Censure for Rangel?
Posted: November 18, 2010 Filed under: Breaking News | Tags: Charlie Rangel, congressional censure, ethics committee 17 Comments
The Ethics Committee just voted 9-1 that Congressman Charles Rangel be Censured this is via NPR.
A censure is the strongest penalty that could have been issued short of expulsion. Rep. James Traficant, an Ohio Democrat, was expelled by the House for bribery and other crimes in 2002.
The last members of the House to be censured were Gerry Studds (D-Mass.) and Dan Crane (R-Ill.), who were punished in 1983 for sexual misconduct with underage congressional pages. Crane was defeated for re-election in 1984; Studds continued to win until he retired in 1996.
Rangel was easily elected to his 21st term earlier this month with about 80 percent of the vote
Today’s Christian Science Monitor has an interesting story of Rangel’s problems. Staff Writer Peter Grier reviews how Rangel has defended himself by pleading ignorance rather than corruption. This evidently did not fly with the panel of Rangel’s Congressional peers.
That is why at his punishment hearing on Tuesday Rangel admitted that he had done wrong in such matters as failing to pay taxes on rental income earned from his Dominican Republic beach villa, and soliciting donations for the Charles Rangel Center for Public Service – but that his actions had been inadvertent.
“I had no intent to evade or avoid the law,” Rangel told a hearing of the full House Ethics Committee.
He hadn’t known the details of his own tax returns, he said. Officials from the City College of New York, site of the Rangel Center, had come to him and suggested that he would be the best person to raise needed cash for the institution, according to Rangel.
In brief remarks to the committee he reminded them that the panel’s own chief counsel, Blake Chisam, under questioning early in the week, had said he saw no evidence of corruption per se in Rangel’s actions.
The more questionable charges concerned Rangel’s handling of donations for the Rangel Center although many believed that in his position on the Ways and Means Committee that it was unlikely he wasn’t aware that the income from his condominium in the Dominican Republic was taxable.
And some panel members questioned Rangel’s assertion that he is not corrupt. They noted that he had failed to pay taxes on his beach villa for 17 years, and that he indeed reaped personal gain from that, in the form of a lower tax bill.
After all, Rep. James Traficant, the Ohio Democrat expelled from the House in 2002 after felony convictions on bribery and other charges, only failed to pay taxes for two years.
“Failure to pay taxes for 17 years. What is that?” said Rep. Michael McCaul (R) of Texas.
Rangel targeted donors for the Rangel Center who had legislative business before the House Ways and Means Committee, which he chaired at the time, according to Mr. McCaul.
“Is that not corruption?” said McCaul. “I guess it is how you define corruption here. I think reasonable people may disagree on that interpretation.”
This is a study in how one powerful and popular congressman has fallen from grace if there ever was one.
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What is a censure anyway? a slap on the wrist?
It’s weird word for a reprimand. I don’t think it does anything other than look bad. It’s just a public rebuking by one’s peers for what that’s worth. Guess your name goes down in history for it. But it’s not like expulsion.
http://www.opencongress.org/wiki/Expulsion_and_censure
I call it selective prosecution. Obama has done worse and didn’t even get a slap on the wrist.
Rangle’s censure was more, because he was one of the last congress people who was questioning the war, the suicides, the back door draft, the suffering of the military families and fighting for working folks. I think the writing was on the wall when he refused to move to Obama’s campaign and held out til the end…within the next week someone dropped the dime.
I agree.
OT: Oh my gosh, I just answered a lot of questions on a symptom check thingy and was told I ought to see a doctor within 3 days.
That posted before I was done. I take the results of internet questionnaires with a grain of salt.
You want to talk about it?
oops – I worded that wrong.
From one lesbian to another – Do you want to process?
Aww, thanks, it’s nothing. I have constant fatigue, muscle and body aches. I’m weak and tire easily. It asked if I’m more thirsty than usual and when I said yes it said I might have diabetes and I should see a doctor within 3 days. This morning I was thinking about it more and decided that though I’m thirsty a lot, it may not be more than usual, so I redid the questionnaire answering no to the thirst question, and this time it said I may have persistent depression and I should see a doctor within 2 weeks.
I didn’t see your responses until just now because I was tired after posting last night and went to bed.
Branjor – I hope you can figure out a way to see a doctor. Maybe you have something easily treatable or absolutely nothing to worry about. Its the not knowing…
And speaking from recent experience, there is no greater feeling in the world than when a doctor says there is nothing really wrong with you.
Yesterday I had a follow-up appointment with my dermatoligst to discuss some test results. Turns out that everything is good. Today is my birthday and I am celebrating – not so much my birthday but the fact my body is good.
Take care of yourself.
Happy Birthday, Dee – good health is something to celebrate!
I’m considering going to a doctor.
Branjor – I had several of those symptons (plus tingling in my feet) so several months ago I stopped drinking Diet Coke and completely purged aspartame from my diet. The symptoms all went away. I wrote about it over at TC and Miss New Jersey made fun of me.
Last week I decided to reintroduce a little Diet Coke to my system. The tingling began again within 4-5 hours. Experiment is over and Diet Coke is gone forever.
What is am trying to say is maybe it is something really simple.
maybe you should see the doctor just in case anyway
I guess I should. I haven’t seen a doctor in years. I have no insurance, so heaven forbid I should be diagnosed with anything.
Banjor, Dee makes a good point though, I have several friends who stopped using artificial sweetners – all “diet” stuff and voila – life was better – But then Dak has a good point too – it wouldn’t hurt to see a Doc if you can manage it.