The former chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, Rep. Charlie Rangel, has been convicted on most of the corruption charges brought against him:
A House ethics panel has convicted Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-N.Y.) on 11 of 13 counts of violating House ethics rules.
Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), the chairwoman of the adjudicatory subcommittee and the full House ethics committee, announced the decision late Tuesday morning following an abbreviated public trial of the 20-term lawmaker and nearly six hours of deliberations.
“We have tried to act with fairness, led only by the facts and the law,” Lofgren said. “We believe we have accomplished that mission.”
Rangel now faces a variety of potential punishments, from reprimand to expulsion from the House. Both Ed Morrissey and Jazz Shaw predict the reprimand, which amounts to telling Rangel that he did a no-no, but on formal stationery. I join them in their justifiably cynical prediction.
As for Rangel, he tried the entertaining gambit of walking out on Monday’s proceedings against him under some pretense about his legal representation. Next he’ll lay down another race card, to set himself up for the always useful Absolute Moral Authority Card.
Which gives me the opportunity to update the viral classic.
Update: Along with the Absolute Moral Authority Card, Rangel ought to get a Golden Ticket.
Update: To no one’s surprise, Rangel “deplores” the verdict.
The former chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, Rep. Charlie Rangel, has been convicted on most of the corruption charges brought against him:
Mild hand-slap and profuse apologies to follow.
Don’t think for a minute that arrogant crook to apologize! Hethinks he’s being singled out by Raaaciiists!
He needs to be kicked out of the senate. All his goodies, pension, insurance etc should be stripped from him.
He cheated, he did not get an attorney after his quit, he was proven guilty, now cries no representation..and boo hoos the public, dumb puke
he’s an example of everything that is wrong with Washington. It’s not racism, just common sense and American justice, to any and all.
He doesn’t need to worry..this will go no further.
A Representative can’t be kicked out of the Senate.
Rangel won’t apologize. The Ethics Committee will apologize to him for the hand-slap.
rangel is a crook!
I would certainly like to see expulsion along with being stripped of his pension. But since this is just a bunch of mostly democrats i look for the reprimand on formal stationary, which he will immediately toss into the nearest circular file!
Hope they don’t bruise the back of ole Charlies hand when they slap it.
Flogging with well-cooked spaghetti to follow.
If there isn’t any actual punishment for these violations, then what’s the point of having the investigation in the first place? More and more it seems that Washington just protects its own. Ah, yer still part of our club, Charlie! Enjoy your corner office, congressional perks, and your huge pension!
I think the next march on the Washington Mall should involve torches and pitchforks.
Ohmygod!!. How could this have happpened? Sure, his record keeping was a little sloppy. And that Costa Rican villa is clear across the continent, and you know, out of sight, out of mind. Anybody could have overlooked that when preparing taxes. And so what if shaking down prospective donors for the funds to build the Charles Rangel Center bent the rules a bit. Afterall, this guys an army vet and has lived off of the federal purse, I mean served his country in Congress forever. Surely he deserves better than this. I think it was the tie he chose that sank him.
Besides, Charlie is entitled to 4 rent subsidized apartments. Let the poor take care of themselves, no?
Yeah, they sure worked fast on this one. Had to get old Charlie’s case over and done with before the Republicans take over the committee. Anyone here really surprised?
The investigation has been going on since Sept. 2008. No “working fast” here. The thing that annoys me is that he was reelected — twice — since the investigation started.
..yeah, but with the GOP — and Tea Party — majority headed this way in January, they wanted to get this processed and out the door. Otherwise, Charley would’ve been doing a stretch in the Grey Bar hotel.
Charlie can still be brought up on charges in a court of law. Not that it’s likely to happen.
Has he pulled the race card out yet?
What do you mean “YET’ Woofty he has never stopped playing it. This Affirmative Action Racist Black only knows one way to play and the Race Card is it.
Well. This might get him a job as a Democrat minority leader in the coming shuffle, no? Where else would a swamp creature go after you try to drain the swamp?
Maybe they should punish him by making him Minority Leader.
He IS after all, a minority, and if the DemocRats weren’t so racist in denying him, he could easily be their leader.
I’d have no problem with that.
Of course, they COULD be holding that slot for Maxine Waters…
You’ve got to hand it to the Democrats.
Rangel got off as easily as anyone possibly could have guessed.
As far away as possible from an election.
No C-SPAN footage of people asking him questions.
Just Rangle stating how badly he’s been treated followed by a dramatic exit.
Maxine Waters, are you paying attention?
If Marion Barry can be re-elected after his conviction for using crack, no doubt Congressman Rangel’s constituents will be equally forgiving and return him to office until he’s as old as Senator Byrd. Constituents who regard government as a jobs program don’t concern themselves with corruption in public officials. But, if he does lose his job, I know a job for which President Obama considers a tax cheat qualified: Secretary of the Treasury.
APPEAL, Charlie; APPEAL!
You’ll be dead and gone before you get sentenced! Or maybe you have some better tricks?
