A few months ago, I took note of the scandal enveloping Charles Rangel (D-NY) and said that I hoped it wan't true since Rangel had been a supporter of DEA when I was an agent. Unfortunately, things now look worse for the powerful Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee. Rangel, who overseas the writing of our tax laws on said committee, is accused of violating the very laws he is supposed to uphold. Among other things, it appears that Rangel failed to include some $4 million dollars in outside income and business transactions on his financial disclosure forms. Now it has been revealed that he made big campaign contributions to three Democratic members of the House Ethics Committtee who are charged with looking into the allegations (Ben Chandler, G.K. Butterfield and Peter Welch). Finally, the Washington Post has now called for him to step down from his leadership position.
In addition, Rangel is hurting his cause by a public display of arrogance as he demonstrated in this meeting with reporters last Friday:
Source: http://wcbstv.com/politics/charles.rangel.investigation.2.1150611.html
(Article by Marcia Kramer, WCBSTV entitled, Rangel Keeps Mum Amid Disclosure Controversy, dated August 28, 2009)
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Rangel: "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", he told reporters.
"There have been questions raised in the press about money that you didn't report," asked CBS 2's Marcia Kramer. "I wonder if you'd like to comment about that."
Rangel: "Anyone else that would like to have the opportunity to be heard on camera?"
Reporter: "Why not just deny the allegations?"
Rangel: "OK. Anybody else?"
Reporter: "How does something like this get overlooked?"
Rangel: "OK. Anybody else?"
Reporter: "You seem troubled by our questions."
Rangel: "Anybody else?"
CBS 2's Kramer: "Have you decided not to answer a single question, sir?"
Rangel: "Well I thought I said that earlier."
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How's that for arrogance?
Do you think House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who came to power telling the world she and the other Dems were going to "drain the swamp", change the "culture of corruption" and give the American people the "most ethical Congress in history", will take any corrective action?
It was just a question.
Good old Charlie is safe. He can say anything, do what he likes, and is under the protection of Saint Nancy.
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