Rupert Murdoch's Media Empire Continues To Crumble: More Arrests!

Sun journalists and police officer arrested in corruption investigation

Four current and former senior Sun journalists and one serving police officer have been arrested as part of Scotland Yard's investigation into police corruption.

The Metropolitan police have also launched a search at News International's headquarters in Wapping, east London, in an attempt to secure any potential evidence relating to alleged payments to police by journalists.

Officers were accompanied by lawyers who arrived at the Sun's offices between 6am and 8am on Saturday morning. They are there to ensure that "journalist privilege" in relation to sources is not compromised.

It is the first time since the phone-hacking scandal erupted that the Sun has been targeted in such a major way, but sources stressed the dawn raid had nothing to do with voicemail interception and was solely related to paying police for stories.

The four Sun employees arrested are understood to be Mike Sullivan, the Sun's crime editor, the former managing editor Graham Dudman, the executive editor, Fergus Shanahan, and Chris Pharo, a newsdesk executive.

The arrests came after information was passed to the police by News Corporation's internal investigations unit, the Management and Standards Committee. It was set up by Rupert Murdoch in the wake of the phone-hacking scandal, which erupted last July, and operates independently of News International.

It is understood that staff and management at the Sun had no warning of the police plans to make arrests or conduct a search of the paper's newsroom.

A statement from News Corp in New York said: "Metropolitan police service (MPS) officers from Operation Elveden today arrested four current and former employees from the Sun newspaper. Searches have also taken place at the homes and offices of those arrested.

"News Corporation made a commitment last summer that unacceptable news gathering practices by individuals in the past would not be repeated.

"It commissioned the Management and Standards Committee to undertake a review of all News International titles, regardless of cost, and to proactively co-operate with law enforcement and other authorities if potentially relevant information arose at those titles.

"As a result of that review, which is ongoing, the MSC provided information to the Elveden investigation which led to today's arrests.

"No comment can be made on the nature of that information to avoid prejudicing the investigation and the rights of individuals."

The Management and Standards Committee has been charged with ridding the company of old practices and illegal activities such as phone hacking which led to the abrupt closure of the News of the World in July after 168 years. One source said. "They are there to drain the swamp."

In his witness statement to the Leveson inquiry earlier this month, the Sun's editor, Dominic Mohan, said: "To the best of my knowledge, the Sun has never knowingly paid or made payments in kind to police … for information."

Scotland Yard confirmed in a statement that the investigation "relates to suspected payments to police officers and is not about seeking journalists to reveal confidential sources in relation to information that has been obtained legitimately."

It is understood that three of the four journalists were arrested before 8am on Saturday while the fourth was arrested in mid-morning.

"Home addresses of those arrested are currently being searched and officers are also carrying out a number of searches at the offices of News International in Wapping. These searches are expected to conclude this afternoon," the Met said in an earlier statement.

A source said police were interested in everything from "notepads, emails, Post-it notes".

All four men were being questioned at police stations in Essex and London, police said. Fourteen people have so far been arrested under Operation Elveden – 13 by the Metropolitan police and one by the Independent Police Complaints Commission.

The operation is being run in conjunction with Operation Weeting, the Met inquiry into the phone hacking of voicemail boxes.

It was launched after officers were handed documents suggesting that News International journalists made illegal payments to police officers.

Others questioned as part of the inquiry include the former News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks, the ex-Downing Street communications chief Andy Coulson, the former News of the World managing editor Stuart Kuttner, the paper's former royal editor Clive Goodman, the former News of the World crime editor Lucy Panton and the Sun district editor, Jamie Pyatt.

Brooks and Coulson are both former editors of the News of the World, which was closed in July at the height of the hacking scandal following revelations that the murdered teenager Milly Dowler's phone had been hacked.

Deborah Glass, the deputy chair of the Independent Police Complaints Commission, said: "It will be clear from today's events that this investigation is following the evidence.

"I am satisfied with the strenuous efforts being made by this investigation to identify police officers who may have taken corrupt payments, and I believe the results will speak for themselves."


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Sources: Guardian, ITN News, RT, Youtube, Google Maps

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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Sources:CNN, MSNBC, NBC New York, The Grio, Google Maps

Eric Massa Resigns Amid Sex Scandal; 1 Less HC Vote

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Rep. Eric Massa To Resign


Democratic Rep. Eric Massa will resign from Congress on Monday, only days after reports first surfaced that the freshman New York lawmaker was under investigation by the House ethics committee for allegedly sexually harassing a male staffer.