…. Marion Barry … re-elected after his conviction for smoking crack ….
Barney’s fWank for running sodomites for rent from his DC pad; (Said its “madam(ish)” took him for a sucker)
The recidivist, treasonous, lying, looting, thieving, mass-murdering, co-serial-rapist Billy-Bubbah Blythes for all of the above;
Charley Wangle for just the tip of the iceberg …..
George Soros for helping Hitler to round up Jews and to steal their stuff, for destroying currencies and for creating — and obscenely profiting from — the immediately-pre-2008-election run on just about everything American?
What else to expect from the vast RICO-racketeering organized criminal hordes and cabals that prefer we call them by their street name: the “Democratic” National Socialist Workers’ and Gangsters’ Fascist Party?
What were the 2 charges that didn’t stick?
Your constituents will love you to the end, Charlie, you old thief, because “He stick it to duh Man!”
I distinctly remember something about the “culture of corruption”, I just can’t remember where I heard it.
I’m so glad the Democratic members of the House of Representatives takes it so seriously. I await their implementation of appropriate sanctions with bated breath.
So let the ethics community censure him and then turn him over to the IRS for tax evasion.
sheer clug-cruggery. what else to expect from a fool like rangel?
Time for the slap on the wrist from the Obama Democrat House before the 112th Congress moves in January 5, 2011. What a joke. He deserves to be expelled. Expulsion is the only option to be taken seriously.
Maxine Waters’ wrist slapper is next.
So, how long are we going to punish the electorate with “racially” gerrymandered congressional districting? Because this is exactly what we get for it: Charlie Wrangle, Maxine Waters, Sheila Jackson Lee. I thought segregation was supposed to be a bad thing. Why is it that ONLY “Uncle Tome” candidates like Allen West (et. al) need to compete in balanced multi-racial districts? How LONG do we need to feed this myth?
You are soooo right. I live in Australia where we have a lot of trouble with the black minority. We the white majority have offered to include them specifically into the country’s constitution.BUT …NO They don’t want to be equal,they want to be more equal. It’s like having gays,blacks,minority groups mentioned in the ‘anti-discrimination law’. That will make these groups more protected than the normal,law abiding folk.This is racist at its best.Sorry,I forgot that blacks can’t be racist.
I simply don’t understand this. Why did the dems charge two senior blacks at this point in time? They’ve slept on corruption, e.g. Dodd & Frank, but gone after the Negros.
And, why act now, in November, AFTER the election? If they had postponed the hearing ’til AFTER the new Congress, they could blame the verdict on Tea party racism.
Makes no sense! Why go after only two black Congressional thieves when there are so many more, why now? And, even with a whitewash (blackwash?) of Rangel, there is some damage to the donks. I don’t understand, unless, the dems are racists and hate blacks.
Easy. It is so they can say that they do clean up their own house and fight the corruption too. Blacks are important to us, but we get your vote no matter what. We gotta cover our own hides. Someone has to volunteer to take on for the team. Oh! Did you just volunteer, Rangel? Under the bus you go. /snark
Actually, this was all stagecraft. I am sure they agreed he’d take the hit. He does his little tap-dance (yes, I said that), and exits in a pretend huff. They find him guilty. He gets a slap on the wrist. He gets renewed victimhood status. Life goes on as before, and they have political cover. Rangel is in on the deal.
Democratic Party – “All politics, all the time!”
Does this mean that this criminal can now be removed to Alcatraz? This is a fitting place for Rangel and all of the other criminals who are attempting to destroy this nation. The Greens should approve of this because I don’t believe that there is any electricity and likely there is no running water. While we are saving the nation, the government thugs will be saving the planet. What a deal!
About twenty years ago I ran into Charlie on line in a Manhattan discount store (Webers on 72St). I remarked “Are you an honest politician that you have to shop ina discount store?” He gave me a funny look. Then I realized he didn’t have anything he was pruchasing. Now I can only figure he was there for a payoff. Once a crook, always a crook, isn’t that so Charlie?
Here we have a black man ,voted into office by a black majority who has ripped off the white taxpayers.You don’t expect his voters to stop him do you.This guy is BLACK.His black constituents see him as a MARTYR.All his money came from con jobs against the mostly white folk.The racist black caucus think he is a poster boy. This really gets my goat.It’s like trying to remove the mullah from the mosque by one white soldier.
Rangel has been given a wrist-slap because the incoming congress would have done much more to him. It was a deal with Pelosi.
Where’s Vern?
…and, predictably, refuses to accept responsibility for his actions. You’re a class act, charlie.
Maxine Waters is next. Rep. Water’s corruption trail will be better than Comedy Central, don’t miss it.
So Charlie gets censured. Big Effing Deal. Now his driver has to park the limo in general parking, with the hoi polloi.
Oh my gawd what a f***ing nightmare!
The US Congress sucks. Guy Fawkes was on to something…
“What fools we mortals be” Why do the people of New York keep putting this crook back in office? New York you get the
government you deserve.