Already locked in a tight re-election race, Pennsylvania Democratic Rep. Paul E. Kanjorski did not help his chances with comments Wednesday implying minorities are not "good American people."

"We're giving relief to people that I deal with in my office every day now, unfortunately," Mr. Kanjorski said during deliberations Wednesday between House and Senate negotiators over the pending financial reform bill.

"Because of the longevity of this recession, these are people — and they're not minorities and they're not defective and they're not all the things you'd like to insinuate that these programs are about — these are average, good American people," he added...