About time. What took so long?
Related: That Rascally RangelReaming Representative Rangel
I noticed that during the same time period I was fed endless items and briefs about the Sanford sex scandal in South Carolina and other Repuglican malfeasance while this was kept quiet by the pro-Democrat Glob.
"Panel finds Rangel violated ethics rule
WASHINGTON - Representative Charles B. Rangel, the most powerful tax-writing lawmaker in Congress and a 34-year veteran of Capitol Hill, knowingly accepted Caribbean trips from a corporation in violation of House rules, the House Ethics Committee ruled yesterday.
At least four other members of the Congressional Black Caucus who were also on the 2007 and 2008 trips were exonerated by the panel, according to a congressional source familiar with the findings.
The finding is certain to jeopardize Rangel’s chairmanship of the House Ways and Means Committee. The committee will take a lead as Congress determines the fate of former president George W. Bush’s expiring tax cuts.
Rangel’s ethics troubles also present an election-year dilemma for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who led a Democratic takeover of the House in 2006 on a campaign promise to end a “culture of corruption’’ in the GOP-led Congress.
Rangel, 79, a Democrat from New York, has been in the House 40 years. It was unclear whether the findings would affect whether he seeks reelection.
The committee found that the financing of the Caribbean trips was improper for all the lawmakers involved but that only Rangel was aware a corporation that routinely lobbied Congress picked up the tab, said the congressional official who was not authorized to speak on the record.
The committee decided against issuing formal charges against Rangel that could lead to punishment such as a censure.
The Ethics Committee will issue its findings in a report scheduled to be made public today.
Additional ethics investigations of Rangel’s finances and fund-raising are still underway, but they are not connected to the ruling on the Caribbean travel.
Rangel had no immediate comment.
That would be a first for that slime.
Didn't take him long to find his voice.
"Rangel refuses to step aside despite ethics slap
WASHINGTON - Representative Charles Rangel said yesterday he won’t step down as chairman of the powerful House tax-writing committee after being admonished by an ethics panel for accepting corporate-sponsored trips to the Caribbean.
The House ethics committee said that aides to the 20-term New York Democrat tried at least three times to show him the trips - to Antigua in 2007 and St. Maarten in 2008 - had corporate sponsorship, a violation of congressional gift rules.
The chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee said that the report by the ethics panel “exonerates me’’ because it cites no evidence that he knew the trips were sponsored by corporations. Rangel denied that he saw any of the written communications from staff members.
Rangel faces potentially more serious allegations, including failing to disclose rental income on a villa in the Dominican Republic, use of his congressional office to raise money for a college center in his name, and belated financial disclosure of hundreds of thousands of dollars in previously unreported wealth.
And he represents Harlem, huh?
How do these scum get away with such s*** for so long, America?
Oh, they INVESTIGATE THEMSELVES, huh?
"Ethics panel clears 7 in lobbying inquiry
WASHINGTON - The House ethics committee cleared the late representative John Murtha and six other House Appropriations defense subcommittee members yesterday of trading funding favors for campaign contributions, saying the lawmakers didn’t violate any rules or laws.The committee dismissed allegations against the seven concerning efforts to obtain government funding for local projects for clients of the now-defunct lobbying firm Paul Magliocchetti and Associates Group, better known as the PMA Group. Magliocchetti and several of his employees were former appropriations committee staff members.
Murtha, a Pennsylvania Democrat and subcommittee chairman, died Feb. 9. The other six lawmakers were Democrats Norman Dicks of Washington, Marcy Kaptur of Ohio, Peter Visclosky of Indiana, and James Moran of Virginia, and Republicans C.W. Bill Young of Florida and Todd Tiahrt of Kansas.--more--"
Also see: The War Pimps of PMA
Slow Saturday Special: MIC Captures Marcy Kaptur
MSM Xmas Gifts: War Profiteers
Doesn't matter which letter is by their name, does it, Amurkn?
