Posted on 09/01/2009 1:28:39 PM PDT by yoe
Charlie Rangel's ethics problems have continued to multiply, as it's been revealed that for years, he has failed to disclose substantial assets (something like half his net worth) on his financial disclosure forms. The House ethics committee is investigating, but has done nothing so far. This is on top of Rangel's tax troubles; he failed to report income on a Caribbean villa and paid back taxes (but no penalties or interest) when caught by the IRS.
(Bryon York)notes that House Republicans are trying to embarrass the Democrats by introducing legislation codifying the "Rangel Rule." The bill would grant ordinary taxpayers the sweetheart treatment that Rangel received from the IRS. Nancy Pelosi, of course, won't allow it to be voted on.
More important, Byron points out something that had escaped me and has not been widely commented on:
[T]he Rangel case is very, very serious.
If you don't think so, just look at this, from the front page of the Oct. 28, 2008 Washington Post: "Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska, one of Congress's most powerful Republicans, was convicted yesterday of lying on financial disclosure forms to conceal his receipt of about $250,000 in gifts and expensive renovations to his house. ..." Stevens' conviction was later thrown out because of prosecutorial misconduct, but the message was clear: This is the kind of thing you can go to jail for.
Rangel appears to have hidden greater sums of money than Stevens allegedly did.
Will Charlie Rangel, one of the most powerful Democrats in Washington, go to jail? Perhaps prosecutors will give him the sort of preferential treatment that he got from the IRS. In Eric Holder's politicized Justice Department, it's certainly possible. But Byron is probably right that "it's just a matter of time before [Democratic leaders are] forced to admit they have a serious Rangel problem."
Headline: Democrats caught up in Rangle tangle!
Headline: Democrats caught up in Rangel tangle!
I got a dollar that says Rangel gets no consequence
that affects him in any significant way.
Right. The Republican’s political career is destroyed and he avoided prison only through prosecutorial misconduct. The Democrat will go scot free and will continue his criminal activities and misdeeds as a powerful and influential committee chairman.
And the press will continue their deafening silence.
Nobody is going to take your sure thing bet. Ain’t nuthin gonna happen to Good Time Charlie!
“++++Will Charlie Rangel, one of the most powerful Democrats in Washington, go to jail?+++++”
If you mean jail as in a few months of “solitary confinement” on a tropical island....then yes, he will!
heh heh...Sean Hannitys “good friend” in deep doo-doo. Couldn’t happen to a nicer jerk. Unless maybe any of the other big lib liar/cheater types.
Starkist’s Charlie the Tuna;
“The advertisements depicted Charlie (voiced by actor Herschel Bernardi) as a hipster wearing a beret and glasses, whose goal is to be caught by the StarKist company. Charlie believes that he is so hip and cultured that he has “good taste,” and he is thus the perfect tuna for StarKist. Charlie is always rejected in the form of a note attached to a fish hook that says, “Sorry, Charlie.”
Exactly. Rangel is safe beyond words.
You are probably right. But if you recall in 1994, the Republican’s winning the majority was based on two things: Clinton’s early radical agenda and the documented corruption of the democrats (the House post office and bank scandals). After Pelosi’s rants in 2006 about the “culture of corruption”, it will be interesting when all of these ‘rat corruptions get more airtime (say in mid 2010).
Moderates and conservatives seem to be repulsed by corruption. Libs, not so much. Should be enough to help us though.
Yeah...the press is going to cover for Charlie like they cover for Obama and his Chicago mob.
If they don’t report it...it must not be news.
It’s the o.j. simpson situation. NO BLACK JURY WILL EVER CONVICT A BLACK MAN OF ANYTHING! ! ! They could have had a video of the simpson murder, he would STILL have walked.
HAHAHAHAHAHA!
If he was gonna get busted, he would have been busted by now...
Libs are elitists by nature, seeing the people in power as another class of people who have the right and duty to make decisions for the individual.
This is why they are not bothered too much by the corruption of the elites - their work is way too important for them to be held to some standard meant for the rest of us.
“Will Charlie Rangel, one of the most powerful Democrats in Washington, go to jail? “
He will never see so much as a single day in jail. He’s a dem, he’s black and he’s been around long enough to have accumulated lot’s of ‘wood’.
He has held positions that have allowed him to know where all of the skeletons are hidden.
Even if he were charged, he would walk on a predetermined technicality... he will never serve time or be brought to justice.
The authorities are still trying to figure out which of Charlie’s multiple principal residences to cite in the search warrant..... /sarc
He will go far within the ranks of the democrat party.
Offer the Congressman a wafer-thin mint.
Rangel doesn’t have an ethics problem. Having an ethics problem, requires one to have ethics, something which the congressman is unburdened with.
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