Ethics chief counsel recommends censure for Rangel
November 18th, 2010 . by TexasFredWASHINGTON (AP) - The House ethics committee’s chief counsel recommended Thursday that veteran Rep. Charles Rangel be censured for financial and fundraising misconduct as lawmakers neared closure on an embarrassing 2 1/2-year-long scandal.
Chief counsel Blake Chisam called for the punishment despite the veteran New York congressman’s plea, in a prepared statement in advance of the hearing, for “a drop of fairness and mercy.”
If Chisam’s recommendation is carried out, it would be the most serious punishment short of expulsion that could be meted out by the House. Chisam and Rangel argued their positions at a public hearing on sanctions, where the 80-year-old congressman acknowledged making mistakes in handling his finances and said he wasn’t there to “retry this case.”
He did say he wished the committee would weigh, in considering its vote on punishment, how the House had handled previous cases involving lawmakers who were enriched by activities they undertook that were judged to be in violation of the chamber’s rules.
Full Story Here:
Ethics chief counsel recommends censure for Rangel
Censure? That’s it? That’s ALL Rangel is going to get?
censure – noun
1. strong or vehement expression of disapproval: The newspapers were unanimous in their censure of the tax proposal.2. an official reprimand, as by a legislative body of one of its members.
That’s not even a slap on the wrist. And folks, this is what you get when the FOX guards the hen house. The FOX, in this case, being Rangel’s fellow Congress Critters.
The picture says it all.
That paper Rangel has in his hands? It’s mislabeled. It should read The U.S. Constitution. And we all know what Rangel is going to do with it once he gets to the ‘out house’. I just don’t believe reading it is on his agenda.
Censure? These ass-hats in Congress have wasted many hours of investigation and untold millions of TAX PAYER DOLLARS and all they can come up with is a censure?
Little Charlie: “LaLaLaLaLaLaLaLa…”
Little Charlies Mother: “Now Charlie, be a dear and use your *indoor* voice…”
That is a censure.
A censure boils down to a correction, a verbal reprimand, and it equates to little more than saying nothing at all. It means Rangel is free to proceed with his shenanigans as a Member of Congress. It means that many of his fellow Congressmen are as crooked as is Rangel himself.
Rangel spoke calmly without notes as he faced the committee. He repeatedly denied he was corrupt or crooked, sparking a clash with Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas.
McCaul questioned whether Rangel’s conduct was, in fact, corrupt.
He noted that Rangel targeted donors for a college center named after him, people who had legislative issues that Rangel could influence in the Ways and Means Committee.
Rangel, McCaul added, didn’t pay taxes on his Dominican Republic villa for 17 years.
“Failure to pay taxes for 17 years. What is that?” McCaul asked. He noted that former Rep. James Traficant, who was expelled after a felony conviction, didn’t pay taxes for just two years.
Rangel is going to skate. That’s all there is to it.
The reference to former Rep. James Traficant and his conviction and expulsion from Congress on tax evasion charges; Traficant was convicted. So far, Rangel is only accused. That was a nice try by the Gentleman from Texas, but accusations without convictions just don’t hold water.
The fact of the matter is this; we still have crooks in Congress. As long as We, The People keep on re-electing the likes of Rangel and Pelosi, we will always have crooks in Congress.
Yes, Rangel was wrong, but America only has itself to blame for him being there.
And this son of a bitch hasn’t paid income taxes for 17YEARS!!!!!!!!!!!
We’d be GETTING 17 years if we, the public didn’t pay our taxes and that was just one of his violations. I’ll keep saying………..THINGS ARE NOT GOING TO CHANGE in this festering dung heap till there is an armed rebellion, and I’m dammed ready.
CENSURE??? This is a truckload of excrement, the stench of which we cannot abide. How blatant can this be, to just let such a criminal act go? If any of us did a fraction of what Mr. Rangel did, we would be in prison for a long time, and then have to pay back taxes with the associated fees and penalties.
This is an outrage I tell you!
He fails to pay taxes for 17 years and gets what amounts to of being told he’s been bad? Any one of us here would have had all our assets confiscated by the IRS, tried, and most likely on the way to prison. I haven’t even heard it said where he’s going to have to even pay the back taxes.
Charlie Rangel has abused his office for twenty years, he needs to be removed! But we all knew he was going to get away with this in the Democrat controlled Congress, that is why they moved so quickly after the election. It is a shame, but it isn’t surprising.
Why won’t someone call him what he really is!
Just more liberal horseshit. Man should be tossed out and jailed. But that would be racist; now wouldn’t it? Charlie needs to have the big one. Or have Aunt Esther chase him around the block for a while.
I ain’t allowed to mrchuck.
Fred would ban me from the blog.
YOU don’t really have to read what I’d call him, you already know what I’d say about him and the rest of the libber puking
scumbag M F”s that he’s associated with and that’s including the Chief M F’r In Charge.
I think you ALL know what I would say in a PRIVATE conversation, we just don’t need the undue scrutiny from asshats like the LBCC Professor and his faux conservative ilk…
Hmmmm…. Didn’t pay taxes for Years, Thinks that is not unethical? Lied to the country and his constituents? comes from a big city and has NO common sense? I see a cabinet (read Czar) appointment coming soon!
Yet another example of an epic fail obamanite tax cheat…
Censure = payed vacation IMNSHO! This reminds me of when the Jefferson County Prosecutors did a Great Pretend Job, and posed as a Defense Attorney… Now, we all liked the outcome. To be sure…
However, we are supposed to be a nation of Laws. Not a nation of the “End Justifies the Means.” Or, what as educated people know as Utilitarianism…
That Prosecutor got three months suspension, payed. The above appears similar. Payed vacation for violating his oath
So? I forget right now. But it was Ben F. T.J. or J. Madison that said something along the lines of “Give up some liberty for some safety, and you will get neither.”
And the BULLSIT arguments of those that Laird it over us..? They are indeed identical to the folks that said the very lame assed excuse of “I was just doing my job” At Nuremberg…
I myself? Support the same treatment for RINO’s, as well as “Tea Party” electorates that become a part of the Republican establishment as was accorded those at defendants at Nuremberg.
It is indeed a time for a “change…”