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cali (1000+ posts) Fri Oct-09-09 11:56 AMOriginal message Charlie Rangel's Cloud House Democrats had better start taking the ethics allegations against Rep. Charlie Rangel seriously. I know it's difficult for those steeped in Capitol Hill's hermetic culture to understand, but a verdict of "mistakes were made" -- which a lot of Democrats would like to reach -- doesn't cut it in the real world. Strange as it seems. Seriously.Republicans, I should note, are being baldly hypocritical in calling for Rangel, who has spent four decades in the House, to step down immediately as chairman of the Ways and Means Committee -- a position that makes him one of the most powerful men in Washington. Those same Republicans were happy to keep "Dancing With the Stars" dropout Tom DeLay as majority leader for years while he was under a monsoon's worth of ethical cloud cover.But just because Republicans are posturing for political gain doesn't mean that Democrats can do the same without paying a price. If you win big majorities in both the House and Senate by railing against a "culture of corruption" in Washington, as the Democratic Party did, voters tend to get the wacky notion that you actually mean what you say.The violations that Rangel is alleged to have committed are, inconveniently for him, easy for anyone to understand. The most serious, perhaps, is the allegation that he failed to pay taxes on about $75,000 in income from renting out a beach house that he owns in the Dominican Republic. For the chairman of the House committee that writes tax legislation not to pay his fair share in taxes would be as bad as, say, for the secretary of the Treasury not to pay his fair share in taxes. (Hold it, maybe that's a bad example.)The most stunning alleged violation is more of a technicality: That on required financial disclosure forms, Rangel failed to list more than $500,000 in assets. The average citizen isn't likely to have half a million bucks somehow slip his mind, since the average citizen doesn't have anything near half a million bucks.And we're not talking easily overlooked "Antiques Roadshow" assets -- a dusty painting in the attic that turns out to be the work of a second-tier Old Master, or a rickety chair in the basement that experts date as 18th century. What Rangel failed to declare were liquid assets -- a credit union account worth more than $250,000 and an investment account also worth more than $250,000 -- plus some real estate he owns in New Jersey and assorted stock holdings. <snip>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/20...
joeycola (924 posts) Fri Oct-09-09 12:00 PMResponse to Original message 1. If we expect the Repubs. to clean house, we should do the same.
Hutzpa (1000+ posts) Fri Oct-09-09 12:00 PMResponse to Original message 2. The republicans don't have a pot to piss on when it comes to corruption, so I wouldnot pay much attention to them.
Craftsman (690 posts) Fri Oct-09-09 12:05 PMResponse to Reply #2 5. We are supposed to be better then them, we need to police our own.
wpelb (212 posts) Fri Oct-09-09 12:10 PMResponse to Reply #2 8. The Republicans are no longer in power Isn't the corruption that Hutzpa and the Washington Post alluded to one of the reasons why? If so, then Democrats would do well to pay a lot of attention to the allegations against Rep. Rangel, irrespective of the Republicans or anyone else.
Craftsman (690 posts) Fri Oct-09-09 12:03 PMResponse to Original message 3. I use a simple test, if he was a republican would I feel the same way if he was a republican we would be all over him. So we should be all over him as a democrat.
Robyn66 (539 posts) Fri Oct-09-09 12:05 PMResponse to Original message 4. If THEY clean house we will too Get EVERY Rethug ethics violator out and we will too. Its funny every time we bring up Ensign or someone like him they bring out Rangle and dust him off.
asdjrocky (1000+ posts) Fri Oct-09-09 12:05 PMResponse to Original message 6. Time for Charlie to go.
Taverner (1000+ posts) Fri Oct-09-09 12:06 PMResponse to Original message 7. Rangel is being slammed because he's the only one who tried to impeach Dubya I am surprised there are so many folks here against him but then again there are a lot of folks here of whom I wonder how "Democratic" they really are...
vadawg (1000+ posts) Fri Oct-09-09 12:12 PMResponse to Reply #7 9. yeah its nothing to do with him forgetting all that cash or the property either he did forget them and its time to retire or he purposely hid them and its time to retire. I cant believe the cover a criminal can get as long as he belongs to whatever political party is currently in power..
Taverner is such a tool. Everything he says is stupid, nonsensical, illogical, missing the point, blind to the facts, or violent.
