Charlie Rangel's Censure A Sad Day For American Politics

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U.S. House Ethics Panel Recommends Censure For Charlie Rangel


The House ethics committee on Thursday recommended censure for longtime Rep. Charles Rangel, suggesting that the New York Democrat suffer the embarrassment of standing before his colleagues while receiving an oral rebuke by the speaker for financial and fundraising misconduct.

Censure is the most serious congressional discipline short of expulsion. The House could change the recommended discipline of Democratic Rep. Charles Rangel, and make it more serious or less serious.

It probably will consider the recommendation after members return from a holiday late this month.

The ethics committee voted 9-1 to recommend censure and that Rangel pay any taxes he owes on income from a vacation villa in the Dominican Republic. The five Democrats and five Republicans on the panel deliberated for about three hours behind closed doors.

Rangel apologizes, says he's not crooked

Earlier, at a sanctions hearing, the 20-term congressman apologized for his misconduct but said he was not a crooked politician out for personal gain. He was in the House hearing room when the ethics committee chairman, Democratic Rep. Zoe Lofgren of California, announced the recommendation.

Rangel said, "I hope you can see your way clear to indicate any action taken by me was not with the intention of bringing any disgrace on the House or enriching myself personally."

The ethics committee's chief counsel, Blake Chisam, had recommended censure for Rangel. The ethics committee could have opted for lighter punishments, such as a reprimand, a fine or a report deploring the congressman's behavior.

Rangel, 80, one of the chamber's most powerful members before facing the charges, ended the sanctions hearing with an emotional plea to salvage his reputation.

Before speaking, Rangel sat for several minutes trying to compose himself. He placed his hands over his eyes and then his chin, before he slowly stood up and said in a gravelly voice that was barely audible: "I don't know how much longer I have to live."

Facing the committee members, he asked them to "see your way clear to say, 'This member was not corrupt.'"

He continued: "There's no excuse for my behavior and no intent to go beyond what has been given to me as a salary. I apologize for any embarrassment I've caused you individually and collectively as a member of the greatest institution in the world."

In the most dramatic clash of the proceeding, Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, questioned the assertion of Rangel — the former chairman of the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee — that he wasn't corrupt.

"Failure to pay taxes for 17 years. What is that?" McCaul asked, referring to Rangel's shortchanging the Internal Revenue Service on rental income from his villa in the Dominican Republic.

McCaul also noted the committee's finding that Rangel solicited donors for the Charles B. Rangel Center at City College of New York from donors who had business before the Ways and Means Committee.

The charges

After an investigation that began in summer 2008, Rangel was convicted Tuesday by a jury of his House peers on 11 of 13 charges of rules violations.

He was found to have improperly used official resources — congressional letterheads and staff — to raise funds from businesses and foundations for the Rangel Center. A brochure with some of Rangel's solicitation letters asked for $30 million, or $6 million a year for five years.

He also was found guilty of filing a decade's worth of misleading annual financial disclosure forms that failed to list hundreds of thousands of dollars in assets, and failure to pay taxes on his Dominican unit.

Chisam said donations to the Rangel Center were going poorly, then spiked after Rangel rose to the top of the Ways and Means Committee. He noted the center would benefit minority students and asked, "What kid of example is that of what public service ought to be?"

Chisam asked what a neighbor of Rangel would think after she was evicted from her apartment in Harlem's Lennox Terrace, for violating terms of her lease — and then learning Rangel was allowed to convert a residential-only unit into a campaign office. Others were evicted for similar offenses, the committee found.

"How would that influence her faith in government?" Chisam asked.

And Chisam asked how a waitress struggling to pay her taxes on income and tips would feel about Rangel not paying taxes on rental money from his vacation villa.

'A good and decent man'
Rangel brought in Rep. John Lewis, a Georgia Democrat, to give a testimonial for the congressman to the panel. Lewis called his colleague "a good and decent man" and said Rangel had worked tirelessly to advance civil rights.

Before Chisam commenced his remarks, Rep. Jo Bonner, R-Ala., told committee colleagues that Rangel needed only to "look in the mirror to know who to blame" for his predicament.

Rep. G.K. Butterfield, D-N.C., a former member of his state's Supreme Court, said he believed the facts merited a reprimand, not a censure.



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Charlie Rangel Guilty Of 11 Ethics Violations! Should He Resign?

Rangel Convicted Of 11 Ethics Violations


A House ethics panel has convicted Representative Charles B. Rangel of 12 of the 13 ethics violations he faced, ranging from accepting rent-stabilized apartments from a Manhattan developer to failing to pay taxes on rental income from his Dominican villa to raising charitable donations from companies and corporate executives who had business before the committee he led.

The convictions cast a cloud over the half-century political career of Mr. Rangel, an 80-year-old Democrat who was re-elected this month to a 21st term representing Harlem and who was the longtime head of the House Ways and Means Committee.

Representative Zoe Lofgren of California, chairwoman of the adjudicatory subcommittee of the House ethics committee, announced the subcommittee’s verdicts Tuesday morning just before noon. The matter now goes to the full House committee for action.

