Washington – Republicans wanted an election-season ethics case against Democratic powerhouse Rep. Charles Rangel of New York. And now, it looks like they have one.
Subscribe to our Daily Roundup Email
A House ethics panel of four Democrats and four Republicans, who will determine Rangel’s guilt or innocence on 13 ethics charges, held its organizational meeting Thursday. The message going forward, from the top Republican on the panel, was: Let the trial begin.
Rangel was “given the opportunity to negotiate a settlement during the investigation phase,” Rep. Michael McCaul of Texas said. “We are now in the trial phase.”
McCaul’s strong comment was echoed by Rep. Jo Bonner, R-Ala., who was on a separate ethics panel that conducted the two-year investigation of Rangel and brought the charges.
“Mr. Rangel was given multiple opportunities to settle this matter. Instead, he chose to move forward to the public trial phase,” he said.
Republicans have already been making Rangel a campaign issue, and a fall trial would give them expanded opportunities. It can’t start until September, because Congress takes off in August.
Soon after the charges were revealed, the National Republican Senatorial Committee warmed up its campaign message, issuing news releases in Kentucky, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Louisiana and Florida. The statements asked why Democratic Senate candidates in those states haven’t yet returned money Rangel raised for them.
“I feel confident that this party and this president have a record on ethics reform and taking on the special interests that we’re happy to put in front of the American people in November,” White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Friday on ABC’s “Good Morning America.”
For Rangel, a trial is a terrible embarrassment for a former Ways and Means Committee chairman who held sway over taxes, trade, Medicare, Social Security, portions of health care reform and other major issues.
In the frantic hours before the televised ethics proceeding, Rangel did take the advice of some Democratic colleagues and offered a new plea bargain in an effort to head off a trial.
At one point, people familiar with the talks said the committee’s nonpartisan lawyers accepted the offer. But since committee members have to sign off, the McCaul and Bonner statements indicate they would accept nothing less than a total or near-total capitulation by Rangel in which he accepts guilt on virtually all the charges. Rangel’s offer was not made public.
It would take at least one Republican vote to halt a trial. And ethics chairman Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., has made it clear she wants the committee to be unanimous at this point to avoid partisanship.
If Rangel admits to all the violations, the trial could be stopped and the ethics committee would proceed to penalty deliberations. Possibilities range from a highly critical report of Rangel’s conduct, a reprimand or censure by the House to a fine or even expulsion. The latter is highly unlikely.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi seemed resigned to a trial.
“The process will work. It’s bipartisan. The chips will have to fall where they may politically,” she told reporters.
Gibbs acknowledged there were “”some very serious charges” and said the White House didn’t want to make a judgment about the case before the committee decided what to do. He also said that no one at the White House — from President Barack Obama on down — had spoken to Rangel about the ethics matter.
A 40-year House veteran from Harlem who is now 80 years old, Rangel himself seemed resigned to a trial hours after the charges were read publicly.
“Even though they are serious charges, I’m prepared to prove that the only thing I’ve ever had in my 50 years of public service is service,” Rangel told reporters Thursday night. “That’s what I’ve done and if I’ve been overzealous providing that service, I can’t make an excuse for the serious violations.”
The allegations include failure to report rental income from vacation property in the Dominican Republic, along with hundreds of thousands of dollars in additional income and assets on his financial disclosure statements.
Other charges focused on Rangel’s use of congressional staff and stationery to raise money for a college center in New York named after him; accepting favors and benefits from the donors that may have influenced his congressional actions; use of a subsidized New York apartment as a campaign office instead of a residence, as required; and misuse of the congressional free mail privilege to solicit donations.
In New York’s Harlem, where Rangel is the only congressman most residents have ever known, two people reflected different opinions of the veteran lawmaker, who has mid-September primary opponents.
David Hendrickson said Rangel should step down.
“He’s seen his day. He’s either not in touch with the community or insulated himself so that he doesn’t have to be in touch with the community,” Hendrickson said.
Michael Austin said it was unfortunate that Rangel’s career had been clouded by the allegations. “I think he’s been a wonderful congressman throughout the years,” Austin said, adding that he would vote again for Rangel “based on his previous record.”
The message is that lawmakers need to be impeccable law abiders. Anything less needs to be punished, and the voting public deserves someone whose adherence to the law of the land and ethics are above reproach. Rangel has apparently not done well in this regard. If the Democratic party fails to recognize the public sentiment about this, than it does not deserve to have its candidates in office.
There is an unfortunate parallel in the frum community. Our leaders, regardless of their particular role, must also live lives that are above reproach. The shenanigans, from petty stuff all the way to major offenses, that have polluted the media are a disgrace for us mortals and for them. Anyone who makes it to positions of stature must be perfectly clean. No corner cutting on halacha or secular law. We are sick of all the “pidyon shvuyim” appeals. We are fed up with the chilul Hashem. We are tired of the corruption, the lying, and the cover ups. We cannot tolerate the criminals getting away with things while innocent victims are shamed, excommunicated, and made into the guilty ones. We cannot offer kavod and refuge to those who are recognized as “rabbonim, talmidei chachomim, roshei yeshivos, rebbes etc…” being self-centered, dishonest, and manipulating the words of Torah for personal gain. Leave Toras Moshe alone. Learn it and follow it.
The Rangel case is something we need to see is a mirror of our own issue.
What a one sided article, trying to make rebublicans the mean ones and rangel a victim.
What a stupid article! Rangel seems not to be kosher and is made out to be the victim. He always said that he wants to address the allegations against him and now he has that opportunity.
Rep. Rangel should do everyone a favor, and quietly resign. There is no way that he will survive all of the ethics charges, which he has been charged with. He should be thanked for his years of service in the military during the Korean War, as well as his many years of service in Congress. However, it is time to do the right thing, and resign.
Wasint it rahm emanual that said don’t let a crises go waste
Rangel is as dirty as they come and why could you not so state. If he would not have been a “person of color’ he would have been booted out so fast that his head would still be spinning. Stop this political correctness.
I appreciate his brave service in the Korean War and also his tremendous support for Israel and for Jewish causes in general during his four decades in Congress. Nevertheless, the things he is accused of doing are disgraceful and if he is guilty he has indeed disgraced his office, and deserves to be removed from it.
The ways and means are for other people not for senators or cngressman,president
And democrats we have to rid our selfs from people like the rangels and the kerries.sorry I did not know that steling encluds other people me us