Peter King: Hillary Clinton Playing 'Cheap Racial Politics'

House Homeland Security Committee chairman Peter King accused Sen. Hillary Clinton on Monday of playing "cheap racial politics" when she said at a Martin Luther King Day tribute that the GOP-controlled House of Representatives was run like a "plantation."

"It's wrong to use the word 'plantation' in any political context because it's cheap racial politics," Rep. King told WMAL Washington, D.C. radio host Steve Malzberg. "But to do it on Martin Luther King Day is really disgraceful."

King said the former first lady was clearly trying to paint the GOP as "slaveowners." "It's a cheap way to throw race in and to somehow call Republicans racist and then be able to duck it later on if people call her on it," he told Malzberg.

The New York Republican accused Mrs. Clinton of trivializing the King Day commemoration, saying, "there are certain things that go beyond the pale and you know they're wrong and it speaks for itself and this is one of those cases."

Rep. King, however, was even more upset at former Vice President Al Gore, who earlier in the day had accused President Bush of repeatedly breaking the law by wiretapping terrorists without a court order.

"To try to criminalize this in a time of war is an absolute disgrace," he complained. "As the former vice president of the United States, Gore's conduct is inexcusable."