#rsrh Reminder: NY Congressional primaries are tomorrow.

Speaking as an American, I hope that Charlie Rangel loses in NY-13 and that Charles Barron loses in NY-08. Speaking as a Republican, I will be of course supporting their Republican opponents in the general election.  Speaking as a partisan hack, I find the possibility that both will win their elections and then proceed to further embarrass the Democratic party to be… thrilling.

I think that covers it.

Rangel stole $400K for legal defense.

Yes, “steal.”  Rep. Charles Rangel was not allowed to use money from his leadership PAC to pay his legal bills, it beggars belief that he did not know that he was not allowed to use money from his leadership PAC to pay his legal bills, and yet he did it anyway.  If we can’t call the deliberate diversion of money that was raised and allocated for other people’s use ‘theft’ then we might as well give up the entire civilization thing now and go back to living in caves.

It doesn’t really matter anyway, of course.  The Democratic panelists on the ethics trial that’s supposed to start tomorrow will not sign off on any sort of meaningful punishment for the Congressman: he’ll be slapped on the wrist in any Democratic-controlled Congress, and everybody knows it.  That’s why current Speaker Pelosi delayed these proceedings in the first place, after all.  On the (marginally) bright side, at least Rangel’s been drained personally dry by these proceedings, to the point where he’ll be representing himself because he can’t afford a new legal team.  It’s hardly justice, but then, again: it’s still a Democratic-controlled Congress.  You work with what you have.

Moe Lane (crosspost)

Maxine Waters will have what Charlie Rangel’s having.

Come, I will conceal nothing from you: I have long considered Maxine “Why is this woman on Financial Services?” Waters to be one of our dumber Members of Congress – which is impressive, given that we have people like Al Franken, Barbara Boxer, Arlen Specter, Shirley Jackson-Lee, and Russ Carnahan in it – but I may have to revise that.  It is now being reported that Rep. Waters “has chosen to go through an ethics trial, like the one lined up for New York Rep. Charles Rangel, rather than accepting charges made by an ethics subcommittee.”

Given that Rangel has just been told that he won’t be subject to any kind of sanction other than a finger-wagging even when he is found guilty*, this actually makes perfect sense.  Why accept the charges, and thus admit wrongdoing?  Maybe the committee won’t prove anything – and even if they do, the Democrats on the committee will bail out their fellow party-members anyway, so there’s no downside.  No harm, no foul, no problem, no need to accept responsibility – and no more of this nonsense about how the Democrats were going to drain the swamp.

DEMOCRATS DO NOT DRAIN SWAMPS.  That’s because swamps are wetlands, and thus must be protected by the full power of the federal government.

Moe Lane

*I see no need to pretend.  Heck, neither do the Democratic members of the House ethics committee, apparently.

Crossposted to RedState.

Adam Powell IV to challenge Charlie Rangel (D, NY-15).

Revenge is a dish best served cold, it seems.

NEW YORK – The son of a legendary New York congressman has announced he will challenge Rep. Charles Rangel.

Assemblyman Adam Clayton Powell IV told supporters Monday it was time for new leadership in the district, which covers the heart of the city’s Harlem neighborhood.

H/T The Corner, and that’s all the time we should waste on this story of the son of the man that Rangel ousted on an anti-corruption campaign… challenging Rangel on an anti-corruption campaign. No doubt one of Rangel’s children, or at this point grandsons will arise in time to challenge Adam Powell IV in turn, and so it will continue, without end…

Alternatively, NY-15 could just elect Michel Faulkner: that would short-circuit the entire sad, sorry cycle. More on Michel here.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

Charlie Wrangled: to step down as Ways & Means Chair.

UPDATE: OH MY GOD HE’S GOING TO GO DOWN SWINGING THIS IS THE GREATEST THING EVER.

Ahem.

Charlie Rangel emerged from a closed-door meeting in Nancy Pelosi’s office Tuesday night to declare that he’s still the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee and hasn’t agreed to give up his gavel – even as some media outlets were reporting that he’d done just that.

___________

At last.

Harlem Democrat Charles Rangel now says he will step down as chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, NBC News has learned.

He may make the move as early as tonight and Michigan Democratic Rep Sander Levin will temporarily take over the committee.

See also: AoSHQ, JammieWearingFool.

Two things:

  1. Note: his replacement is not Pete Stark. I wonder why.
  2. John Carter of Mars Texas, thou art avenged!

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

Charlie Rangel (D, NY) gave money to Democrats on Ethics Committee.