And Charlie sure changed his tune quick:
(Of course, the Glob doesn't make it quick. I've got THREE VERSIONS of the ARTICLE of the WEB SITE and NONE of them match my PRINTED PAPER! I believe the word is CENSORSHIP! After all, HOW MUCH COULD have CHANGED in just a FEW HOURS, and do I really want to waste my time and yours sifting through rewritten, reedited shit?)
Yup, had to go to the WEB to GET MY VERSION!
"Rangel stepping down from tax-writing chairmanship" by LARRY MARGASAK
WASHINGTON -- New York Rep. Charles Rangel temporarily stepped aside as chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee Wednesday as he struggled with mounting ethics woes that left his political future uncertain at best.
Rangel's decision cheered Democrats who feared political fallout affecting their own futures.....
The 20-term congressman has played a key role in President Barack Obama's attempts to win passage of historic health care legislation, and it was not clear who would replace him at the committee's helm.
First elected in 1970, Rangel has raised considerable money for fellow Democrats. His leadership political action committee raised $2.2 million in the 2008 election cycle and spent $2 million, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. He also raises money through a Rangel Victory Fund.
Oh, that is why he was allowed to hang around, huh?
Rangel is the senior African-American in Congress and the head of the Congressional Black Caucus....
A number of questions have been raised about the 79-year-old Rangel's conduct. Ethics investigators are looking into his use of his official position to raise money for a New York college center to be named after him and his belated disclosure of at least hundreds of thousands of dollars in assets and his use of rent-controlled apartments in New York....
Yeah, I think those transgressions are ABSENT the UPDATES!
The House ethics panel last Friday released a report accusing him of violating House gift rules in connection with a series of trips he took to the Caribbean.
The panel said that he had violated standards of conduct by accepting 2007 and 2008 trips to Caribbean conferences that were financed by corporations. It said it could not prove whether Rangel knew of the corporate payments but concluded that members of his staff knew about them -- and the congressman was responsible for their actions.
For his part, Rangel said he didn't even have "constructive knowledge" of the corporate sponsorship of the trips and couldn't be held responsible for something staff members may have known but which he didn't.
His political problems were compounded by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's promise to drain the swamp of ethics problems after Democrats took over the House -- following a 2006 campaign accusing Republicans of fostering a culture of corruption.....
Rangel called his news conference Wednesday on short notice, telling reporters....
Who cares what a lying scumbag said?
Rangel set up the Rangel Victory Fund, to raise cash for his House campaign and for the political action committee. In 2009, most of its fundraising benefited Rangel's campaign. The Rangel Victory Fund steered at least $479,000 to Rangel's House campaign and roughly $70,000 to his National Leadership PAC last year.
The National Leadership PAC directed $10,000 to Democratic congressional candidates: $2,000 to Senate candidate Michael Capuano of Massachusetts and $1,000 each to New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand and Reps. Jim Himes of Connecticut, Debbie Halvorson of Illinois and Gary Peters of Michigan and New York Reps. Michael McMahon, Carolyn Maloney, Dan Maffei and Eric Massa. The fund spent at least $60,000 last year on a birthday gala fundraiser Rangel held at the historic Tavern on the Green restaurant in New York.
Yeah, $omehow all that didn't make my printed paper.
Instead, I get three different versions off the Glob's website:
"Facing ethics probes, Rangel drops tax leadership" by Larry Margasak and Tom Raum, Associated Press Writers | March 3, 2010
WASHINGTON --Buffeted by ethics inquiries, veteran New York Rep. Charles B. Rangel stepped down Wednesday as chairman of the House's powerful tax-writing committee, delivering a fresh political jolt to a Democratic Party already facing angry voters.
The action also muddied the congressional picture on taxes, coming as the House moves toward difficult debate over large automatic increases that lie just over the horizon. The outcome will affect tens of millions of American taxpayers.
Rangel's relinquishing of the Ways and Means Committee gavel spared colleagues from having to vote on a Republican-sponsored resolution to strip him of his post. But it also focused attention on ethical lapses by a top leader of a party that had promised to end a "culture of corruption" when it regained control of Congress in 2006 from Republicans.
