect for the region."

"To overcome this misunderstanding and prejudice, we invite Senator Clinton to visit anytime. We are the hospitality state. I'm sure she'll be impressed with our spirit, resilience, generosity, and strong communities. We weathered Katrina with those character traits. We will forgive her old thinking and give her generous grace. We only ask for her to give us an open mind in return."

Congressman Chip Pickering is Chairman of McCain for President in Mississippi and
Co-Chair for the Southern Region.

-- Brian DeBose, national political reporter, The Washington Times

Sen. Barack Obama continues trying to counteract Hillary Clinton's experience argument (meaning her extensive and his lack thereof).

But it has been largely ineffective thus far, at least based on the latest polls.

Here is his latest attempt, a mailing sent throughout Iowa.

The real deal with all these candidates on both sides is this: In the past 57 years, there have only been two presidential candidates who won the White House with any extensive foreign policy experience. The first was former Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, supreme commander of Allied forces in Europe during World War II.

'Nuff said.

The second was George Herbert Walker Bush — former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, former U.S. liaison to China, former CIA director and former vice president.

You be the judge.

-- Brian DeBose, national political reporter, The Washington Times

Just take a look at what WQAD-TV in Des Moines has cooked up ... it's a Pick Your Candidate quiz.

All you have to do is answer 11 policy questions and their level of importance to you and give your zip code, age and gender ... and voila! ... your candidate awaits (be sure and come back and let us know who you got hooked up with).

I was matched up with Joe Biden, followed by Barack Obama. Stands to reason, seeing as how I spent almost a quarter of my life living in Biden's state.

UD Blue Hens unite!

-- Brian DeBose, national political reporter, The Washington Times

If you haven't noticed -- and it's possible you didn't, what with all the children's health care, Iran, Iraq and presidential coverage -- some members of Congress are trying desperately to draw your attention to a nigh 100-year-old episode from World War I.

U.S. Reps. Adam Schiff (D-CA), George Radanovich (R-CA), Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ), Joe Knollenberg (R-MI), Brad Sherman (D-CA) and Ed Royce (R-CA) want to recognize the murders of 1.5 million Armenians, presumably by the Ottoman-Turkish Empire between 1915-1923, as genocide.

The six lawmakers, all members of the Congressional Caucus on Armenian Issues, said the Armenian Genocide has been recognized by more than 20 nations including Canada, Italy, Sweden, France, Argentina and Russia, and note that the House has passed resolutions on the Holocaust and the genocides in Cambodia, Darfur, Ukraine and Bosnia.

Many Democrats are reluctant, however, to back the resolution for fear that it will damage realtions with Turkey, a vital U.S. ally in the region. The relationship is an extremely fragile alliance, according to the National Security Network.

-- Brian DeBose, national political reporter, The Washington Times

It's funny, the things people say about someone they don't know.

An image is created, the press piles on, an before you know it, a public figure is reduced to a caricature.

Then you meet that person, maybe get to know them, even just a little. Your perception starts to change.

Supreme Court Associate Justice Clarence Thomas said that disconnect —  the disparity between his public image and what he sees as the grounded realities of his life — is one of the reasons he wrote his own story.

That story is about a young Geechee boy, dark-skinned and proud, who grew up in Savannah, Ga., the heart of Jim Crow South.

"I've been on the court 16 years, and with all the press coverage, people ... did not know where I was from," Mr. Thomas said.

We caught up with him at a soiree in honor of his new book, "My Grandfather's Son."

Mr. Thomas was raised by his grandfather, Myers Anderson, a man the justice calls "righteous hard."

"He was not a harsh man as so many people have said. But he was a hard man, righteous hard," Mr. Thomas said.

He told a story of how his he and his brother were told, "Do as I do," by the man who raised them -- and that meant developing a strong work ethic, thinking positive thoughts and doing what you know is right.

"Can you imagine putting that burden on yourself that you have to every day with those little eyes peering at you, that you have to give an example for them to follow?" he said.

"I called my brother about 10 years ago before he passed away, and I asked him, 'Myers, do you ever remember when he didn't live up to that?', and he said 'no.' He never ever broke his word."

Mr. Thomas' inspirational story belies the portrait, created by the justice's critics, of a conniving poser who brown-nosed his way to the top and then forgot about his people when he got there.

And you can forget the idea that this man has no personality.

We found him to be quite funny and jovial, with a big hearty laugh that could be heard in a noisy 20' by 16' room filled with about 40 people. Most were the justice's friends, but he was open with everyone.

"I do this all the time," Mr. Thomas said. "All over the country, just not in a setting where I am promoting a book ... I just don't go around promoting myself."

The book is as honest an American Dream story as there is. It doesn't shy away from the realities of racism, segregation, the terrorism of the Ku Klux Klan, and it doesn't ignore the self-inflicted demons of alcoholism and defeat that many blacks fell into as a result.

Asked who he was trying to reach by telling his story, Mr. Thomas said: "If you have to pay a mortgage, worry about your bills, have children and have hope for the future, that's the audience: regular, everyday people."

"And you are going to have struggles," he promised.

How do you stay positive?, he asked. How do you put one foot in front of the other?

"See the people who are the critics? They have all the answers. But you don't and that's my point. And the reason you want to talk about these things is you want other people to see that it's hard, you struggle and people have real lives. Some days you're down, but you got to get up and go to work. The book is for those people, it's for you man. Stay strong, be positive and keep at it," Mr. Thomas said.

Those were his final words to me and his message he wants people to walk away with after reading his book.

— Brian DeBose, national political reporter, The Washington Times