Apparently there’s a contest going on to see who can make the dumbest racist remark in a Martin Luther King Day speech. Most of us thought New Orleans Mayor C. Ray Nagin was the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world when it came to MLK Day gaffes, but Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton has shown herself to be a strong contender for the title.

CNN reports that Clinton, in a speech Tuesday at a Harlem church, said Republican leaders are running the U.S. House of Representatives “like a plantation.” Like Nagin, Clinton was speaking to a predominantly black audience.

The New York Times had the best response, suggesting, in a reference to Nagin’s “chocolate” remark, that perhaps the House was run like a cocoa plantation.

Clinton’s reference is by no means without precedent. According to CNN:

Defenders of Clinton also have pointed out comments made in 1994 by former GOP House Speaker Newt Gingrich, shortly before Republicans won a majority in the House, in which he said Democrats “think it’s their job to run the plantation” and that “it shocks them that I’m actually willing to lead the slave rebellion.”

It’s so inspiring to hear our nation’s leaders speaking clearly and constructively about important issues.