Posted on 11/15/2010 1:47:44 PM PST by Sub-Driver
Rangel: 'I have no real chance of fighting back' By Jordan Fabian - 11/15/10 03:51 PM ET
Embattled Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) struck a defeated tone Monday, hours after he walked out of his own ethics trial.
Rangel reiterated his claim that his due process rights had been violated over his lack of legal representation at the trial that began Monday morning.
"I hope that my colleagues in Congress, friends, constituents and anyone paying attention will consider my statement and how the committee has been unfair to me," he said in a prepared statement. "They can do what they will with me because they have the power and I have no real chance of fighting back."
The longtime lawmaker made waves when he threatened to leave the hearing after tussling with ethics committee chairwoman Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) over the absence of his legal representation.
Rangel's attorneys parted ways with him in October, and the congressman said he could not afford to hire new representation after spending almost $2 million in legal fees over the past two years.
The adjudicatory subcommittee is meeting behind closed doors Monday afternoon to determine if Rangel committed the 13 counts of House ethics violations that are alleged against him.
If he is found guilty of the violations, he could face a full House vote on his expulsion or a lesser punishment. Rangel said he is now looking past the trial.
"Now, I am going forward — not backwards — to do the job I was elected to do. That is to serve my district and to serve my country, as I have tried to do for the past 50 years," he said. "In the end, I hope that I would be judged by my entire record that determines that I have been a credit to the House and to my family, friend and supporters who have entrusted me with this honorable duty."
Yeah, that's what Al Capone said too.
He's had two years to fight back. As the Ethics Committee counsel noted, none of the evidence presented has every been challenged by Rangel or his attorneys, and Rangel himself has admitted on the floor of the House to many of the charges.
This was a gambit, pure and simple, to try and make something with a losing hand. And it failed.
Boo-freaking-hoo! This guy has become a multi-millionaire with all his illegal shennigans and now he’s crying in his beer about having to explain it. We all know the moron will only get a handslap but it’s fun while it last!
did Tom Delay have a chance? Scooter Libby? no, of course, neither had done anything wrong, unlike Wrangle.
The lament of the seriously guilty for millenia.
Can you reach that big flush handle on the side of the House Chamber??
Time to send this racketeering thief down the river!
Sorry Charlie... ( Ummm... NOT!)
He’s been re-elected. What’s the worst that can happen? Censure? OOoooooH! Scary!
So use the Pubile Defender like you expect everyone else to use.
Guilty as sin, free as a bird.
Poor sorry 80 year old black man who is being picked on by the racists. What happened to the upbeat, confident, Ill be exonerated Charlie of a few months ago......maybe his lawyers ran because he has no case and not because he has no money for sure. Up next the arrogant socailist communist biotch Maxine Waters. Im running out of popcorn already!
Not for the reasons he loudly proclaims [with that racial tinte]. His problem is that he’s guilty as Hell with no real recourse in a fair system of legal judgement.
50 years of being “The Man” and now he has to fight The Man.
poor Chuckles.
Yeah, that's what Al Capone said too.
And Duke Cunnningham, and James Traficant, etc...
And that’s what William “Cold Cash” Jefferson said too!
And how exactly does a person who has only ever been in congress bank a few million dollars?
Rangel do the right thing RESIGN. What a wuss, I have done niothing wrong and I have spent 2 million dollars already and the lawyers walkied away. Why is that Rangel, because you are guilty as sin. This American desires you to have a VAT on everything you own and a tax on everything you spend your ill gotten income on. How about a death panel for 80 year old corruptocratic politician. You want sympathy from me, BS, look it up in the dictionary right next to suicide.
You have to wonder how he managed to spend 2 million dollars on lawyers before the case even started, on a congressional ethics inquiry.
Why fight? What you did is all on the record. Hang your head and take your medicine like a man, not like a whinny little child.
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