Massa was preparing the news in the Corning Leader, his local newspaper, but several media outlets were already reporting the news Friday afternoon.

In a statement released Friday, Massa directly addressed the ethics issue for the first time, acknowledging that he used language that might have made staffers uncomfortable. But he did not specifically address any specific sexual harassment allegations.

“I own this reality. There is no doubt in my mind that I did in fact, use language in the privacy of my own home and in my inner office that, after 24 years in the Navy, might make a Chief Petty Officer feel uncomfortable,” Massa said. “In fact, there is no doubt that this Ethics issue is my fault and mine alone. But in the incredibly toxic atmosphere that is Washington D.C., with the destruction of our elected leaders having become a blood sport, especially in talk radio and on the internet, there is also no doubt that an Ethics investigation would tear my family and my staff apart.”

Massa, who was elected in November 2008, announced earlier in the week that he would not be seeking a second term following a cancer scare in December.

He initially dismissed as “unsubstantiated” a POLITICO report that he was being scrutinized for improper advances to a junior aide in his office. In fact, he mentioned this report in his resignation statement Friday afternoon.

“At no point prior to this had any member of the Ethics Committee communicated with me directly - if fact I first read it on the internet,” Massa said.

The ethics committee formally announced on Thursday night that Massa was under investigation by the panel, although Reps. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) and Jo Bonner (R-Ala.), the chairwoman and ranking member of the committee, did not announce the reason for their probe.

Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) also publicly acknowledged that his staff had told a former Massa aide that he should report the Massa harassment allegation to the ethics committee or else Hoyer would take it to the ethics panel himself. Ronald Hikel, Massa’s former deputy chief of staff and legislative director, was then interviewed twice by ethics committee investigators.

Massa’s assertion that he did not learn that he was under investigation by the ethics committee until after making his retirement announcement appears to contradict the facts of the case.

Joe Racalto, Massa’s chief of staff, told a Rochester TV station on Thursday that he was interviewed by ethics committee investigators several weeks ago in regards to the sexual harassment allegations against Massa, well before the case became a public scandal or Massa announced his intentions to leave the House.

“Racalto [Massa's Chief of Staff] also said that he was interviewed by the Ethics Committee about two and a half weeks ago ‘about this matter, but he said he couldn't discuss that in further detail,” said a blog post by a WHAM-TV reporter on Thursday night.

Several other Massa aides also meet with the ethics committee prior to this week, a former Massa staff and House insiders said.

Ronald Hikel, Massa’s former deputy chief of staff and legislative director, went to Hoyer’s office on Feb. 8 with an allegation that Massa had harassed a junior male staffer in the New York Democrats personal office.

Hikel was told by Hoyer’s staff that he should report the allegation to the ethics committee himself or Hoyer would. Hikel did as told by Hoyer’s staff, and he was twice interviewed by panel staffers, Hikel confirmed.

Hoyer's office released a statement on Wednesday confirming Hikel's account.

Massa’s resignation is another blow to Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and other top Democratic leaders. Democrats won control of the House in 2006 on a vow to clean up the “culture of corruption” on Capitol Hill.

However, Rep. Charlie Rangel, the longtime Democratic lawmaker from Harlem, was forced out of his post as chairman of the powerful Ways and Means Committee earlier this week following a public “admonishment” by the ethics committee for taking corporate-funded trips to the Caribbean in 2007 and 2008.

The ethics committee is continuing a broader investigation into Rangel’s personal finances.

And two other Democrats lawmakers – Reps. Maxine Waters (Calif.) and Laura Richardson (Calif.) – remain under investigation as well.


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Sources: MSNBC, Politico, Google Maps

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

Eric Massa Steps Down Amid Sex Scandal, Hoyer Knew

Eric Massa To Retire Amid Allegations He Sexually Harassed A Male Staffer


First-term Rep. Eric Massa announced Wednesday that he will not seek reelection, saying his doctors have told him that he can’t continue to “run at 100 miles an hour.”

But several House aides told POLITICO that the House ethics committee has been informed of allegations that the New York Democrat, who is married with two children, made unwanted advances toward a junior male staffer.

A more senior staffer — Ronald Hikel, Massa’s former deputy chief of staff and legislative director — took the complaints to the ethics committee and was interviewed about them twice.

Hikel declined to comment about the situation, but House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) confirmed that the Democratic leadership had been informed of the allegations before the news broke.

“I’ve heard of that allegation before,” he said. “I had some indication, yes, but I don’t want to go beyond that. And my presumption [is] it’s being pursued in the course of business.”