Ethics experts say the committee is likely to issue Mr. Rangel only a letter of reprimand or a formal censure. While the committee has the power to expel, that has happened only rarely and is considered highly unlikely.










Rangel Walks Out Of Ethics Hearing


Embattled Rep. Charlie Rangel, D-New York, walked out of his House ethics subcommittee hearing Monday morning, complaining that he has not had sufficient time to hire a new legal team to respond to corruption allegations.

The subcommittee members continued meeting behind closed doors.

"Fifty years of public service is on the line. And I truly believe that I am not being treated fairly," he declared. "I deserve a lawyer."

Rangel told the subcommittee he has already spent $2 million defending himself from the charges, and had been advised the hearing - similar to a trial - could cost him another $1 million.

He complained that he was not being given enough time to raise funds to hire new lawyers because the committee was rushing to complete its work before the conclusion of the current lame duck Congress.

Rangel's original defense team left him in September.

"What theory of fairness would dictate that I be denied due process ... because it is going to be the end of this session?" he asked.

Ethics committee chair Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-California, replied that it was Rangel's responsibility to assemble his legal team.

"Retention of counsel is up to the respondent," she said.

Rangel, who has served in the U.S. House of Representatives since the 1970s, stepped down as Ways and Means Committee chairman after a slew of ethics allegations. Rangel faces 13 allegations, include failing to pay taxes on a home in the Dominican Republic, misuse of a rent-controlled apartment for political purposes and improper use of government mail service and letterhead.

House Republicans and some House Democrats have called for Rangel to resign because of the alleged ethics violations.

In August, Rangel said nothing "will stop me from clearing my name from these vile and vicious charges."

Rangel also offered explanations for the ethics charges against him, characterizing them as mistakes and acknowledging violations of House rules but denying they amounted to corruption.

"It's not corrupt," he said when responding to assertions that he used House letterhead to approach possible contributors to a university policy center in his name. "It may be stupid. It may be negligent, but it's not corrupt."

Regarding an accusation that he used a rent-controlled apartment as a campaign office, Rangel has said he did nothing wrong but was "insensitive to the appearance of being treated differently."

"I plead guilty of not being sensitive," he said.

Democratic Rep. Maxine Waters of California is also scheduled to have an adjudication hearing with the House ethics committee this month, on November 29. Waters has denied the allegations against her, which include steering federal bailout money to Massachusetts-based OneUnited Bank - in which her husband had a financial stake.







Rangel Knocks Obama For "Dignity" Remark


New York Rep. Charles Rangel has shot back at President Barack Obama's recent comment that he "end his career with dignity."

Speaking at a candidate's forum Monday night in New York City, Rangel said the president hasn't "been around long enough to determine what my dignity is."

The 80-year-old congressman said it was more likely he would protect Obama's dignity over the next two years.

A House ethics panel has accused the 20-term Democrat from Harlem of ethics violation. Rangel has vowed to fight the charges and is refusing to resign. He says he is focusing on his re-election.

Obama said three weeks ago that he was sure Rangel wanted to "be able to end his career with dignity" and said he hoped it would happen.







Charlie Rangel's Spectacular Rise & Fall


Congressman Charlie Rangel had a bad week.

Calls for the veteran Harlem politician's resignation are increasing after the House Ethics Committee's announcement Thursday that he will be the subject of its first corruption trial in nearly a decade. The last time the committee took such a step, in 2002, it led to a congressman's expulsion.

Rangel says he welcomes the trial. He has said that "sunshine will pierce the cloud of serious allegations."

But for the 80-year-old Rangel, the prospect of a trial by his peers threatens to overshadow an extraordinary career that led him from the poverty of the pre-war Bronx to the battlefields of Korea and ultimately the pinnacle of political power.

It's also drawing more attention to what was already a marquee political fight: the September 14 Democratic primary between Rangel and the son of the late scandal-plagued congressman Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., who was ousted by Rangel 40 years ago.

The notion that Rangel's career could end in defeat or expulsion was once unthinkable.

The 20-term congressman had to claw his way to the top from the abyss of a rocky childhood. "My father was absolutely no good," he wrote in his autobiography. "In my earliest memory of him ... (he) was hitting my mother on the steps of some apartment-type building. I went and got a broom to hit my father. He started laughing at me."

Rangel's father eventually abandoned his family, and young Charlie moved in with an aunt and uncle.

In 1947, Rangel dropped out of high school -- a step that led to his enlistment in an all-black battalion in the Army's Second Infantry Division. Three years later, he found himself in the middle of the Korean War.

In November 1950, Rangel was wounded while helping to rescue 40 men behind Chinese lines in frigid temperatures near a place called Kunu-ri. For his efforts, Rangel received a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star for valor. The battle "was a waking nightmare becoming a reality," he later wrote. "I haven't had a bad day since."

When Rangel returned from the war, he was able to use the G.I. Bill to earn a college degree from New York University and a law degree from St. John's. After a stint as an assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, he was elected to the New York State Assembly in 1966.

He became active in the civil rights movement, participating in the mid-1960s marches in Selma and Montgomery, Alabama.