That could spread far beyond Rangel. Ethical problems can be politically toxic for the party in power, particularly this election year with so much anti-Washington sentiment in the air.
Rangel, 79 and a member of Congress for the past 39 years, stepped aside just days after being admonished for breaking House rules by accepting corporate-financed travel.
He called his exile temporary. But he still faces inquiries by the House ethics committee over late payment of income taxes on a rental villa he owns in the Dominican Republic, his use of House stationery to solicit corporate donations to an educational institution that bears his name, and belated disclosure of hundreds of thousands of dollars in previously unlisted wealth.
Some of these cases could result in rebukes more serious than last week's admonishment, and that could make it difficult for Rangel to reclaim his chairmanship.
He has been a key player in the health care overhaul debate, and whatever legislation finally emerges from Congress will bear his and the committee's stamp. Even more importantly, for the next few months Ways and Means will play a central role in shaping tax policy.
Billions of dollars of tax cuts put in place by former President George W. Bush are due to expire at the end of this year. The tax committee's chairman will have great influence over which of these tax cuts are permitted to expire and which are extended.
Veteran Rep. Fortney "Pete" Stark of California will serve as acting chairman, according to Rep. John Salazar, D-Colo., who was presiding over the House when Republican lawmakers posed the question on Wednesday.
But Stark's chairmanship could be short-lived. Democratic members of the House Ways and Means Committee emerged from a closed-door meeting Wednesday evening, saying there was no final decision on a successor for Rangel. Stark left without talking to reporters.
Stark, the next most senior Democrat on the panel, is a health policy expert and one of the most liberal members of the House. He has a reputation for being temperamental and sharp-tongued, not a consensus builder.
Rangel, who has represented his Harlem district since 1971 and is the first black member to be Ways and Means chairman, stepped aside in the face of increasing pressure from fellow Democrats after the House ethics committee admonished him last week for accepting trips to the Caribbean that were sponsored by several large corporations, a violation of congressional gift rules. Rangel blamed the lapse on his staff.
Yeah, and HE WASN'T GOING TO LEAVE! Pelosi must have threatened him.
"In order to avoid my colleagues having to defend me during their elections, I have this morning sent a letter to Speaker Pelosi asking her to grant me a leave of absence until such time as the Ethics Committee completes its work" on remaining accusations against him, Rangel said at a hastily called session with reporters.
He said later that his stepping aside "should take care of the political problem" that other Democrats might have as a result of his ethics problems.
You guys really believe your own bullshit, huh?
For all the ethical issues that have dogged the gregarious and sometimes irascible New Yorker over the years, Rangel has played a major role in tax policy, health care overhaul and in shaping other major issues that have come before his committee.
If Stark's leadership doesn't work out, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi might maneuver to award the post to another senior Democrat on the committee, such as Sander Levin of Michigan, Jim McDermott of Washington or Richard Neal of Massachusetts. Rep. John Lewis of Georgia told reporters Wednesday evening he is not a candidate for the chairmanship.
Pelosi issued a statement acknowledging Rangel's request for a leave. "I commend Chairman Rangel for his decades of leadership on jobs, health care and the most significant economic issues of the day," she said.
Republicans had been calling for Rangel to step aside since last year, and those demands increased after the ethics panel released its report last Friday admonishing him.
Since the report, support for him among Democrats has been evaporating, with Rep. Artur Davis, D-Ala., on Tuesday becoming the first member of the congressional Black Caucus -- which Rangel helped found -- to call for him to step down from his chairmanship.
So long as Rangel remained chairman, an ethical cloud hung over Democrats who will be on November's ballots, a cloud that would darken with any additional rebukes by the ethics committee.
Republicans were pressing for a vote this week, one expected to draw more than just token Democratic support. Rangel's announcement let his Democratic colleagues off the hook.
But it also presented new headaches for Pelosi as the committee prepares to decide the fate of the Bush tax cuts.
