Thursday, September 03, 2009
Wrangling Rangel
The Washington Post editorial page is calling on Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY) to step aside as chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee.
"Mr. Rangel's amended financial disclosure form, which exposes omissions from his 2002 through 2006 records, is a treasure trove of outrage. He neglected to report a checking account with the Congressional Federal Credit Union and one with Merrill Lynch, each valued between $250,000 and $500,000; the tens of thousands of dollars he's earning from dividends from a number of mutual funds and stocks; and the money made from the sale of a Harlem townhouse. As a result, Mr. Rangel's reported net worth doubled, from between $516,015 and $1,316,000 to between $1,028,024 and $2,495,000."The editorial continues on to recite the previous ethics questions that have plagued Rep. Rangel.
The best face that Rep. Rangel can put on his failure to fully disclose his holdings is that it was all an oversight on his part, which would perhaps be OK if he were a back bencher or chairman of the Arts & Entertainment Committee (OK, I made that up), but he runs Ways and Means, so, like, there's always going to be math and forms and stuff on that test. That is, either he's not competent to run Ways and Means, or he's dishonest.
The primary difficulty associated with Rep. Rangel stepping down is, well, looking at the members of the Committee, listed by seniority (I believe), can you say, "Chairman Pete Stark?" Hopefully, Stark would decline or be passed over and it would go to Sandy Levin (D-MI).
9 Comments:
By 
OregonJon, at
Thu Sep 03, 03:48:00 PM:
The observation, "either he's not competent to run Ways and Means, or he's dishonest", is surely mistaken. Common sense says that Congressman Rangel is both.
By 
, at
Thu Sep 03, 05:48:00 PM:
By , at
Thu Sep 03, 05:55:00 PM:
I've been seeing articles claiming Rangel is making campaign donations to the committee members investigating him. If true, that surely can't be permitted.
By , at
Thu Sep 03, 08:38:00 PM:
Oh yeah, Chairman Pete Stark. That would push the S&P below 500 in a big hurry.
Reminds me of the story that Nixon told some pols that Spiro Agnew was his insurance policy against assassination. Sounds like Charlie Rangel has something similar with old Pete.
By CMT, at
Thu Sep 03, 11:33:00 PM:
Rangel is a holier than thou dirtbag who is the worst at finding common ground but rather seeking every opportunity to play by his own rules. He does not deserve the office.
By Dawnfire82, at
Fri Sep 04, 09:08:00 AM:
By , at
Fri Sep 04, 10:33:00 AM:
Isn't Rangel, in effect, playing the race card? Can't we assume that every black politician is as crooked and arrogant as he? And, if not, why not?
By , at
Fri Sep 04, 11:15:00 AM:
Good grief. If this guy had a "R" in his title he'd be toast. The MSM is a shill one must think in light of this info. Whatever happened to the fourth rail of government. Is it any wonder that foreign governments are bailing on US debt when the whole of DC is corrupt and out for the lining over their own pockets via the apparent enslavement of the US worker? People get out of debt asap and into some wealth securing assets before the whole thing collapses.
By JPMcT, at
Sat Sep 05, 08:50:00 AM:
Why do we keep asking these crooks to RESIGN?
They should go to JAIL!!!
