Ed Schultz Claims Gingrich Wants Poor Kids Working as 'Slave Labor' in Schools

Liberals worried that Newt Gingrich threatens the Obama presidency are overwrought in their criticism of Gingrich.

Examples of this occurred yesterday during a discussion on Ed Schultz's radio show between Schultz and Democrat congressman Jim McDermott, one of Saddam Hussein's most steadfast defenders in Congress. (audio clips after page break)

The ever-bombastic Schultz was both dishonest and over the top in responding to Gingrich's proposal that school districts replace unionized janitors with a master janitor who would oversee students paid to help clean their schools.

First, Schultz played a clip of Gingrich's remarks (audio) --

SCHULTZ: This is how it all started. Here we go --

GINGRICH: Really poor children in really poor neighborhoods have no habits of working and have nobody around them who works. They have no habit of, I do this and you give me cash, unless it's illegal. What if you paid them to work as the assistant librarian? (editing break in Schultz recording) What if they became assistant janitors and their job was to mop the floor and clean the bathroom?

SCHULTZ: And get rid of the union workers.

Minutes later, after playing a clip of Gingrich specifically saying that students who work in their schools should be paid for this, Schultz lied in claiming that Gingrich does not want them to be compensated (audio) --

Let's get back to the finances of it. They're in a poor neighborhood and Newt Gingrich, instead of investing in a poor neighborhood, is willing to pick on the kids for being there and labeling them as people who don't have a work ethic. All right, you mean to tell me that if you go into a, if you, you have to make an investment because somebody's gotta pay for it. If you invest in education and you say to a 16-year-old kid that I've got a job for you after school and I'm going to pay you $300 a month, if the kid's motivated, he's going to do it! But who's going to create that opportunity? Well, the taxpayer. The taxpayer is going to create that opportunity. The people in that community are going to create that opportunity. But what he wants to do is have people work for nothing, so they can develop a work ethic.

Followed by Schultz saying what he'd describe as "psycho talk" coming from anyone right of center (audio) --

He's not talking about getting people to work so you teach 'em how to work. Hell, he's talking about using kids so they can save money and spend less money on public education. That's the disconnect. And that's what has to be connected, I think. This is who this guy is. He's a slave labor guy.

Not surprisingly, McDermott offered his own brand of idiocy about Gingrich proposing that inner-city students apprentice with Donald Trump, as agreed by Trump (audio) --

The idea that you're going to go into New York and you're going to pick the poorest school and pick 10 kids and you're going to start an apprenticeship program and that's going to teach the world the work ethic?! I mean, what, what are we talking about here?

Not the world, congressman. But it might change how those 10 kids see it.

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