About Newt Gingrich’s aspiration to run for U.S. president, Bill Clay, Sr., said, “He was the worst speaker of the house and he closed down Congress twice. A lot of people suffered. The Tea Party is ruining the Republican Party.”  Seated at the historic Sunset C.C. in south county for the 25th annual William Clay Scholarship and Research Fund golf tourney and dinner, Clay, the first African-American congressman, who previously served as 26th ward alderman, ticked off some achievements including how he helped the late Robert Kennedy get blacks to register in an election.  “Jack Dwyer of the Democratic Central Committee didn’t want them to register,” he recalled. “Kennedy got 28 people to town to help with the registration and they fell in line.  After his brother, Jack became president and Bob became attorney general, he helped me in an attempt to revive the small arms plant. We didn’t get it, but we remained friends.”  Of today’s pols, Clay lauded Cong. Russ Carnahan as being “a great legislator” and of his sister, Mo. Secretary of State Robin Carnahan – “You’re not going to corner me on that,!” Clay exclaimed.
Then, the 80 year-old Clay turned to the barbs he got from the old, conservative Globe-Democrat. He recalled, “One night, I got a phone call, that the paper’s publisher was hauled into the police station for
soliciting sex from a prostitute in the area of Enright and Euclid.  I ran to the station and confronted him and said, ‘You don’t like black people, but you sure love black whores!” Clay heaped praise on his wife, Carol, with whom he’s been married for 51 years, and his son, U.S.Cong. William Lacy Clay, Jr., who arrived with his sister, Michelle and his nephew, Clay. Lacy opined, “Newt has a following and he’d be great competition to Palin and Romney. He’d be a front-runner. However, President Obama will make mincemeat out of him. No one can campaign like Obama.” As to his take on the 13th and final casino license in Missouri, Lacy said,”I’m supporting a casino in north county, because that region sorely needs an infusion of jobs. Cape Girardeau is ultra-conservative and its religious right will be up in arms against it.”

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