Massa told POLITICO early Wednesday afternoon that no one has brought allegations of misconduct to him.

Asked specifically about the sexual-harassment allegations, he said: “When someone makes a decision to leave Congress, everybody says everything. I have health issues. I’ll talk about it [later].”

Massa has suffered from Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. On a conference call with reporters Wednesday afternoon, he said he was hospitalized in December and that his doctors made it clear to him that he needed to slow down. He denied that he was retiring because of a sexual-harassment claim.

“Do I or have I ever used salty language when I’m angry, especially in the privacy of my inner office or even at home? Yes, I have, and I have apologized to those where it’s appropriate,” Massa said. “But those kinds of articles, unsubstantiated without fact or backing, are a symptom of what’s wrong with this city.”

A 20-year Navy veteran, Massa serves on the Agriculture, Armed Services and Homeland Security committees. His departure endangers Democrats’ hold on his competitive upstate New York seat.

Hoyer said news of the sexual-harassment allegation — coming on the same day Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) gave up his gavel on the Ways and Means Committee — shouldn’t give Republicans a leg up in November.

“I don’t think it helps anybody in the institution, any one of us on either side of the aisle. It certainly didn’t help Mr. Foley,” Hoyer said, referring to former Rep. Mark Foley (R-Fla.), who resigned from Congress in 2006 amid allegations that he sent sexually explicit instant messages to underage male pages.

“When there were allegations about Mr. Foley or others, I think the institution suffers,” Hoyer continued. “And that’s why it’s so important that each of us conducts ourselves in a way that won’t bring discredit on the institution.”

Massa’s decision came as a complete surprise to several of his freshman Democratic colleagues in the New York delegation. According to the (New York) Daily News, which first reported that Massa was retiring, the congressman called party leaders and supporters in his district Wednesday to tell them of his plans.

“I don’t think it helps anybody in the institution, any one of us on either side of the aisle. It certainly didn’t help Mr. Foley,” Hoyer said, referring to former Rep. Mark Foley (R-Fla.), who resigned from Congress in 2006 amid allegations that he sent sexually explicit instant messages to an underage male page.

“When there were allegations about Mr. Foley or others, I think the institution suffers,” Hoyer continued. “And that’s why it’s so important that each of us conducts ourselves in a way that won’t bring discredit on the institution.”

Massa’s decision came as a complete surprise to several of his freshman Democratic colleagues in the New York delegation. According to the New York Daily News, which first reported that Massa was retiring, the congressman called party leaders and supporters in his district Wednesday to tell them of his plans.

Massa has played a gadfly-like role in the House, calling for a single-payer health care system at a conference of liberal activists last year, despite representing a Republican-leaning district. He was one of 39 House Democrats to vote against health care legislation; he said it didn’t do enough to control costs.

As a freshman representing New York’s most Republican House district, Massa was one of the most endangered Democrats in the delegation. Republicans had been aggressively targeting his seat and landed top recruit Tom Reed, the Republican mayor of Corning, to challenge him.

Massa is now the 15th House Democrat to announce retirement plans, with 11 of them leaving districts that Republicans are aggressively contesting. House Republicans face 19 retirements, but most of their departing members hail from safe seats.

Massa’s departure also adds to the woes of New York Democrats, who have been on the defensive this week amid a scandal surrounding Gov. David Paterson, who announced he wasn’t running for election, and the tribulations involving Rangel.

After news of Massa’s retirement hit, New York Rep. Steve Israel, the head of recruiting for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, headed to DCCC offices to make recruiting calls in Massa’s district. The upstate New York district is ancestrally Republican and doesn’t have a deep bench of Democratic officeholders.

“It’s yet another uphill battle,” Israel said, but he noted that Democrats have been successful in two competitive special elections held last year in upstate New York.

Massa’s departure could scramble the Republican field since the filing deadline is not until July. Former Rep. John “Randy” Kuhl, whom Massa beat by 2 percentage points in 2008, is exploring the possibility of running for his old seat, according to a source who spoke with him after Massa’s retirement announcement.

In a statement, Kuhl said he would address “political decisions in the future, but right now it is important for Eric to get the treatment that he needs to recover.”

Other potential candidates who may consider entering the race include Monroe County Executive Maggie Brooks, state Assemblyman Brian Kolb and state Sen. Cathy Young.


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

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The New York Crimes - David Paterson & Charles Rangel
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Charlie Rangel Holds Press Conference, Slams Pelosi

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Charlie Rangel Steps Down As Tax Panel Chairman


Rep. Charles Rangel announced Wednesday he will temporarily step down as chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, saying he didn't want his ethics controversy to jeopardize election prospects for fellow Democrats.

