Posted on 07/29/2010 9:12:52 AM PDT by KansasGirl
Per Foxnews, a local affiliate is reporting Rangel has struck a deal. FNC is working to confirm...
Beelzebub
Yesterday they said for a deal to go through, a Republican on the committee would have to sign off on it. So who folded?
Charlie will pay any back taxes and pay a fine. Probably be forced to take his name off two of his rent controlled residences in Harlem(wink...wink) and go on a diet so next time he’s photographed in his swimming trunks he won’t look like a beached whale.
Rangel, putting the “Con” in “Congress”.
Well, considering that the Ethics Committee is the one House committee where there is no majority - effectively giving both sides an equal and ever-present veto - this "deal" is NOT an encouraging sign for Republicans.
The fact of the matter is irrespective of its outcome, a trial is just what the doctor ordered for the GOP. It's disheartening that the Republican members would take that off the table, unless of course they've secured Rangel's resignation, which of course seems HIGHLY unlikely.
I would place my money on Dent of PA.
Both parties better hope no-one's got anything else on Charlie, because if they do and the info comes out after both parties allow a deal to be done...
....so a corrupt, shifty politician weaseled his way out of it?
That’s like paying for your bail with stolen money.
PATHETIC!
Not jail, expulsion. The House ethics committee has no authority to jail anyone, including Rangel. They can issue fines, and make recommendations to the larger House body about censuring or expelling members.
The DOJ could still investigate and prosecute Rangel for tax evasion - but of course, we both know that this DOJ won't investigate Rangel. Even still, this "deal" will do nothing to insulate Rangel from criminal prosecution.
"We took away his pass to our ACORN brothels for two full weeks."
But, the Dems really shored up the Harlem vote, by giving Charlie a break. So that's one district they'll carry this November...
Compare and contrast with the treatment of Newt Gingrich. He was sanctioned for an alleged IRS violation which, ultimately, was reversed by a tax court. (This was the issue of use of tax deductible contributions for a course on conservative principles - which Democrats thought was too partisan for tax exempt status.)
So, he did nothing wrong and ultimately 100% (something like 93 of 94 ethics charges, plus the charge he settled on which was later vindicated by the tax court ruling) of the charges the Democrats had wallpapered him with, were rejected. I don’t think Newt got the fine that he paid returned to him. I don’t think that the Ethics committee ever corrected the record and published an errata sheet when the tax court ruling came down several years after Gingrich left Congress.
Just think for a moment about the media treatment of Gingrich and the rather benign handling of Rangel’s case.
Why even go to the trouble when you can simply outvote them, albeit with a handful of the Blue Dogs allowed to vote with the GOP for political cover?
The beauty of a "no contest" plea is that such a vote can be avoided. Plea will be announced this afternoon and penalty will be announced for the Friday news dump to garner the least attention before the weekend.
Given the current political climate, they might even make the penalty so severe as to suspend Rangle for the duration of the current congress so he has to go home and face the wrath of the voters who, as we all know, will promptly reelect him.
Anyone objecting to this wrist-slap arrangement will, of course, be branded as antidemocratic and racist.
They couldn’t toss him, either, not if they need his vote. NYS’s gov Paterson has been denying NY-29 a prompt special election for months. If Goodtime Charlie resigned, Paterson coulden’t very well call an election for Rangel’s district while stiffing NY-29.
The DEAL is that Rangel won't testify, there won't be a trial, the charges will go through a year of bending and molding so they won't have to be enforced.
Reason: There isn't a single person in Obama's administration who cannot be 'blackmailed', or 'taken down', by what Rangel knows.
He has them bent over a prison bed, and they know it.
100,000 classified documents pertaining to Afghanistan get leaked to Wikileaks, but we’ll not see a single word of this report which itemizes the scores of illegalities which Rangel has engaged in for DECADES.
[A deal with who?]
House Ethics Committee
In the United States all men are NOT created equal.
Thanks to Obama and his complicit, evil Congress some are now more equal than others. Try to arrange your finances like Rangle and see what happens.
Since that racist Obama became president he has made race an issue and many Americans will never forget it.
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