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Black Democrat Leaders vs 2010 GOP Sweep: Dems Lose

Voting Leaves New York’s Black Democrats With Less Power


Even as Democrats gathered in the ballroom of a Manhattan hotel last week to celebrate their party’s sweep of statewide offices in New York, a sober realization began to dawn among some in the crowd: What once seemed like a new golden age for the state’s black political establishment could be on the verge of an abrupt collapse.

Come January, the state’s first Black governor, David A. Paterson, will leave the Governor’s mansion after serving less than one term. Representative Charles B. Rangel, the dean of New York’s Congressional delegation and head of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee until this year, will return to Washington as a member of the Democratic minority, as will Representative Edolphus Towns, who will lose the top post on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

And in what many see as the biggest blow, Democrats appear likely to lose their majority in the State Senate, costing African-Americans their highest-ranking remaining post in state government. Black leaders in New York regarded holding the majority, headed by Senator John L. Sampson of Brooklyn, as their highest priority this election.

“We are going to have to adapt to a new landscape and some loss of political power,” said Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries, a Brooklyn Democrat.

The shift has set off a round of jockeying and recrimination in black political circles, as black elected officials and operatives grapple with what is both a genuine diminishing of their power in government and a profound symbolic setback.

“I got a bit nostalgic myself on Election Day,” said Assemblyman Keith L. T. Wright, the chairman of the Manhattan Democratic organization and a mainstay of the Harlem political scene.

Mr. Wright said blacks would continue to have influence under the governor-elect, Andrew M. Cuomo. But Mr. Paterson’s exit — coming on top of the ethics accusations against Mr. Rangel and the narrow loss last year of William C. Thompson, the Democratic candidate for mayor against Michael R. Bloomberg — was an emotional blow, Mr. Wright said.

Mr. Wright said he had called the governor last Tuesday to reminisce about how the two men, when Mr. Paterson was a state senator from Harlem, would walk the neighborhood together greeting voters on Election Day.

“This is probably the first time his name was not on the ballot in well over 20 years,” Mr. Wright said, adding: “He’s going to be fine. I lamented.”

Mr. Thompson, who plans to run for mayor again in 2013, noted that the loss of the House had not only stripped Mr. Rangel and Mr. Towns of their chairmanships, but had also thrown into the minority rising black representatives like Yvette D. Clarke of Brooklyn.

“It’s a real concern,” Mr. Thompson, a former city comptroller from Brooklyn, said. “People are talking about it.”

The situation has changed drastically from just a year ago, he said.

“African-Americans had a president, committee chairs and other positions in the House, the governor, and control of the State Senate,” Mr. Thompson said. “And all that could evaporate in a short period of time.”

Complicating emotions is an uncomfortable reality: Mr. Paterson, Mr. Rangel and Democratic leaders in the State Senate all faced accusations of financial impropriety or misuse of their offices. While some black officials consider those accusations to be unfair and even racially tinged, others grumble about missed chances.

“There are people in the African-American community who are frustrated,” said one black political operative, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he did not want to be seen as criticizing black leaders.

“There’s no one you can point to in government who is in a senior position right now,” the operative added, “who you can say with pride: that person symbolizes what public service and effectiveness is all about.”

Many worry about the loss of influence over important legislation, noting that the combination of Mr. Paterson and a State Senate led by black Democrats had ensured that some long-delayed policy priorities — the overhaul of the Rockefeller-era drug sentencing laws, and new protections against police stop-and-frisk policies — were finally achieved.

“The danger there is that black folks could be left out,” said Tyquana L. Henderson, a Democratic political consultant. “There will be some policies that need to be changed that won’t be changed. There will be legislation that will need to be put forward that won’t be put forward.”

For Mr. Cuomo, who won overwhelmingly among black voters last week but whose relations with black elected officials have at times been fraught, the shift may bring headaches as well as opportunity.

Mr. Paterson’s departure and Mr. Rangel’s decreased role are likely to hasten a generational shift among black politicians in New York, as younger elected officials from Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx join the Harlem old guard in positions of influence. Mr. Cuomo already enjoys closer ties — and fewer ancient grudges — with the newer generation, who are eager to take up a more prominent role in Albany affairs.

Yet new grudges may already be forming. Some black Democrats grumble that Mr. Cuomo did not do enough to help Democrats retain the State Senate, an obligation they believe he owed them after choosing the Rochester mayor, Robert J. Duffy, as his running mate last spring, leaving the party’s statewide slate entirely white.

While Mr. Cuomo did endorse a number of Democrats for the State Senate in the last weeks before Election Day, some candidates questioned whether he contributed enough money from his own bulging campaign accounts to help them.

In the closing days of the campaign, according to people familiar with the discussions, Mr. Cuomo did direct aides to encourage his donors to provide a last-minute influx of cash to the Senate campaign committee. But some Senate Democrats hoped for more.

While Mr. Cuomo has pledged to make diversity a hallmark of his administration, his inner circle is both close-knit and almost all white, limiting his options to make a high-profile senior appointment within the executive chamber.

And black leaders said they would not be satisfied with appointments to midsize agencies and departments, or those traditionally associated with issues of concern to the African-American community.