Due to expire are lower overall income tax rates that have been in effect for nearly a decade, the so-called marriage penalty relief. The $1,000 child credit will drop to $500, and maximum tax rates on dividend income and capital gains will rise sharply if Congress does nothing.
President Barack Obama and his congressional allies want to keep many of these lower tax rates in place for all but those whose household income is above $250,000.
"These are very contentious issues. You want somebody running the committee who's going to have a firm hand on the gavel," said Ross Baker, a Rutgers University political scientist who studies Congress. "This is a real crisis for Pelosi on top of the health care stuff. It's a distraction I'm sure she did not welcome."
Rangel has raised considerable money for fellow Democrats. His leadership political action committee raised $2.2 million in the 2008 election cycle and spent $2 million, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. He also raises money through a Rangel Victory Fund.
Republican campaign officials have started criticizing individual Democrats for holding on to chunks of campaign contributions that resulted from Rangel's fundraising.
As an example of his eroding support, several Democratic House members said they were giving campaign donations linked to Rangel away to charity.
Oh, yeah, THAT WILL MAKE the LOOTING and CORRUPTION go away!!!
Ann Kirkpatrick of Arizona is giving up $14,000, Debbie Halvorson of Illinois $16,000 and Jim Himes of Connecticut $16,000.
--more--"And the SAME ARTICLE under a DIFFERENT LINK!!
Yeah tie up the site bytes with repetitive garbage, Glob, as you remove other items from your s***ty site.
"Facing ethics probes, Rangel drops tax leadership" by Larry Margasak and Tom Raum, Associated Press Writers | March 3, 2010
WASHINGTON --Buffeted by ethics inquiries, veteran New York Rep. Charles B. Rangel stepped down Wednesday as chairman of the House's powerful tax-writing committee, delivering a fresh political jolt to a Democratic Party already facing angry voters.
The action also muddied the congressional picture on taxes, coming as the House moves toward difficult debate over large automatic increases that lie just over the horizon. The outcome will affect tens of millions of American taxpayers.
Rangel's relinquishing of the Ways and Means Committee gavel spared colleagues from having to vote on a Republican-sponsored resolution to strip him of his post. But it also focused attention on ethical lapses by a top leader of a party that had promised to end a "culture of corruption" when it regained control of Congress in 2006 from Republicans.
That could spread far beyond Rangel. Ethical problems can be politically toxic for the party in power, particularly this election year with so much anti-Washington sentiment in the air.
Rangel, 79 and a member of Congress for the past 39 years, stepped aside just days after being admonished for breaking House rules by accepting corporate-financed travel.
He called his exile temporary. But he still faces inquiries by the House ethics committee over late payment of income taxes on a rental villa he owns in the Dominican Republic, his use of House stationery to solicit corporate donations to an educational institution that bears his name, and belated disclosure of hundreds of thousands of dollars in previously unlisted wealth.
Some of these cases could result in rebukes more serious than last week's admonishment, and that could make it difficult for Rangel to reclaim his chairmanship.
He has been a key player in the health care overhaul debate, and whatever legislation finally emerges from Congress will bear his and the committee's stamp. Even more importantly, for the next few months Ways and Means will play a central role in shaping tax policy.
Billions of dollars of tax cuts put in place by former President George W. Bush are due to expire at the end of this year. The tax committee's chairman will have great influence over which of these tax cuts are permitted to expire and which are extended.
Veteran Rep. Fortney "Pete" Stark of California will serve as acting chairman, according to Rep. John Salazar, D-Colo., who was presiding over the House when Republican lawmakers posed the question on Wednesday.
But Stark's chairmanship could be short-lived. Democratic members of the House Ways and Means Committee emerged from a closed-door meeting Wednesday evening, saying there was no final decision on a successor for Rangel. Stark left without talking to reporters.
Stark, the next most senior Democrat on the panel, is a health policy expert and one of the most liberal members of the House. He has a reputation for being temperamental and sharp-tongued, not a consensus builder.
