Atlas Shrugs.com
The Democrats are defined by their corruption, graft and skulduggery. Is there not an honest man or woman left on that side of the aisle? Rangel is a thief and a crook. This is the least of it. He is a carpetbagger who steals from the taxpayer. Rangel is still being investigated for more serious claims, including improper fundraising, failure to pay taxes on his vacation home in the Dominican Republic and his use of four rent-stabilized apartments in Manhattan.
PELOSI FACT CHECK: Chairman Rangel DID violate House rules
Speaker Pelosi: “All I saw was the press release where they said he did not violate the rules of the House.” (The Hill, 2/26/10)
Ethics Report: “The Report further finds that Representative Charles B. Rangel violated the House gift rule by accepting payment or reimbursement for travel to the 2007 and 2008 conferences.” (Statement of the Chair and Ranking Republican Member of the Ethics Committee, 2/26/10)
And the man writes tax law while not paying taxes. Got that? Demo-rat leadership:
WASHINGTON (AP) — Speaker Nancy Pelosi declined to speculate on Ways and Means Chairman Charles Rangel's future after the ethics committee found he violated House rules by accepting corporate-sponsored trips to the Caribbean.
Pelosi noted that the powerful chairman of the tax-writing committee remains under investigation on other alleged ethics lapses.
"We'll just see what happens next," Pelosi, D-Calif., told reporters. She said she wanted to read the ethics committee's report.
"There's more to Mr. Rangel's situation and we look forward to hearing from Mr. Rangel on that," she said.
"There's obviously more to come," she added.
The House ethics committee accused Rangel on Thursday of violating House gift rules by accepting corporate-sponsored trips to the Caribbean in 2007 and 2008 found that his staff did — and concluded Rangel was responsible for learning the truth.
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Earlier Friday, Rep. Gene Taylor, a conservative Democrat from Mississippi, suggested that Rangel should give up his chairmanship of the Ways and Means Committee, which originates not only tax laws but also benefit programs that now pay nearly half the costs for Americans' health care.
Taylor was the first Democratic lawmaker to call for Rangel to step down as chairman. Republicans have been calling for Democrats to replace him since investigations began last year.
Still looming is a much larger ethics investigation that focuses in part on Rangel's use of official stationery to raise money for a college center in his name, and on his belated financial disclosure of hundreds of thousands of dollars in previously unreported assets and income.
The ethics matter comes at a delicate time for Democrats who are trying to push ahead with their stalled health care legislation. The Ways and Means Committee will play a key role in what eventually may be enacted.
