The Washington Post
Rangel Should Just Resign Already
written by Jonathan Capehart, OpEd
Wednesday October 7, 2009 2:16 PM ET
It’s unfortunate but hardly a shock that a Republican-led resolution to strip Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) of his chairmanship of the Ways and Means Committee until the conclusion of ethics investigations went nowhere. But at least it served to remind us of the list of horribles that got Rangel investigated in the first place.
The House Ethics Committee’s Rangel file is stuffed. There's the below-market rents on four Harlem apartments. The failure to disclose any number of financial assets -- from income from the sale of a Florida condominium to money market and stock dividends to not one but two checking accounts valued between $250,000 and $500,000. That's some serious coin to slip the mind. And then there's Rangel's use of official stationary to request meetings with potential donors to the Charles B. Rangel Center for Public Service at City College of New York. (Today, the New York Post reports that Rangel secured a $3 million defense grant for CCNY that the Pentagon doesn't even want.)
Rangel is a revered member of the Democratic Party and the dean of the New York congressional delegation. But that shouldn't give the chairman of the powerful tax-writing committee a pass on basic ethics laws and financial disclosure rules. If the ethics committee doesn't want to be viewed as condoning Rangel's seriously questionable actions it must move quickly to bring the matter to a close. Given the revelations and his recovered memory, if Rangel had any sense of duty, let alone honor, he'd give up the Ways and Means gavel on his own.
Rangel Should Just Resign Already
written by Jonathan Capehart, OpEd
Wednesday October 7, 2009 2:16 PM ET
It’s unfortunate but hardly a shock that a Republican-led resolution to strip Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) of his chairmanship of the Ways and Means Committee until the conclusion of ethics investigations went nowhere. But at least it served to remind us of the list of horribles that got Rangel investigated in the first place.
The House Ethics Committee’s Rangel file is stuffed. There's the below-market rents on four Harlem apartments. The failure to disclose any number of financial assets -- from income from the sale of a Florida condominium to money market and stock dividends to not one but two checking accounts valued between $250,000 and $500,000. That's some serious coin to slip the mind. And then there's Rangel's use of official stationary to request meetings with potential donors to the Charles B. Rangel Center for Public Service at City College of New York. (Today, the New York Post reports that Rangel secured a $3 million defense grant for CCNY that the Pentagon doesn't even want.)
Rangel is a revered member of the Democratic Party and the dean of the New York congressional delegation. But that shouldn't give the chairman of the powerful tax-writing committee a pass on basic ethics laws and financial disclosure rules. If the ethics committee doesn't want to be viewed as condoning Rangel's seriously questionable actions it must move quickly to bring the matter to a close. Given the revelations and his recovered memory, if Rangel had any sense of duty, let alone honor, he'd give up the Ways and Means gavel on his own.
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