“Traditionally, the commissionerships that people of color get are children and family services, the human rights commission, that sort of thing,” Assemblyman Carl E. Heastie, the Bronx Democratic chairman, said. “I’d like to see people of color considered for some of the major agencies and authorities.”

Some black leaders worry that they will be unable to gain attention for issues that Mr. Paterson and Senate leaders pushed, like expanding opportunities for black-owned businesses to compete for state contracts.

“Those positions have increased our ability to do things that are important to the community,” Mr. Jeffries, the Brooklyn assemblyman, said. “There are a lot of things we could not have accomplished. Absent partners in the Senate and elsewhere, things could be a little rough over the next few years.”







Charlotte Mayor Anthony Foxx Continues To Urge City-County Merger

Charlotte Mayor Anthony Foxx is still pushing for the city and county to consolidate some departments to save money - the first step toward what he hopes will be the full political merger of the two governments, and the eventual independence of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools.

Mecklenburg commissioners this week asked their staff to explore how to consolidate some departments with the city, and Foxx said Friday he's hopeful the talks will lead to action.

While combining the four departments under study - Medic/fire, human resources, permitting and government TV -- wouldn't likely save a significant amount of money, it could be a crucial step toward having one body of elected officials making decisions and one manager.

After merging the city and county, Foxx said he supports breaking CMS from the county, something that would require state approval.

"If I had my magic wand, there would be one taxing authority for the city and county, and another (taxing authority) for the school board," Foxx said.

The hurdles to political consolidation are considerable.

Political consolidation has been discussed for decades in Charlotte. In 1971, voters defeated a merger. In 1996, the Charlotte City Council was moving toward placing consolidation on the ballot, then voted against it.

There is also entrenched opposition, or at least hesitancy, towards a merger.

Some managers would lose their titles or positions. Mecklenburg County Board of Commissioners chair Jennifer Roberts, a Democrat, has said she would be willing to study political consolidation, but it's likely some elected officials would be against it, fearing they might lose their jobs. A combined government would likely have fewer than the 21 elected officials who represent the city and county.

"How many elected officials would there be? It wouldn't be 21, but it wouldn't be three," Foxx said.

County Manager Harry Jones told commissioners this week that his staff is too busy to work on consolidation at the moment. He and his staff are working with the ongoing library task force, boosting financial management within departments and crafting a new plan to pay for and manage construction projects.

"We have got a full, full plate right now," Jones said.

City Manager Curt Walton said Friday "nothing has happened" since the City Council authorized work on it in June.

"Harry and I haven't talked about it yet," Walton said. "Given what's on his plate, and my plate, it won't happen right away."

The city and the county already share many countywide functions. The city controls departments such as animal control, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg police, water/sewer and transit. The county handles parks, solid-waste disposal and tax collection. The talk of political consolidation came in part after the county's budget crisis this spring. Mecklenburg County made tens of millions of dollars in cuts to schools, parks and social services, while the city made lesser cuts, and gave employees a raise.

'Emergency' in Education

Having one government would give a manager more departments that could be cut to balance a budget. Instead of the brunt of cuts falling on a few departments, the pain could be spread out, Foxx has said.

Foxx said having an independent school system with taxing authority could help CMS have more flexibility in dealing with budget shortfalls. Because CMS is dependent on state and county funding, Foxx said school officials must try to guess "where the hockey puck will end up."

Foxx said there is a "national emergency" in education, and a "local emergency," as well. He added that "we don't have a second to waste."

Foxx, a graduate of West Charlotte High, has spoken at length about the importance of CMS to the Charlotte region.

Move to Private School

This year, he switched his oldest child from a CMS school to Charlotte Country Day, one of the city's private schools. Foxx hasn't picked a school for his youngest child.

When asked by the Observer Friday whether issues at CMS had influenced his decision to switch to Country Day, Foxx declined to comment.

Faced with a loss of $100 million in state and local funding, CMS is considering more layoffs, as well school closings.




Charlotte Mayor Anthony Foxx "Grieves" Over Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools Budget Problems



Mayor Anthony Foxx said he was grieving as he watched the Charlotte Mecklenburg School system wrestle with its plan to close schools in order to save money for teachers.

“We have a national emergency in education and if we have a national emergency, we have a local emergency,” said Foxx at a meeting with reporters.

He said he understands the “consternation” in the community over school closings.

“We’re grieving because we’re starting to lose institutions that are fundamental to the fabric or our community,” he said.

His own solution to the problem would be to consolidate the city and Mecklenburg County governments. The mayor said it would be a better way of funding CMS.

“I’d take the 48 percent of the county budget that goes to schools and I’d shift it over to the school system,” he said.

But School Board Chairman Eric Davis said that kind of consolidation would have to win the support of the state legislature and he did not think that was likely right now.

“It is an idea worth exploring. Whether it is something that can actually be realized depends a great deal on the public’s word to the state legislature about how much they desire this local control,” Davis said.

Foxx said something has to be done.

“The thing that worries me the most, even more than school closures is how we’re going to get every child the best opportunity to learn,” he explained.