Rangel, who has represented his Harlem district since 1971 and is the first black member to be Ways and Means chairman, stepped aside in the face of increasing pressure from fellow Democrats after the House ethics committee admonished him last week for accepting trips to the Caribbean that were sponsored by several large corporations, a violation of congressional gift rules. Rangel blamed the lapse on his staff.
"In order to avoid my colleagues having to defend me during their elections, I have this morning sent a letter to Speaker Pelosi asking her to grant me a leave of absence until such time as the Ethics Committee completes its work" on remaining accusations against him, Rangel said at a hastily called session with reporters.
He said later that his stepping aside "should take care of the political problem" that other Democrats might have as a result of his ethics problems.
For all the ethical issues that have dogged the gregarious and sometimes irascible New Yorker over the years, Rangel has played a major role in tax policy, health care overhaul and in shaping other major issues that have come before his committee.
If Stark's leadership doesn't work out, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi might maneuver to award the post to another senior Democrat on the committee, such as Sander Levin of Michigan, Jim McDermott of Washington or Richard Neal of Massachusetts. Rep. John Lewis of Georgia told reporters Wednesday evening he is not a candidate for the chairmanship.
Pelosi issued a statement acknowledging Rangel's request for a leave. "I commend Chairman Rangel for his decades of leadership on jobs, health care and the most significant economic issues of the day," she said.
Republicans had been calling for Rangel to step aside since last year, and those demands increased after the ethics panel released its report last Friday admonishing him.
Since the report, support for him among Democrats has been evaporating, with Rep. Artur Davis, D-Ala., on Tuesday becoming the first member of the congressional Black Caucus -- which Rangel helped found -- to call for him to step down from his chairmanship.
So long as Rangel remained chairman, an ethical cloud hung over Democrats who will be on November's ballots, a cloud that would darken with any additional rebukes by the ethics committee.
Republicans were pressing for a vote this week, one expected to draw more than just token Democratic support. Rangel's announcement let his Democratic colleagues off the hook.
But it also presented new headaches for Pelosi as the committee prepares to decide the fate of the Bush tax cuts.
Due to expire are lower overall income tax rates that have been in effect for nearly a decade, the so-called marriage penalty relief. The $1,000 child credit will drop to $500, and maximum tax rates on dividend income and capital gains will rise sharply if Congress does nothing.
President Barack Obama and his congressional allies want to keep many of these lower tax rates in place for all but those whose household income is above $250,000.
"These are very contentious issues. You want somebody running the committee who's going to have a firm hand on the gavel," said Ross Baker, a Rutgers University political scientist who studies Congress. "This is a real crisis for Pelosi on top of the health care stuff. It's a distraction I'm sure she did not welcome."
Rangel has raised considerable money for fellow Democrats. His leadership political action committee raised $2.2 million in the 2008 election cycle and spent $2 million, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. He also raises money through a Rangel Victory Fund.
Republican campaign officials have started criticizing individual Democrats for holding on to chunks of campaign contributions that resulted from Rangel's fundraising.
As an example of his eroding support, several Democratic House members said they were giving campaign donations linked to Rangel away to charity.
Ann Kirkpatrick of Arizona is giving up $14,000, Debbie Halvorson of Illinois $16,000 and Jim Himes of Connecticut $16,000.
--more--"Of course, the web gets a NYT update:
"Rangel steps aside as ethics questions swirl; He’ll yield on key committee chairmanship" by Carl Hulse and David M. Herszenhorn, New York Times | March 4, 2010
WASHINGTON - Representative Charles B. Rangel stepped down yesterday as chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee after losing support within his party because of ethics violations, shaking up the Democratic power structure in the House.
Rangel said he was leaving the post to prevent Republicans from forcing his fellow Democrats to vote on ousting him from the position after he was admonished by the House ethics committee last week for accepting corporate-sponsored trips to the Caribbean.
The ethics panel is still investigating more serious accusations regarding Rangel’s fund-raising, his failure to pay federal taxes on rental income from a villa he owns in the Dominican Republic, and his use of four rent-stabilized apartments provided by a Manhattan real estate developer.
