The Charges Against Rangel

If you aren't sufficiently sick from reading about Maxine Waters' ethics problems, consider the affront that Charlie Rangel's birthday bash was to voters and taxpayers everywhere.

Rangel was heard to remark that it was hardly funereal or a wake. Well, time will tell.

But it was surely sad and disappointing to see the state's two Senators show up and fete such a corrupt House member.

You might be tempted to believe, like Rangel does, that he will be exonerated of the charges against hime. Ruth Marcus wrote this in the Washington Post recently,

"In Rangel's defense, his conduct appears less directly self-serving than Waters's. But to read the lengthy ethics report is to wonder how Rangel has refused to cop a plea -- especially when the recommended punishment took the relatively mild form of a reprimand.

Rangel failed to pay taxes on rental income from his Caribbean villa. He neglected to report $600,000 in income on his financial disclosure forms. He hit up companies with business before the Ways and Means Committee for donations as high as $30 million to the Rangel Center -- improperly using official letterhead and directly soliciting corporate lobbyists."


I posted this passage because, when reading it, I was alarmed at how truly corrupt Rangel became. How financially large his transgressions actually are.

Can you imagine getting away with the tax evasion Rangel practiced? I can't.

Does he really believe it will all be casually swept away and he'll be free to return to the House? Incredible.