Legislative Changes On The Way In North Carolina Senate & House

N.C. Senate President Pro Tem Marc Basnight, D-Dare, has been one of the most powerful individuals in state government since the early 1990s, but his long reign as the Senate's top leader appears to be at an end.

Republican candidates for the N.C. Senate appeared to be taking over that chamber for the first time since 1898 and the party's candidates for the House appeared to be winning the House of Representatives for the first time since 1997 as well.

With an Anti-Incumbent mood running among voters in legislative elections, Democrats in North Carolina who dominated the General Assembly in the 20th and so far the 21st centuries will surely find Raleigh a far different place when the General Assembly reconvenes in 2011.

Democrat Bev Perdue will still be Governor for at least another two years, of course, but many things are likely to change

Republicans who have been thwarted in their legislative efforts will find a different atmosphere. The electoral change would open up new leadership opportunities for Republicans such as Sen. Bob Rucho of Charlotte and Rep. Thom Tillis of Mecklenburg.

The Senate changes include the biennial drafting of the state budget, for which Republicans have been laying plans for months to trim more than $3 billion from the state's roughly $20 billion operating budget. Some plans envision cutting up to 20 percent to make ends meet.

Perhaps just as important is the redrawing of congressional and legislative districts for the upcoming decade. Those districts must be revised every 10 years following the Census, and Republicans will have the chance to guide redistricting committees through the process for the first time in modern state history.





Also important to Republicans is Court of Appeals Judge Barbara Jackson's lead over Democratic Court of Appeals Judge Bob Hunter for the N.C. Supreme Court seat held by outgoing justice Ed Brady. Although these seats are nonpartisan, it's no secret that Jackson is a Republican, as is Brady. And her election would not only preserve a 4-3 Republican-Democrat split on the court, it will also give the N.C. court a majority of female justices. It's foolish to predict how justices will vote based on their political party, but it will comfort Republicans in redistricting lawsuits that the numbers at least appear to be on their side.

Democrats no doubt will now have second thoughts about their refusal to go along with Republican proposals in past years to create a nonpartisan commission to study demographic changes and draft new districts for the state's 13 congressional districts and 170 legislative districts. It will be another decade before districts could be redrawn, and Democrats will have time to ponder their lost opportunities - apparently from the back bench.



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A "Market For Ni$$as"! Very Disturbing! (Video)

I don't plan to spend all of my Energy defending Maxine Waters & Charlie Rangel.
They have served a combined 60 years in Congress & can both Gracefully Retire as Millionaires.
What about You??
While we're Fighting over Petty Stuff, there is a Growing "Market For Ni$$as" that's destroying Generations X & Y!
Why don't we speak out about this Important Crisis??
Peace

Check out the "Market For Ni$$as" video below.




Sources: Talaam Acey, Youtube

Democrats' New Label: "Party Of Arrogance, Corruption, Hypocrisy, Lies & Scandals"

Rash Of Scandals Tests Democrats At Sensitive Time



The ethical woes facing Democrats are piling up, with barely a day passing in recent weeks without headlines from Washington to New York and beyond filled with word of scandal or allegations of wrongdoing.

The troubles of Gov. David A. Paterson of New York, followed by those of two of the state’s congressmen, Charles B. Rangel and Eric J. Massa, have added to the ranks of episodes involving prominent Democrats like Eliot Spitzer, Rod R. Blagojevich and John Edwards.

Taken together, the cases have opened the party to the same lines of criticism that Democrats, led by Representatives Nancy Pelosi, now the House speaker, and Rahm Emanuel, now White House chief of staff, used effectively against Republicans in winning control of the House and Senate four years ago.

The mix of power and the temptations of corruption can be a compelling political narrative at any time. But with voters appearing to be in an angry mood and many already inclined to view all things Washington with mistrust, the risks for Democrats could be that much greater this year.

With Election Day still eight months away, there is time to avert a history-is-repeating-itself storyline. But Democrats, who are already on the defensive over the economy, health care and federal spending and are facing a re-energized conservative movement, suddenly have a set of ethical issues to deflect as well. “Speaker Pelosi famously promised the most open, honest and ethical Congress in history,” Representative John A. Boehner of Ohio, the Republican leader, said Thursday. “Yet here we go again.”

In 2006, when Democrats were battling for control of the House, the message of their campaign against the Republicans could be boiled down to a three-word slogan: culture of corruption. Democratic leaders aggressively seized on each indictment of a Republican member of Congress or lobbyist, building an argument that the controlling party had become arrogant and was in urgent need of a housecleaning.

So is that moment — in reverse fashion — now approaching for Democrats?

Tim Kaine, a former Virginia governor and chairman of the Democratic National Committee, said Thursday that the recent spate of allegations against several political figures in his party was troubling.

But he said the recent cases — largely revolving around New York politicians — had hardly reached the nationwide pitch that buffeted Republicans four years ago. Then, Tom DeLay, the Republican House leader, was indicted in Texas, and the influence-peddling scandal tied to the lobbyist Jack Abramoff touched several Republican members of Congress.