“In order to avoid my colleagues having to defend me during their elections, I have this morning sent a letter to Speaker [Nancy] Pelosi asking her to grant me a leave of absence until such time as the ethics committee completes its work,’’ Rangel said.
He will remain a member of Congress and a member of the Ways and Means Committee. But in giving up the chairman’s gavel little more than three years after attaining it, he is leaving one of the most prominent positions in Congress, a post with great influence over tax, health care, and other legislation and with the ability to command the attention - and campaign donations - of American business leaders.
The trappings are elaborate, with an ornate hearing room and stately offices. The stature of the post has occasionally overwhelmed those who hold it; two previous Democratic chairmen, Dan Rostenkowski of Illinois and Wilbur Mills of Arkansas, left in disgrace.
Rangel’s departure sent Democrats looking for a successor at a critical time in the debate over Democratic plans for a health care overhaul. Some of the central elements of the health plan fall squarely under the purview of the tax-writing committee.
Representative Pete Stark, 78, a liberal California Democrat and longtime health policy specialist, is next in line by seniority. Democratic members of the committee also were weighing the possibility of handing the gavel to another senior member, possibly Representative Sander Levin of Michigan. In the meantime, Stark became the interim chairman.
Rangel’s ethics troubles presented a delicate political issue for Democrats as they head into a difficult midterm election cycle. They campaigned hard against what they labeled the Republican “culture of corruption’’ in their 2006 takeover of the House, and Pelosi promised to root out wrongdoing, providing an opening to Republicans who accused her of protecting Rangel.
“It’s disappointing that Speaker Pelosi and Democratic leaders let this situation go on this long - especially after promising to preside over the most honest, open, and ethical Congress in history,’’ Representative John Boehner of Ohio, the Republican leader, said in a statement.
The House ethics committee last week admonished Rangel for violating congressional gift rules by accepting corporate-sponsored trips to the Caribbean in 2007 and 2008. Seizing on that finding, Republicans planned yesterday to force a vote on removing him from the chairmanship.
Rangel had weathered such votes in the past year, but the ethics committee’s finding seriously undermined his Democratic support and it appeared that he could lose the showdown. The prospect sent Pelosi and her leadership team searching for a way to spare lawmakers a potentially bruising fight over the chairman. Though he declared on Tuesday night that he would not step aside, Rangel arrived at the Capitol yesterday morning and did just that.--more--"
Sick of the POLITICS and MSM GAMES yet?
So who is taking over, and who cares?
Related: Springfield Democrat is long shot for Rangel role
More WASTED TIME and SPACE in the Glob covering "politics."
"Bay State congressman may seek Ways and Means helm; Neal has less seniority than interim pick" by Susan Milligan, Globe Staff | March 5, 2010
WASHINGTON - Rangel, who has temporarily stepped down and is not expected to return....
GOOD!!!
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced yesterday that Representative Sander Levin, Democrat of Michigan, would serve as interim chairman of the tax-writing committee, filling in while the House decides Rangel’s fate. Rangel, of New York, stepped down as chairman Wednesday after the Ethics Committee admonished him for accepting a corporate-paid trip to the Caribbean, and other alleged ethics transgressions....
The chairmanship usually goes to the next senior member of the majority party, but challenges do happen. Representative Henry A. Waxman of California, for example, successfully ousted veteran Representative John Dingell for the chairmanship of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. That coup pleased some who felt Dingell was too supportive of industry on climate-change issues. But the move made other members uncomfortable, because the 83-year-old Dingell is such an institution on the Hill....
Yup, it is a GOVERNMENT of MEN, not laws, NOW!!!!
That's why I don't think it matters who chairs what down in that rotting cesspool.
Update: Mich. lawmaker replaces Rangel
And that's the end of that, huh?
No consequences for looting and conflicts-of-interest and all the other partying off the public dime while the nation goes down the drain because of people like Chuckie here?
Paper dropped it quick.
