(Rep. John Carter calls for Charlie Rangel to step down. Excuse me but where are the bells and whistles for Senator John Ensign and Gov Mark Sanford?? Hypocrites!)
(Ethics violation in Ensign affair? A Hardball with Chris Matthews panel debates whether Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., violated ethics law as part of the cover-up for his extramarital affair.)
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(Who financed Sanford's affair? More questions were raised Thursday about whether taxpayers paid for South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford's trips to see a woman in South America with whom he admitted having an affair. NBC's Mark Potter reports.)
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Charlie Rangel retains Ways and Means gavel
Democrats easily rebuffed another Republican attempt to remove Rep. Charles Rangel from his chairmanship of the Ways and Means Committee on Tuesday. But there was a small sign of eroding support for the embattled New York Democrat: Mississippi’s two House Democrats voted against him.
Reps. Gene Taylor and Travis Childers joined nearly all of the Republicans on a vote that effectively killed a resolution by Rep. John Carter (R-Texas) calling for Rangel’s removal while the ethics committee undertakes a sprawling investigation into his finances.
The anti-Rangel votes from two southern Democrats may be seen as minor evidence of mounting pressure on Rangel, whose job remains secure so long as he has the backing of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and the large majority of the Democratic Caucus.
“These votes show that support for the Democratic Leaders’ decision to sweep this matter under the rug is starting to crack,” said Michael Steel, a spokesman for Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio).
Six Republicans sided with Rangel on Wednesday: Reps. Peter King of New York, Tim Murphy of Pennsylvania, Dana Rohrabacher of California, Walter Jones of North Carolina, Don Young of Alaska and Ron Paul of Texas.
A similar effort by Carter in February garnered no Democratic support.
Democrats’ parliamentary maneuvering ensured there would be no debate on the resolution, but Republicans clearly believe that forcing Democrats to defend Rangel with a roll call vote is good politics.
“We cannot tolerate a double standard in this country, one for the common man and another for the rich and powerful,” Carter said Wednesday. “To allow Mr. Rangel to continue to serve as chairman of the very committee with IRS oversight, without paying a nickel in penalties, and with no end in sight to his ethics investigation, sends a clear message to the American public that this government refuses to abide by the same laws they impose on the working people of this country. With this vote, those people can see exactly where their representative stands on the issue of equality under the law.”
Rangel balked at an effort to have the House supersede the ethics process.
"It's unfair," Rangel said Wednesday morning. "I think the ethics committee should get a chance to work its will."
Congressional ethics investigations are notoriously opaque and can often take months to complete, which is why Republicans are frustrated with the Rangel situation. But the chairman continues to have the full backing of Democratic leaders.
“We will await that [ethics] report,” Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer of Maryland said Wednesday. “Prior to that, any actions making reference to Chairman Rangel would be premature.”
The committee has its hands full, as new revelations about Rangel’s complicated finances seem to pop up every few months.
Most recently, Rangel restated his legally required personal financial disclosure, showing an asset range that jumped from roughly $500,000 to $1.3 million to $1 million to $2.5 million.
That was the latest in a string of incidents that have shined the spotlight on the Rangel’s personal and political conduct. He has admitted to failing to report income from a Dominican vacation home, and he has been accused of breaking New York City rules by maintaining multiple rent-controlled apartments, including a campaign office.
He also has come under fire for allegations that he used official letterhead to solicit private funding for a City College of New York Center created by an earmark and named for him and that he helped retain a tax break for a donor to the center. The New York Post reported Wednesday morning that Rangel secured a $3 million earmark in the House’s Defense Appropriations bill for another arm of CCNY.
Rangel, known for camera-ready bonhomie, may be less visible to television audiences these days. But he has been meeting regularly with Democratic leaders and various party factions to help fashion a health care overhaul. After a recent meeting of the Democratic whip team, Rep. Jim Moran (D-Va.) said Rangel “is here to know what the members are thinking.”
Regardless of what they’re thinking, their votes say it’s not time for Rangel to step aside.
Rangel’s office believes the ethics push is also a Republican effort to derail health care.
“Let’s look at this resolution for what it really is – a highly partisan effort designed to undermine the important work in Congress on health care reform,” a Rangel spokesman said after the vote.
Technically, the House voted on Wednesday to refer Carter’s resolution to the ethics committee, which already is investigating Rangel and would essentially take the referral under advisement. The final tally was 246 to 153, with 19 lawmakers voting present. That vote came on the heels of another procedural vote on which Rangel prevailed 243 to 156, with 19 present votes.
On the first vote, Childers sided with Rangel. His spokeswoman did not immediately return POLITICO’s request for comment.
Asked before the vote whether Rangel would see an erosion of support, Taylor said “I guess we’ll know in a few hours, won’t we?”
Carter made a bit of a spectacle on the floor, taking about 18 minutes to read a resolution with a seemingly limitless supply of “whereas” clauses. When Democrats objected to forcing the clerk to re-read the entire thing, Republicans refused to consent to dispensing with the reading. In all, the affair took about an hour.
Democrats Hold Off GOP Attack On Rangel
Rep. Charles B. Rangel (D-N.Y.) sat stone-faced as the House chamber buzzed around him, preparing to vote on a measure that could partly undo his almost four decades of work in Congress.