The 20-term Harlem congressman held a news conference on short notice, telling reporters, "My chairmanship is bringing so much attention to the press, and in order to avoid my colleagues having to defend me during their elections, I have this morning sent a letter" asking House Speaker Nancy Pelosi "to grant me a leave of absence until such time as the ethics committee completes its work."

The 79-year-old Rangel's decision was another jarring setback for President Barack Obama and majority Democrats in Congress, coming at a time when the party is scrambling to save sweeping health care overhaul legislation that has been pending on Capitol Hill for well over a year and still assessing a surging anti-incumbent fervor among the voters.

Republicans had been calling for Rangel to step aside since last year, when the House ethics panel expanded its investigation into his trips, assets and income, use of rent-controlled apartments in New York and his solicitation of contributions for university center to be named after him. After the panel released its findings last Friday on the Caribbean trips, Rangel started losing support among rank-and-file Democrats as well.

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Filling the post

His departure from the Ways and Means chairmanship raised questions about succession.

Rep. Fortney "Pete" Stark of California is the most senior Democrat on Ways and Means, but there's no certainty that Pelosi would name him to fill in for Rangel. Stark chairs the panel's health subcommittee.

Other senior Democrats on the committee include Reps. Sander Levin of Michigan, Jim McDermott of Washington, John Lewis of Georgia and Richard Neal of Massachusetts.

Rangel is tied with Rep. Bill Young, a Florida Republican, for fourth place in congressional seniority.

The congressman made only a brief statement, telling reporters, "If you don't mind, I don't take questions." But he did say that'd told Pelosi "from the very, very beginning" that he was willing to step aside, at least temporarily.

Rangel, who met privately Tuesday with Pelosi, is accused by the House ethics panel of violating gift rules.

Party members want an untainted leader to be their chief negotiator in deciding the fate of billions of dollars in expiring tax breaks at year's end, including popular income tax deductions for sales and property taxes.

And Democratic incumbents facing tough races didn't want to fend off a Republican campaign focusing on Rangel's ethical cloud, especially after Pelosi, D-Calif., had promised to drain the swamp of ethical problems that plagued Republicans when they ran the House.

The ethics committee said Rangel violated standards of conduct by accepting 2007 and 2008 trips to Caribbean conferences that were financed by corporations. The committee said it could not prove whether Rangel knew of the corporate payments but concluded members of his staff knew about them — and the congressman was responsible for their actions.

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.

In a separate case, the ethics committee is looking into Rangel's fundraising for a college center to be established in his name, in addition to other allegations — including belated financial disclosure filings that showed he previously failed to report hundreds of thousands of dollars in investments.


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Charlie Rangel Steps Aside, Temporarily Resigns Chairmanship

Charlie Rangel To Give Up Tax Committee Chairmanship Gavel


After being admonished by an ethics panel for accepting corporate-sponsored trips to the Caribbean, Rep. Charlie Rangel, D-N.Y., will take a "leave of absence" from his chairmanship of the powerful House Ways and Means committee, NBC News has learned.

The top spot may temporarily go to Rep. Sander Levin, D-Mich., according to leadership sources, or to Rep. Pete Stark of California, the committee's second-ranking Democrat.

Asked by an NBC reporter if he will remain chairman, Rangel responded with an emphatic "yes."

"You bet your life on it," he said.

But t wo Democratic sources tell NBC News that Rangel will take a "leave of absence" — beginning Wednesday — until the investigation is over.

The powerful Democrat was encouraged to step aside before the House votes on a bill to strip him of his chairmanship.

"We don't have the votes to save him," one Democratic member said of Rangel.

In a report released Friday, 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.

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Several of Rangel's fellow Democrats had called for him to give up his committee gavel in recent days. On Tuesday, Democratic Rep. Artur Davis of Alabama, a member of the Ways and Means Committee and the Congressional Black Caucus, said that Rangel should "should do the right thing and step aside."

Rangel said last week that the report by the ethics panel "exonerate[d]" him because it cites no evidence that he knew the trips were sponsored by corporations.

In a written statement, the congressman responded to the ethics panel, calling its decision "ill-considered, unprecedented, unfair ... and wrong on the facts and the law."

Rangel denied to investigators that he saw any of the written communications from staff members.

Rangel, 79, was first elected to the House in 1970 from New York's Harlem district, defeating Adam Clayton Powell Jr., at the time the most prominent black politician in the country and one with his own ethics problems.



