STEP DOWN, CHARLIE
The Democratic party is still the No Shame Party. So what if the guy who writes tax laws is a crook who doesn't think he needs to report his own income? Thats no problem for Democrats.
Posted: 3:55 am
September 17, 2008
Charlie Rangel must be a centipede - given how many shoes have been dropping regarding his personal finances.
Yet he's pugnaciously defying demands that he step aside as chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee - which writes the nation's tax laws.
And, after two closed-door sitdowns with him in 12 hours, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says she has no intention of stripping him of his prestigious position - no matter how big an embarrassment he's become.
"I see no reason why Mr. Rangel should step down," she said yesterday.
She's obviously not looking very hard.
Because, with each passing day, the Manhattan Democrat's ethical shortcomings grow ever more obvious.
Which is why he's hired a "forensic accountant" to autopsy 20 years worth of back tax returns. (Think "CSI: Charlie.")
So much for the Democrats' promise to "clean house" in Congress.
Rangel's moral claim to any top leadership post became debatable in the wake of the revelations of his four rent-stabilized apartments (one of them used as a campaign office) and his failure to report $75,000 in rental income from a Caribbean beachfront villa.
And he certainly didn't help himself with a series of astonishingly inept excuses - capped by his ham-fisted "they were all speaking Spanish" defense.
Then, over the weekend, came news of a host of new Rangel miscues, stretching back years.
Some were detailed by the newspaper Roll Call, which reviewed his congressional disclosure forms:
* Rangel never reported, as required, the sale of a home he owned in the District of Columbia.
* Nor did he disclose any income from the sale of a Harlem apartment - whose value allegedly doubled while he owned it.
* He also failed to report income from the sale of a condo in Sunny Isles, Fla., though property records show a $60,000 profit.
* Moreover, in 2002 his forms listed new investment holdings of $115,000 to $315,000 - with no disclosure of how he acquired them. The next year, he reported another five new cash assets, worth at least $268,000 - again, with no indication of where they came from.
Obviously, life in Congress has been very, very good to Charlie Rangel.
Problem is, no one can tell for sure just how good.
And that's a big problem.
Which is why it's imperative that Speaker Pelosi force Rangel out of the Ways and Means chairmanship.
As it is, congressional poll-approval ratings are barely in the double digits.
How low does Pelosi want to go?
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