As Republicans pressed their attempt to remove him from his perch as chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, Democrats stood by Rangel -- who is under investigation for a series of alleged violations that include improperly occupying several rent-controlled New York City apartments and not disclosing a laundry list of income and assets -- and deflected the measure to committee.
They have stuck with Rangel repeatedly as the list of charges against him has grown, resisting any temptation to push aside a popular fixture in the party who helped found the Congressional Black Caucus in 1971. They have done so despite vows from Republicans to continue to force them to go on the record in defense of their colleague. But the issue carries complications for both parties.
Instead of full-throated defenses of Rangel, House Democrats measured their comments. Asked whether the controversy would have any negative impact on his party, Rep. Chris Van Hollen (Md.), head of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, sidestepped the question, saying that "the issue is making sure there is a fair process."
Some Republicans, meanwhile, chafed at the sharp rhetoric aimed at Rangel, a jovial lawmaker who has many friends in both parties and is in a position to dole out favors on both sides of the aisle.
"There are some serious issues," said Rep. Peter T. King (R-N.Y.), who voted with the Democrats on Wednesday and said he was not ready to call for Rangel to give up his chairmanship. "But from what I know, there was no malice or malfeasance. He's a war hero, he's been here for 40 years, he's a decent guy."
The Republican-sponsored resolution said Rangel was unfit to serve as the chairman of the powerful committee that writes tax laws while he remains under investigation. Democrats blocked the move, sending the resolution by Rep. John Carter (Tex.) to the ethics committee and saying Congress should not act until that panel completes its investigation.
The resolution was the fourth attempt by Republicans in the past 16 months to censure Rangel or strip him of his committee chairmanship. House Republican leaders pushed their members to back the resolution against the Harlem lawmaker, arguing that his conduct violated pledges from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) in 2006 to oversee the "most ethical Congress in history" and end what she called "the culture of corruption" when Republicans ruled the House.
House Minority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) accused Pelosi of "breaking her promise," and party strategists said they would attack Democratic lawmakers in competitive districts who vote to keep Rangel in power or accept campaign donations from him.
"The Democrats have a number of ethics and corruption issues they are going to have deal with next year," said Ken Spain, communications director for the National Republican Congressional Committee, which has run an ad attacking Rep. Steve Kagen (D-Wis.) for accepting campaign contributions from Rangel.
A Pelosi spokesman brushed aside Republican complaints, saying, "Democrats have passed tough ethics and lobbying laws, increased transparency in congressional operations and legislating." Jennifer Crider, a spokesman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said Rangel's conduct would pose little danger for Democratic members in swing districts because "our members have built independent profiles."
"I think people will look at it and say, 'What is my congressman doing?' " said Rep. Tim Walz (D-Minn.), who was first elected in a tight race in 2006. "I don't see it having a big impact."
Carter, a member of the GOP leadership who has become one of Rangel's main antagonists, spent more than 15 minutes reading from the resolution he had written, which pulled from numerous newspaper articles describing allegations against Rangel and editorials calling for his resignation. He accused Rangel of conduct that "held the House up to public ridicule."
In an occurrence rarely seen on the House floor, Carter read his resolution -- nine pages and more than 2,000 words. While other members talked to aides or read, Rangel sat silent and expressionless in the first row on the Democratic side of the aisle, eyes fixed on Carter.
"We can already hear the defense of the next tax deadbeat called into court. 'If Charlie Rangel doesn't have to pay his taxes, why should I?' " Carter said, quoting from an editorial in the New Haven Register.
Carter listed nearly every allegation against Rangel, who himself called for the ethics committee to examine his conduct last year. Rangel admitted last month that he failed to report more than $500,000 in assets on his 2007 federal disclosure forms. Last year, he acknowledged failing to disclose and pay taxes on at least $75,000 in rental income from a villa in the Dominican Republic that he has owned.
He has been accused of improperly using congressional stationery to solicit donations for an academic center bearing his name at the City College of New York and attending a conference last year in St. Martin that was paid for by donors who employ lobbyists, a violation of House rules.
After a bill is introduced in Congress, by rule, a clerk reads the bill aloud, but members of Congress can bring such a reading to a halt by saying they are already aware of the legislation's details. But when Rep. Gary L. Ackerman (D-N.Y.), a Rangel friend, stood up to say such a reading was unnecessary, a number of Republicans immediately objected.
The clerk then proceeded to repeat the blistering text Carter had already read himself, as Rangel sat silently, not uttering a word to the longtime colleagues sitting beside him, Reps. Sander M. Levin (D-Mich.) and Elijah E. Cummings (D-Md.).
Rangel walked slowly from the House chamber as the roll-call vote began, saying little to Democrats who patted him on the back and looked eager to comfort him.
The Democrats then voted to cede the issue to ethics committee, keeping Rangel in his chairmanship for now. That proposal has little practical impact since the ethics committee is already investigating Rangel and has been for more than a year.
In the end, Six Republicans crossed over to vote with Democrats, while two members of Rangel's party, Mississippi Reps. Gene Taylor and Travis Childers, sided with the GOP.
Rangel said little about the politics surrounding the resolution or the threat to his legacy Wednesday, telling reporters after the vote, "It's a thing that bothers me and my family."
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Sources: Politico, MSNBC, Huffington Post, Newsday, Google Maps
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