Turning up the volume, as well as the heat, in the Democratic presidential race, State Senator Bill Perkins had some strong words for candidate Hillary Clinton and her husband, former President Bill Clinton.
"This is not Bill Clinton's backyard or his plantation. Underscore, plantation, underscore backyard. Bill Clinton has an address for his foundation on 125th Street. Period. Nothing more. Quite the opposite. This is Obama land."
Bill Clinton has an office in Harlem for about eight years; and the community's leading Black politicians - led by Congressman Charles Rangel and former Mayor David Dinkins - have been squarely in his wife Hillary's corner during the increasingly tough fight for the Democratic nomination.
But Perkins, going against the Democratic party bosses, has joined forces with Black elected officials in Central Brooklyn - like Hakeen Jeffries, Charles Barron and Al Vann.
Many Obama backers remain angry over some of the race-baiting rhetoric of Bill Clinton in particular, which many presume had the tacit approval of his wife the candidate.
And so now the battle for the soul of Harlem is on, and Rangel and Dinkins must be feeling some heat.
Recently it was bandied about the cable lines and the blogosphere that Rangel's wife Alma was voting for Obama - a smart move that likely was calculated to take some of the angry community heat off Rangel.
It will be interesting to see what the repercussions of this political fight will be.
There's been nothing like it.
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