Clinton Supporter: Emil Jones Called Me "Uncle Tom"

By Margaret Lyons in News on Aug 25, 2008 5:34PM

Delmarie Cobb, a Chicago political consultant, says State Senate President Emil Jones called her an "Uncle Tom" at hotel where the Illinois delegation is staying in Denver. Cobb, who is black, is a Hillary Clinton delegate, and says she and Jones were arguing about Clinton vs. Obama.

"Then he came up behind me. He said 'Thirty-five thousand people went to Springfield [to support Obama on Saturday],'" she said. "I said, 'Then 35,000 people drank the Kool-Aid.,' He said, 'Barack is a clean-cut guy. He never liked gutter politics, that's why the Clintons did so-and-so. ...' I said, 'I don't want to get into this. So I went over to the elevator, and he said, 'Uncle Tom!' Then he grabbed me and hugged me and started laughing. I said, 'What did you say?' I turned to Freddrenna Lyle, and I said, 'What did he say?' She wouldn't say anything, That's when I said some bad things to him."

Cobb was with Aldermen Freddrenna Lyle, Leslie Hairston, and Latasha Thomas, and Lyle says Jones was just joking around.

Jones denies using the term Uncle Tom and says Cobb may have misunderstood what he says was a reference to Doubting Thomas. [Trib, S-T]