(Via @vermontaigne) Three of them.  Need I add that Charlie Rangel is currently under investigation by that committee?

Charlie’s “angels” on the committee include Congressmen Ben Chandler of Kentucky, G.K. Butterfield of North Carolina and Peter Welch of Vermont. All have received donations from Rangel.

Two of them – Chandler (KY-06, R+9*) & Butterfield (NC-01, D+9) – are apparently keeping it, too.  Considering that Rep. Rangel has given money to 119 Congressmen since the ethics probe began last year, you could almost not blame them.  Or almost not blame Rangel for acting as if he was above the laws that he writes:

Congressman Rangel has been arrogant in refusing to discuss how, as the man who writes this country’s tax laws, he failed to report over $1 million in outside income and $3 million in business transactions as required by the House, lapses under investigation by the House Ethics Committee.

“I recognize that all of you have an obligation to ask questions knowing that there’s none of you smart enough to frame it in such a way that I’m going to respond,” Rangel said.

Almost.  But trust me, Charlie: the GOP takes back the House in 2010, we’re going to find it really easy to make you respond to the question.

Moe Lane

*Ben Chandler has already acquired a Republican challenger: Matt Lockett.

Crossposted to RedState.

Apparently Rep. Anna Eschoo (D*, CA) has a different definition…

…of ‘courageous stand‘ than I, and probably you, do:

Pelosi’s silence on [PMA-linked Rep. Pete] Visclosky [D*, IN] has been deafening considering how quickly she moved to strip committee memberships from the last member of her brood to become the target of a federal investigation, former congressman Jefferson. Rep. Anna Eschoo, a California Democrat and one of Pelosi’s closest friends on the Hill, argues that the evidence that the feds found in Jefferson’s house — $90,000 in cash stuffed in a freezer – was so damning, “the situation was completely different and Nancy took a courageous stand.”

Getting back to the Visclosky matter: the article suggests that Pelosi’s waiting for the Ethics committee to rule on this particular Congressman (not to mention, both Rangel [D*, NY] & Murtha [D*, PA]) before she gets involved further.  Which is another way of saying that she’s waiting for the inevitable whitewash before going through the formality of declaring the issue done and buried; expecting a Democratic-controlled panel to seriously inconvenience three senior Democratic legislators is pretty much silly.

This would bug me more, except that the PMA matter is in the hands of the FBI – which means that Madame Speaker doesn’t actually have the power to squash this problem.  Although it would be amusing to see her try.

Moe Lane

*Naturally.

Crossposted to RedState.

Charlie Rangel (D, NY-15) to donate part of Stanford money.

He’s keeping the rest, presumably.

Maybe he’s got some sort of Magic Light that can tell tainted Mexican drug-laundering money from good?

Janison: Campaigns shedding donors in financial scandal

[snip]

Fraud allegations swirling around Texas billionaire R. Allen Stanford last week drew attention to his contributions to Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-St. Albans) and to House Ways and Means Committee chairman Charles Rangel (D-Manhattan). A Rangel spokesman said $10,800 that Stanford contributed over the years would be donated to charity.

Why, that’s almost half. Kind of. Moderately close to almost half. OK, so it may be closer to a third. The difference, by the way, is the $25K that went to the Rangel Victory Fund – which, bluntly, I consider Rangel to be morally on the hook for if the people who he helped refuse to pay back the money*: Continue reading Charlie Rangel (D, NY-15) to donate part of Stanford money.

Rep Carter forcing a Rangel Scandal?

Via Instapundit, Warlord Rep. John Carter of Mars Texas (R, TX-31) is merrily causing trouble with an untroubled brow and a light heart:

Carter tries to push Rangel out

Republican Rep. John R. Carter of Texas offered legislation Wednesday that would require Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles B. Rangel to relinquish his gavel until the ethics committee completes an investigation into Rangel’s finances.

Under the rules of the House, members must consider Carter’s resolution by next Tuesday, forcing Democrats to confront Rangel’s ethics in the same week they will try to move the massive economic stimulus and a handful of late appropriations bills.

…which is, of course, the last thing that the Democrats want to do, given that it’s going to be kind of hard to explain why Rangel has quite so many rent-controlled apartments, was so behind on his taxes, and generally appears to be giving an excellent impression of a corrupt suckweasel. So now they’re actually going to have to do something about it, even if “something” is a whitewash. Which is the most likely result: if Congressional Democrats actually cared about corruption, they wouldn’t have quite so much of it in their caucus right now.

Still, Sunlight really is the best disinfectant. Well played, Warlord Carter. Well played.

Crossposted at RedState.