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Oct. 16, 2009 The Republican leadership has failed in its third attempt to get Charlie Rangel, the Chairman of the tax law writing House Ways and Means Committee, to step aside while he is being investigating for what appears to be a laundry list of mistakes including very serious violations of the very laws he is essentially in charge of making. Reports are that the Ethics Committee has interviewed thirty-four witnesses, issued one hundred and fifty subpoenas and has reviewed twelve thousand or so pages of documents. Clearly, the word that they generally do a pretty thorough job would appear to be true. Under investigation are the legality of leasing four rent controlled apartments along with taxes on a house in Manhattan, property in New Jersey, a residence in Washington, a condominium in Florida and a luxury cabana in the Dominican Republic. Thus far, Representative Rangel has admitted ten thousand dollars worth of errors on the Punta Cana cabana and has amended his public disclosure forms, admitting hundreds of thousands of dollars in errors. He has also reportedly been negligent about paying taxes on the property in New Jersey but recent reports say he is currently in compliance, although the fact he was delinquent appears to be a serious pattern of tax malfeasance that, as the legal terminology goes, would tend to bring disrespect upon the House of Representatives, especially for the Chairman of the tax writing House Ways and Means Committee. In support of their efforts to get Chairman Rangel to recuse himself, Republicans point to the cases of Bob Ney of Ohio, Tom DeLay of Texas and Duke Cunningham of California, all of whom resigned from Congress, although after being indicted for or pleading guilty to, respectively, charges of conspiracy and making false statements, campaign fund raising violations and accepting bribes and under-reporting taxable income. In his defense, Charlie Rangel is merely under investigation, although the fact he has already confessed to under-reporting the taxes on the Punta Cana cabana and has had to amend his public disclosure forms, are both violations supposedly subject to serious penalties. It should also be pointed out that William Jefferson and Ted Stevens went to trial and lost their bids to gain re-election in what amazingly were close races considering the clouds hanging over their respective heads. Maxine Waters, in Charlie Rangel's defense, says it is done. There are disclosures that are not made. Not that slovenly record keeping or poor reporting practices are any excuse. It is also true that Representative Waters is being investigated for using her political connections for political gain since her husband was a board member of a bank that got bail out money. Alternatively, Speaker Pelosi and the Congressional Black Caucus are still supportive of Representative Rangel. Should this matter go to the voters in 2010, it appears Charlie Rangel will have an opponent, a rare phenomenon he has had to deal with only four times in the twenty or so elections he has been in and, as pointed out previously, no sure route to replacing him, since he is well entrenched, well heeled and is exceedingly cozy with the local Democratic leadership. So this ongoing political drama should continue to interest voters going forward, with the Republicans likely to make him a whipping boy for corruption and his fellow Democrats standing idly by applying the same dual standard they used to chase Newt Gingrich from the House. Both NBC and CBS news have already aired national news stories on the investigation and it should be clear that Chairman Rangel does not appear willing to step down voluntarily, meaning he could cost his fellow Democrats a lot of seats in 2010. I would like to conclude with the reminder that anyone interested in reading more of my writing can do so by visiting ArsCompendium.
Here is the convenient link:
www.arscompendium.com
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