In the Future Everyone Will Get to Chair Ways & Means for Fifteen Minutes

The Temporary Democratic Majority continues its rapid descent into self-parody:

Rep. Sander Levin will take over as chairman of the Ways and Means Committee after Rep. Pete Stark, who held the gavel for a day, stepped aside.

The dominoes fell after Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) resigned the chairmanship of the powerful tax-writing panel Wednesday as Republicans and many Democrats were moving to oust him following an ethics committee ruling that found he violated House gift rules.

Levin, who had been chairman of the Trade Subcommittee, will helm the panel through the end of this Congress — barring the unlikely return of Rangel.

Officially, Stark stepped aside to keep the gavel of the panel’s Health Subcommittee. But lawmakers and aides said Stark faced a rebellion within the committee and the caucus over his sometimes bizarre behavior and penchant for making offensive comments.

Meanwhile, Speaker Nancy Pelosi continues her promise to run “the most goat-rodeo Congress in history.”