“I would never say that folks should be blithe about their ethical responsibilities. But I think it’s quite a bit different,” Mr. Kaine said Thursday in an interview. “But a couple things that happened in the same week in one state is different than the kind of corruption that roped members of Congress in from all over the country.”

Ms. Pelosi moved quickly this week to deal with escalating criticism surrounding Mr. Rangel, who was admonished by the House ethics committee for accepting corporate-sponsored trips to the Caribbean. He remains under investigation on more serious accusations.

Mr. Rangel stepped down on Wednesday as chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, heading off any possibility of a drawn-out political battle over his fate. The National Republican Congressional Committee has been intensifying its pressure on Democratic lawmakers in districts across the country to return political contributions from Mr. Rangel, who was among the most generous contributors to fellow members of Congress.

“All Aboard for the Ride to Victory,” screams a poster depicting Mr. Rangel against a train, showing how many Democratic campaigns he helped finance. Republicans have sent around the old Rangel campaign posters this week to highlight his influence.

Since last Friday, 29 House Democrats have given back or donated to charity more than $400,000 in contributions from Mr. Rangel’s three political fund-raising committees. But several others have not returned the money. Representative Michael E. McMahon, Democrat of New York, is among those who have not returned the money, in his case more than $70,383.

Ms. Pelosi dismissed the criticism on Thursday that Democrats had not lived up to their promise to sweep away a culture of corruption on Capitol Hill. She also noted that she had established an outside group to receive complaints about members of Congress, which could be easily referred to the House ethics committee.

“My commitment to the American people is that the public trust will always be honored,” Ms. Pelosi said at her weekly news conference. “And on the floor of the House, that happens.”

President Obama, who built his campaign around a pledge to change the way Washington works and to strengthen transparency and ethics, has followed a practice of generally not commenting on the scandals or allegations involving the Democratic politicians. Months ago, several of his senior advisers worked behind the scenes to try to dissuade Governor Paterson from running for election, a pitch that failed.

Last week, Mr. Paterson conceded that he would not be on the ticket in the fall, but he has declined to step down. The White House has said that it has no intention of wading into the Paterson situation again, but several advisers said they were following the developments with interest.

It is the case of another governor, perhaps, that has drawn even more attention from those inside the West Wing.

Mr. Blagojevich, who was impeached last year as the governor of Illinois, faces a criminal trial in June. The proceedings are expected to be unfolding at the very moment that Democrats are battling in several races, including a campaign for the Senate seat once held by the man who now sits in the Oval Office.


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New York's Corrupt Democrat Party Ruining The State

New York Politics Gone Wild...For Democrats


Once a source of national leaders of both political parties, New York state has descended into a bizarre, riveting spectacle of corruption and political debasement, with its governor facing calls to resign as well as new charges of accepting illicit perks and lying under oath, the dean of its congressional delegation giving up his gavel over corruption charges and another House member announcing he won’t run again amid allegations of sexual harassment.

And that was just yesterday.

The latest, dizzying episodes of political disgrace in New York follow a half-decade of disaster during which three top state politicians were forced out amid allegations of everything from large-scale theft to small-scale sexual indiscretions.

And while Republican leaders have drawn their share of blame (and indictments), New York is now effectively a one-party state. Its current scandals attach themselves to the dominant Democrats, and the riveting soap opera is feeding a narrative of corruption that threatens to deepen the party’s national woes and distract from the White House’s attempt to refocus the country on health care. And it also hastens a decades-long diminution of the state’s 20th-century pre-eminence, a rise powered by the reform-driven Roosevelt presidencies.

“I have never seen a situation in New York, in my entire life, where there are so many legislators who have turned out to be bums — and a couple of executives, too,” said former New York City Mayor Ed Koch, whose third term as mayor dissolved in a humbling scandal at the Parking Violations Bureau.

Albany’s political scandals are a diverse mix, but the current wave began when Alan Hevesi, the respected, professorial state comptroller, was accused first of using his staff for errands and then of selling access to New York’s giant pension fund. Eliot Spitzer followed, driven from office for paying for sex, but already dogged by charges he’d used the state police to spy on his top Republican foe.

That rival, New York Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, a Republican, was next, indicted for allegedly taking bribes. Then on to Rangel, the dean of the congressional delegation and a worthy heir to the man he defeated for the seat, Adam Clayton Powell Jr., who was censured by Congress for corruption that included Caribbean trips. On Wednesday, Rangel stepped down from his chairmanship of the House Ways and Means Committee after the House ethics committee found that he had broken House gift rules by accepting corporate-sponsored travel to the Caribbean.

Paterson, for his part, reportedly intervened in an aide’s domestic violence case and allegedly received free tickets to Yankees games, then lied about it to investigators.

Democrats have dominated the recent scandals, but the party owes its edge over the state’s frayed Republican Party largely to the fact that it has more members in office.

Two Republican congressmen left office in recent years amid ugly scandals: Rep. John Sweeney was defeated after his wife’s reports of domestic abuse became public; he’s now reportedly under investigation in a lobbying case. And Rep. Vito Fossella was forced out when a drunken-driving charge led to the discovery of his second, secret family.