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Nancy Pelosi Stands By Charlie Rangel's Side, Needs His Vote

Pelosi Gives Rangel Some Breathing Room


House Speaker Nancy Pelosi won't consider removing Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel from his powerful post before the ethics panel wraps up a wide-ranging investigation of the New York Democrat.

Some fellow Democrats would like Rangel to step aside as chairman in the wake of the ethics ruling. But the speaker continues to stand by Rangel after the House ethics committee slapped him on the wrist for violating House rules by accepting trips to the Caribbean that were sponsored, in part, by corporations.

It is a public admonishment," Pelosi said in a taped interview airing Sunday on ABC's "This Week." "It said he did not knowingly violate House rules. So that gives him some comfort."

Pelosi said she wants to wait until the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct, informally known as the ethics committee, completes its work before she will make any decisions about whether Rangel should retain his chairmanship on the powerful tax-writing committee.

"What Mr. Rangel has been admonished for is not good," Pelosi said, according to an advance transcript of her remarks. "It was a violation of the rules of the House."

But she said, his actions were not "something that jeopardized our country in any way."


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Charlie Rangel Losing Dems Support, Calls For His Resignation

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Democrats Call For Charlie Rangel's Gavel



After months of holding ranks, some Democrats are finally turning on House Ways and Means Chairman Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) in the wake of an ethics committee finding that he violated House rules by accepting a Caribbean junket.

Early Friday, Rep. Paul Hodes (D-N.H.) told POLITICO he wants Rangel to quit his powerful committee post — and that was quickly followed by similar statements from a pair of deep south Democrats, Mississippi Rep. Gene Taylor and Alabama Rep. Bobby Bright.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi continues to defend Rangel, but lawmakers like Hodes are calling for Rangel’s gavel.

"I honor and respect Charlie Rangel’s lifetime of service as a soldier serving our country in Korea and as a public servant. But Washington must be held to the highest ethical standards. Regrettably, with the finding of ethics violations, Charlie Rangel should step down from his leadership position.”

Moments later, during a vote in the House, Taylor, a 10-term representative from the Gulf Coast, told POLITICO that Rangel “should step down, or at least step aside until all this is resolved.”

Taylor challenged Democratic leadership, which has backed Rangel, to move quickly.

“The citizens of his home state sent him here, that's their decision. But members of the [Democratic Caucus] made him chairman of that committee, and he should step down until all this is resolved.”

Bright, one of the most vulnerable freshmen, agreed with Taylor.

“If the ethics committee has found he's guilty of this, then my opinion is that he should step down,” Bright said.

And Rep. Mike Quigley, Democratic freshman from Chicago's North Side who took over Rahm Emanuel's old House seat, renewed his calls for Rangel to step down as chairman.

"I learned that ethics is nonpartisan — each party should stand on its own," Quigley said in a brief interview. "The history of this place is that mistakes are made on both sides. So for any side to try to argue that they're more pure than the other is silliness."

The ethics committee news broke late Thursday, moments after Rangel left the Blair House health care summit. The ethics report, which will be released today, will admonish the Harlem Democrat for accepting payment for the Caribbean trip, while acknowledging he had no direct knowledge that false or misleading information was given to the committee in its investigation of the trips. Four other members who joined Rangel on the same junket weren’t sanctioned.

The committee is still considering several other complaints against Rangel, stemming from his use of rent-regulated apartments in New York and failing to report income on his Dominican Republic villa.

But a good number of Democrats aren’t ready to revoke Rangel’s chairmanship, even as they criticize his actions.

“I think all these things are serious,” said Bill Pascrell (D-N.J.). Member of the Ways and Means committee. “You cant say this is not as serious as you robbed a bank or she, you know. But I think they’re all serious and he handled it the way he should’ve handled it.”

And Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus, says Rangel’s chairmanship is secure.

“He’s doing a fine job as chairman of the Ways and Means committee and he’s going to continue to do a good job,” Lee said. “He’s a very effective chairman and he’s going to continue to serve as an effective chairman.”

Republicans think even more Democrats, including Pelosi, should be calling for Rangel’s gavel.

“Not only do we have a Democrat-led congress that refuses to listen to the American people, but Nancy Pelosi and her allies refuse to listen to themselves,” said Ken Spain, spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee. “Already four House Democrats have called on Rangel to resign, and still the speaker continues to turn a blind eye to unethical and corrupt behavior within her own caucus. She promised the run the ‘most ethical congress in history’ and instead the voters got an out-of-touch, tone-deaf majority that appears to be belly flopping into the very swamp they promised to drain.”


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