Last week the U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly voted by a margin of 333 over 79 to censure former Ways and Means Committee Chair Charlie Rangel for a series of ethical violations. A censure is the harshest remedy which can be meted out by the House short of outright expulsion from the venerable – at least in theory – institution. Indeed, Rangel is the first in 27 years to endure the public humiliation by his colleagues, and the censure club to which he now belongs is rather exclusive: 22 censures in all of Congressional history, and only five in the last 120 years.
And yet the fallen Representative has no shame. In a Nixonian riff he insists "I am not corrupt," and with an Alice-in-Wonderland logic insists he was not motivated by personal gain. Excuse me? Didn't tax boss Rangel personally profit by not reporting rental income to the IRS from his Dominican Republic villa for the last dozen years? Didn't he personally profit by improperly accepting rent controlled apartments instead of paying for much higher market value units? Didn't he personally gain by soliciting charitable donations on his Congressional letterhead since the "charity" was an education center bearing his name as a self-aggrandizing monument to his massively inflated ego?
Instead of accepting responsibility for his ethical violations Rangel blames political persecution. Of course, if anyone understands the mix of politics and crime it's Charlie Rangel. In 2006 Rangel attempted to derail a criminal prosecution against plaintiffs class action law firm Milberg Weiss Bershad & Schulman LLP and several of its partners as then reported by Mike McIntire for The New York Times: "The statement, signed by Representatives Gary L. Ackerman, Carolyn McCarthy and Charles B. Rangel, all of New York, and Robert Wexler of Florida, contained several passages that appear to be lifted directly from a 'class action press kit' distributed by a national trial lawyers group. All but Mr. Wexler have received campaign contributions from Milberg Weiss partners." Notwithstanding the efforts by Rangel and others, the indicted partners subsequently all pleaded guilty, and the law firm agreed to pay a $75 million fine and employ a compliance monitor. Indeed, if there's any messy politics behind the current Rangel debacle, it's probably being used to spare the apparent tax cheat from a criminal investigation.
Even as Rangel attempts to rehabilitate his image ethical allegations against him continue to mount as reported by Isabel Vincent and Melissa Klein for the New York Post: "The Federal Election Commission is investigating a complaint that Rep. Charles Rangel improperly used his National Leadership PAC to fund his legal defense on ethics charges for which he was censured Thursday, The Post has learned. The FEC is acting on a complaint by the National Legal and Policy Center filed after The Post reported last month that Rangel paid nearly $400,000 from his PAC. Lawmakers are only allowed to use money in their individual campaign funds for legal fees, or they can set up legal defense funds for such costs. * * * The center expects to file a second complaint this week contending that Rangel's PAC money included at least $195,000 in donations from lobbyists with business before the House Ways & Means Committee, of which he is a member."
Meanwhile, yesterday Rangel returned home to his Harlem constituents with a hero's welcome and a standing ovation as reported by Tina Moore for the Daily News: "Insisting that his colleagues were bowing to political pressure, Rangel remained defiant and confident, saying he was 'not guilty of corruption or self-enrichment.'" As P.T. Barnum once said: "You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time." Rangel's constituents must be those people whom can be fooled all of the time since they ushered him into a 21st term last month with 81 percent of the vote. Or maybe his constituents simply are standing up for corruption.
