CHARLIE RANGEL’S SWAMP
www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/ct-edit-rangel-20100227,0,7522814.story
chicagotribune.com The Rangel swamp
THERE IS SOMETHING FUNNY IN CRITICIZING CHARLIE FROM ILLINOIS THE BIGGEST POLITICAL SWAMP IN THE US….BY THEIR STANDARDS CHARLIE DESERVES A RAISE…..RSK
The House ethics committee slapped Rep. Charles Rangel’s wrist Thursday, admonishing the New York Democrat for improperly accepting corporate-funded trips to Caribbean conferences in 2007 and 2008. The committee said it couldn’t prove Rangel knew about the corporate money, but said his staff sure knew and Rangel should have known.
You would have thought the signs and materials from Citigroup, Pfizer, American Airlines, AT&T, Verizon, Macy’s and IBM plastered around the 2008 conference in St. Maarten would have provided a clue that corporate money was involved. But apparently Rangel was clueless. His response to the ethics committee’s admonishment? He criticized the committee and blamed his staff. “Common sense dictates that members of Congress should not be held responsible for what could be the wrongdoing or mistakes or errors of staff,” he said. What a stand-up guy.
This is hardly the end of the ethical problems facing the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee. The ethics committee has been investigating Rangel at a glacial pace for numerous ethical violations, but has yet to rule on other, even more serious, charges. These include his belated financial disclosure of up to $1 million in financial assets, tens of thousands of dollars in municipal bonds and up to $100,000 in rent from a New York apartment building; using his congressional letterhead to solicit money for the Charles B. Rangel Center for Public Service at the City College of New York; and illegally turning one of his four rent-controlled apartments in New York into a campaign office.
This ethical cloud has hung over Rangel, who runs one of the most powerful committees in Congress, for 18 months.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who promised to preside over the “most honest and open Congress in history,” knows an ethics violation when she sees one. He’s “ethically unfit to lead”, she said.
Oh, wait, she didn’t say that about Rangel. She said that about former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay when the House ethics committee admonished the Texas Republican in 2004. Thanks to politico.com for reprising her comments, we have this memorable Pelosi quote: “Republicans must answer: Do they want an ethically unfit person to be the majority leader or do they want to remove the ethical cloud that hangs over the Capitol?”
Good question that Democrats must answer, Madam Speaker. Her response Friday to the ethical cloud hanging over Rangel? “We’ll just have to see what happens next.” Really? What ought to happen next is Rangel relinquishes his gavel. Common sense dictates it.
Comments are closed.