In New York City, meanwhile, prosecutors just finished tending to one of former Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s top aides, Bernard Kerik, the former police commissioner, who was convicted on corruption charges. And the city has heard a steady drumbeat of lower-level indictments, with members of the state Assembly, state Senate and City Council marching to the courthouse on charges ranging from extortion to domestic violence.

At this point, only two of the six statewide elected officials, Sen. Chuck Schumer and Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, were actually elected to the positions they hold.

The hail of dropping shoes has shocked even the state’s blithest political operatives.

“It used to be, you could at least look across the river at New Jersey and feel good about yourself. Those days are gone,” mourned Kevin Sheekey, Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s longtime political adviser, adding, “It’s going to get worse before it gets worse.”

New York loves to reflect on itself, and the city’s scholars say the core of its political problems is one that haunts old Democratic bastions everywhere: The old, vibrant, flawed Democratic machines have collapsed, but they haven’t really been replaced by anything.

“We’ve cut off our new sources of talent and basically kept young people out,” said Mitchell Moss, a professor of urban planning at New York University. “[Rep. Edolphus] Towns and [Former Rep. Major] Owens and Rangel were very tough on young African-American politicians. You had to be a blood relation to get anywhere.

“And the only way we had a woman [in statewide office] was Hillary Clinton coming in or [Sen.] Kirsten Gillibrand getting appointed,” he said.

Rangel is a fixture of the Democratic establishment, one of a “gang of four” that dominated Harlem politics for decades. Paterson is the son of another of that group.

Their simultaneous fall “is the end of the Democratic machine,” said Vincent Cannato, a New York historian and biographer of the late Mayor John Lindsay.

One mark of the empty talent pool: The state’s elite have pinned their hopes on the appointed lieutenant governor, Richard Ravitch, to save the legislative sessions. Ravitch is 76, emerged from retirement to take the job and plans to return to private life in the fall.

Other scandals have been less predictable — or explicable. Spitzer’s fall was triggered by private vice. And Democrats in the White House and in Congress are deeply concerned about the fallout from allegations of sexual harassment directed at upstate Rep. Eric Massa by a male aide.

POLITICO broke the news of the charges Wednesday afternoon, which partially drowned out the White House’s attempt to focus on health care. The report, and the subsequent news that House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer knew of the allegations, raised a troubling echo of the 2006 revelations about former Rep. Mark Foley (R-Fla.), who dragged his party down with him in a scandal over inappropriate contact with House pages.

While Washington Democrats cast pained glances at New York, New York Republicans are seeking to capitalize on the situation. Massa’s vacant seat is a likely Republican pickup, and the gathering storm has endangered congressional Democrats in a delegation that is down to a sole Republican.

“If Gillibrand has a close race, Republicans could make three to five House seats very competitive in New York,” said Bill Cunningham, a former executive director of the New York State Democratic Party.

Republican gubernatorial candidate Rick Lazio Wednesday released a Web video featuring a “Democrats’ Hall of Shame” and calling for “fundamental change.”

The havoc is likely to have an immediate and unpredictable effect on the state’s fiscal future, already imperiled by an $8 billion deficit. Rangel's forced exit saps New York of a major defender on the Hill and leaves the state without control of a marquee committee in the House — at a time when California Democrats including Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman and Education and Labor Committee Chairman George Miller are already hogging the top slots.

The most powerful New Yorkers post-Rangel occupy far less lofty perches: Upstater Louise Slaughter runs the Rules Committee, a powerful post but one that leaves her outside the inner circle of leadership; eastern New York’s Towns runs the House oversight panel but is often a step behind the ranking Republican, Darrell Issa; and Brooklynite Nydia Velazquez is chairwoman of the Small Business Committee, which controls a relatively small budget.

The scandals have also badly damaged the state’s clout in Washington, according to Rep. Anthony Weiner, a Democrat from Brooklyn.

He said he saw an immediate demonstration of New York's reduced clout on Wednesday, when a delegation of 12 Democrats from the state called a meeting with Pelosi to address their concerns that the Senate version of the health reform bill would seriously shortchange the New York.

"You probably could have accomplished as much as we did with a call to Nancy [Pelosi] by Charlie Rangel," Weiner told POLITICO.

"Look, Charlie was a powerful voice for New York in a place where we badly need it,” Weiner added. “We're not powerless, but we're definitely less powerful than we were ... . It's bad."

It’s a Democrat, though, who seems best positioned to capitalize, at least for now, on his party’s collapse: Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, son of former Gov. Mario Cuomo, who has kept his nose clean and is currently investigating Paterson.

Veteran Village Voice investigative reporter Wayne Barrett, who has exposed a score of scandals in Albany and City Hall, said, “I’ve never seen anything like this." But he sees the possibility of stability looming on the political horizon, in the form of Cuomo, the state’s Prince Hal.

“Every power player in New York has been swept aside in what seems like an instant,” said Barrett. “Where does this all end?... I guess the only great hope is Cuomo.”





A Generation of New York City's Corrupt Pols Laid Low


Steven Rattner, former New York Times reporter, failed media investment firm founder, friend of Bloomberg and Sulzberger, and Car Czar, is one more former political star caught up in the New York pension fund scandal.

