Date 9/15/08
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi yesterday privately pushed Rep. Charlie Rangel to give up his chairmanship of the influential House tax-rules committee amid explosive revelations that his personal tax filings were riddled with errors and omissions, a wellplaced source said.
Rangel, the Democratic chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, has been resisting growing calls to step down from the high-profile leadership role since The Post reported the Harlem congressman failed to disclose rental income from his Dominican Republic beach home.
Rangel subsequently admitted owing at least $10,000 in back taxes and became a target of Republican political attacks.
One member of the New York congressional delegation who supported Pelosi's decision said, "You have to have one standard - you can't have one for [Republicans] and one for us."
Wait, there’s more, 2/4/09:
Representative Charles B. Rangel’s financial disclosure forms had at least 28 omissions in the past 30 years and failed to account for what became of more than $239,000 in assets, according to a report issued Wednesday by a private government-ethics group.
News release from the Sunlight Foundation
Despite Congressional rules that require members to list the purchase or sale of any assets, Mr. Rangel accumulated from $239,026 to $831,000 in assets that were not listed in subsequent reports, according to the report by the Sunlight Foundation, a nonpartisan group that advocates greater transparency by elected officials.
Rangel’s Financial Disclosures Omitted Data Over 30 Years, a Report Says
30 Years? A little rough math, if he were to owe 30% on the low amount that would be $71,000, on the high amount $249,000 in taxes. It’s hard to say since there is no transparency here. Rangel has taken the stance of saying “I made a mistake and I’m working on fixing it.” He’s been asked to step aside from the House Ways and Means committee, there is an ethics investigation going on, but he is still there, we still don’t know for sure what he did or didn’t do, but we do know that at a minimum he owed $10000.
A bill was entered in this current session of congress to have him step down temporarily, until the conclusion of the current ethics investigation, 2/10/09:
The House has voted to table, or set aside, a resolution designed to temporarily remove Rep. Charlie Rangel from his post as chairman of the powerful Ways and Means Committee.
Rep. John Carter, R-Tex., authored the resolution. Carter thinks the House should require Rangel to step aside from his chairmanship while the House Ethics Committee investigates potential wrongdoing by the New York Democrat.
Last summer, Rangel himself asked the Ethics committee to probe several areas of his conduct.
They include:
- His use of House stationary to help raise money for a school of public affairs in his honor at City College of New York.
- His failure to pay taxes on a vacation villa in the Dominican Republic.
- His use of four rent-controlled apartments in Harlem.
- His use of a parking space in a House parking garage for a broken down, unregistered Mercedes-Benz.
Carter's resolution came to the House floor for a vote Tuesday evening. But then Rep. Joe Crowley, D-N.Y., moved to table Carter's proposal.
The vote was 242-157 with 16 lawmakers voting present.
Many of the lawmakers voting present serve in the Ethics Committee investigating Rangel or are in a designated "pool" of lawmakers to conduct future ethics investigations.
In late November, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., indicated that she thought the Ethics Committee would complete its inquiry of Rangel by early January. But Tuesday, the ethics panel reauthorized its investigation of the chairman for the 111th Congress.
So, looks like he gets to keep on keeping on, just like William “Cold Cash” Jefferson from Louisiana did, well at least until the people of Louisiana woke up and voted that bum out of office, so New York, so Harlem when are you going to realize that Rangel is not your friend, he’s cheating you, he’s using you, he’s pimping you. Vote him out, better yet get him thrown out of office.
Picture at right, Rangel at the Obama Inauguration, nice Moscow lid on the pimpster, oh and the desecration of the flag is nice touch.
§8. Respect for flag
No disrespect should be shown to the flag of the United States of America; the flag should not be dipped to any person or thing. Regimental colors, State flags, and organization or institutional flags are to be dipped as a mark of honor.
- The flag should never be displayed with the union down, except as a signal of dire distress in instances of extreme danger to life or property.
- The flag should never touch anything beneath it, such as the ground, the floor, water, or merchandise.
- The flag should never be carried flat or horizontally, but always aloft and free.
- The flag should never be used as wearing apparel, bedding, or drapery. It should never be festooned, drawn back, nor up, in folds, but always allowed to fall free. Bunting of blue, white, and red, always arranged with the blue above, the white in the middle, and the red below, should be used for covering a speaker's desk, draping the front of the platform, and for decoration in general.
- The flag should never be fastened, displayed, used, or stored in such a manner as to permit it to be easily torn, soiled, or damaged in any way.
- The flag should never be used as a covering for a ceiling.
- The flag should never have placed upon it, nor on any part of it, nor attached to it any mark, insignia, letter, word, figure, design, picture, or drawing of any nature.
- The flag should never be used as a receptacle for receiving, holding, carrying, or delivering anything.
- The flag should never be used for advertising purposes in any manner whatsoever. It should not be embroidered on such articles as cushions or handkerchiefs and the like, printed or otherwise impressed on paper napkins or boxes or anything that is designed for temporary use and discard. Advertising signs should not be fastened to a staff or halyard from which the flag is flown.
- No part of the flag should ever be used as a costume or athletic uniform. However, a flag patch may be affixed to the uniform of military personnel, firemen, policemen, and members of patriotic organizations. The flag represents a living country and is itself considered a living thing. Therefore, the lapel flag pin being a replica, should be worn on the left lapel near the heart.
- The flag, when it is in such condition that it is no longer a fitting emblem for display, should be destroyed in a dignified way, preferably by burning
So here we have the guy that chairs the committee that writes the tax code, working with the Secretary of the Treasury, who also heads the IRS, I get it now continuity and consistency.
