Charlie Rangel Goes Down to Censure

by John M. Curtis
(310) 204-8700

Copyright December 2, 2010
All Rights Reserved.                                

              Proving that nobody’s perfect, 80-year-old 20-term Congressman Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-Harlem), faced House censure for financial and fund raising misconduct, pleading with his colleagues for mercy.  Give Democrats drubbing at the Nov. 2 midterm elections, the House leadership was in no mood to for mercy for the former chairman of the powerful tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee.  Rangel becomes the 23rd House member in U.S. history to face censure.  “I have made serious mistakes,” said Rangel admitting to filing phony financial disclosure forms and to pay income taxes.  While Rangel took his lumps, he begged his colleagues and friends to be “guided by fairness,” despite the growing House consensus that Rangel committed serious ethical breaches.  Censure, while serious, does not evict House members from the prestigious Capitol Hill body.

            House Ethics Committee Chairwoman Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) echoed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s promise to “clean house” during years of Republican rule during the Bush administration.  Lofgren said Rangel “violated the public trust,” inconsistent with pledging “the most honest, most open, most ethical Congress in history.”  Rangel admitted to failing to serve as a senior role model to more junior lawmakers, saying publicly that elected officials “have a higher responsibility than most people.”  Rangel’s wish for leniency doesn’t jibe with ethical lapses leaving the House reeling from egregious conflicts of interest inconsistent with time-honored traditions.  Charlie admitted that Congressional members “have a higher responsibility than most people” to preserve ethical standards.  Censuring Rangel was a slap in the face to many members of the Congressional Black Caucus. 

            Apart from Rangel’s ethical problems, he’s the most senior member of the Congressional Black Caucus with an heroic Korean War record, distinguished service in the civil rights movement and major contributions redevelopment of America’s worst slums in Halem and the Bronx, launching him into the upper echelon of Congressional power.  Censoring Rangel slaps the Black Caucus but reminds all House members that no one’s immune to ethical lapses.  Rangel said the House was too harsh for what he called “good faith” mistakes, not shared by the House Ethics Committee that found him guilty of 11 of 13 ethical breaches, urging full censure by the overall House.  Despite his ethical problems, Rangel easily won reelection by 80%, one of the widest margins in recent electoral history.  Whatever Charlie’s problems, his Harlem district showed undying loyalty and forgiveness.

            House minders cited Rangel for not paying income taxes for 17 years on units in his native Dominican Republic.  Rangel also omitted hundreds-of-thousands of assets off his income disclosure statements, grossly undervaluing his net worth.  Because he didn’t enrich himself directly from underhanded dealing with lobbyists or foreign government, Charlie didn’t think his breaches warranted censure.  Yet Congressman Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) was reprimanded for yelling, “you lie” Sept. 10, 2009 at President Barack during a national televised speech to a joint session of Congress.  With Democrats looking like hypocrites with respect to ethical lapses, they’re in no mood to show leniency to one of their own.  Rangel becomes the latest scapegoat in a system that otherwise turn a blind eye to elected officials.  Censuring Rangel satisfies Washington’s gladiator-like mentality.

            House ethics committee also cited Rangel for using unused units in a low-income Section 8 apartment building to house his campaign office.  When you consider Rangel’s commitment to the poor, it showed a cavalier, “let ‘em eat cake” attitude.  Taken in the bigger scheme of things, Rangel’s infractions were small potatoes.  With all the pay-to-play politics going on with GOP convicted-felon-lobbyist Jack Abramoff and former House Whip Rep. Tom Delay (R-Texas), it’s no wonder Rangel feels the House is piling on with respect to his punishment.  At the request of the Ethic’s Committee, Rangel has already paid the Treasury $10,422 and New York State $4,501 to satisfy ethics committee recommendations.  Rangel finds himself caught between a rock and a hard place awaiting the House censure vote.  Democrats are in no position to cut the octogenerian any slack.

            Rangel’s House censure reflects today’s knee-jerk response to making examples out of otherwise sacred cows.  Rangel’s long and distinguished career spans more than 50 years of dedicated public service.  In different times, his ethical lapses would have either been forgiven entirely or relegated to a stern reprimand, certainly not the stinging humiliation of a House-wide censure.  With Democrats taking a beating Nov. 2, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) showed a callous disregard to meting out justice.  Censuring Rangel showed the kind of overkill that makes good politics but doesn’t meet the smell test.  Rangel should have been read the riot act but not publicly flogged for relatively minor oversights.  When the Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner was fingered for not paying income taxes in 2009, it didn’t halt his nomination process.  No censure was given then and it shouldn’t be given now.

About the Author

John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He's editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.

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