As the NY Times and WSJournal report today, the SEC is investigating Quandrangle Group founder and crazy social climber Rattner for paying $1 million to play with the state's massive pension fund.

The state pension fund was just a hilarious morass of corruption, mostly revolving around former comptroller Alan Hevesi, who was the sole trustee of the whole system. Charges have been filed against former deputy comptroller David Loglisci and Hevesi pal (in Post parlance) Hank Morris.

Morris, a Democratic political consultant who ran Chuck Schumer's '98 and '04 campaigns, was the man to send your massively inflated "finders' fees" to in exchange for pension business. Morris and Lovlisci made tens of millions in kickbacks, because they directed the "alternative investments" wing of the $122 billion fund.

And just this week former Liberal Party chair Ray Harding was charged with accepting $800,000 in reward money (from the Morris kickback pool) for some favors he did for Hevesi. Is anyone else growing to like this Andrew Cuomo kid?

So! Quadrangle—meaning Rattner—paid $90k to acquire a shitty movie Loglisci produced, and three weeks later they were doing $100 million worth of business with the pension fund. Shortly after that, Quadrangle paid $1.1 million in fees to Hank Morris.

Here is the film, Chooch, that actual legitimate investment firms invested in, in order to get that sweet pension business. Let's just quote the entire plot summary:

The life of Queens resident Dino Condito is about to take a surprising turn. After letting down his softball team by striking out in the bottom of the ninth against Hoboken, his crew brands him the chooch. Trying to cheer up his cousin Dino, Jubilene Condito cashes in his savings from his first holy communion and springs for a vacation to Cancun.

You mean leave Queens? asks Dino, as if the thought had never occurred to him. But there's a mix-up on the way to the airport involving a mysterious bag of money. As soon as Dino and Jube land in Mexico, they're abducted by a pair of thugs and left in the desert at the mercy of a trio of soldiers.

It takes reuniting Dino's old Queens crew, including Dino's beloved pet dachsund, to save the two cousins. Only after a jail bust, donkey ride, chicken coop explosion, and a life-changing love affair at the local bordello does the crew finally arrive to save the day. Returning home in triumphant glory with his reunited crew and newfound love Ladonna, Dino discovers the meaning of family, friendship and neighborhood.

Oh man. Rattner paid almost six figures for the rights to distribute the DVD of this heartwarming action-comedy. The only user comment is a 2-star pan from someone who knows an actress with a bit part in the movie from back home in Denver. Hah. Chooch: the shitty low-budget mob mix-up comedy that brought down a large segment of the early-2000s New York political establishment.

And now Rattner will save the auto industry for Barack Obama, who hired him because Rattner millions in donations to get himself out of the investment business and into Democratic politics.


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Sources: Politico, Gawker, NY Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Google Maps

Sander Levin Takes Charlie Rangel's Gavel As "Acting Chairman"

Rep. Sander Levin Replaces Rep. Charles Rangel


Rep. Sander Levin of Michigan was chosen Thursday as acting chairman of the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee, a post that plays a major role in health care and billions of dollars in expiring tax cuts.

Levin replaces Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., who stepped aside Wednesday as chairman while the House ethics committee investigates his fundraising and finances.

Rep. Fortney "Pete" Stark, D-Calif., held the acting chairmanship for a day under House rules, but Speaker Nancy Pelosi told a meeting of all House Democrats Thursday that Levin was the choice to run the committee.

In choosing Levin, Democrats went with a consensus builder rather than a firebrand going into the November congressional elections. Levin is a congenial leader whom Democrats hope will help move them past Rangel's ethics problems while providing a steady hand as Congress deals with billions of dollars in tax cuts set to expire at the end of the year.

"They're behind us," Pelosi said of her party's ethics problems, sounding hopeful, if unrealistic. "We have a new chair."

Levin, 78, represents an auto industry district outside Detroit and is the Democrats' foremost expert on trade, an issue that has been on the back burner since President Barack Obama took office. Levin currently is chairman of the Ways and Means subcommittee on trade, a post he will have to give up as he takes over the full committee.

After meeting with other Democratic members of the committee, Levin gave no indication trade would become a more prominent issue. He said he hopes to move ahead on job creation, economic development and health care.

Levin will serve until Rangel's ethics case is resolved or a new Congress convenes next year. Stark will remain chairman of the Ways and Means health subcommittee.

Levin told reporters: "I think you know my close relationship with Charlie. At this point, I'm acting chairman."

The ethics committee admonished Rangel last week for breaking House rules by accepting corporate-financed travel. He has called his exile temporary, but he still faces inquiries 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.

Rangel, who has said he didn't want his ethics case to damage fellow Democrats, said of Levin, "It's the best thing for the country, the Congress and the committee under the circumstances. I love him. He's good. He's thorough. He's got a reputation, and he'll do us well."

Levin was first elected in 1982 and is in his 14th term. He is the older brother of Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Sources: NY Daily News

Jon Stewart Mocks Paterson, Charlie Rangel & Nancy Pelosi (Video)

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
The New York Crimes - David Paterson & Charles Rangel
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Health Care Reform

Sources: The Daily Show, NY Post