It was a remark, says Representative Charles B. Rangel, uttered with regional pride rather than rancor. But he apologized nonetheless. On Wednesday, the day after the Democrats won a House majority, Mr. Rangel, the Harlem Democrat poised to become chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, which writes tax legislation, talked about winning back more of the tax revenue that New York State sends to the Treasury. He said, “Mississippi gets more than their fair share back in federal money, but who the hell wants to live in Mississippi?”Apparently, a lot of people do, and they are not shy about saying so. Charles W. Pickering Jr., a Mississippi Republican and a colleague of Mr. Rangel’s, was the first to publicly take umbrage. He reacted as if he and his state had been slapped with a glove. “Mr. Rangel owes the people of Mississippi an apology,” he said in a statement. “I hope his remarks are not the kind of insults, slander and defamation that Mississippians will come to expect from the Democrat leadership in Washington, D.C.”
Mr. Pickering, who is from Laurel, Miss., marched to his peroration. “From the coast to the Delta to the Pine Belt to the hills and across Mississippi,” he said, “there is beauty in every city, charity in every heart, love in every church, and majesty in every countryside.”