Posted on 12/02/2010 8:16:48 PM PST by lbryce
Rep. Charles Rangel becomes the 23rd member of the House to be censured, Congress's
harshest punishment short of expulsion. The vote in favor of censure was 333 to 79. This
television screen grab shows Rep. Charles Rangel standing in the well on the House floor
while House Speaker Nancy Pelosi reads the censure resolution passed by the House on
Capitol Hill in Washington Thursday.
In a rare move, the House on Thursday voted, 333 to 79, to censure 15-term Rep. Charles Rangel (D) of New York for 11 ethics violations ranging from failure to disclose income to violating House gift bans.
In a solemn moment, Mr. Rangel stood silently, as Speaker Nancy Pelosi, looking anguished, read out the 11-line censure resolution, the first delivered in this chamber in 27 years. Rangel became the 23rd congressman in the history of the House to be censured.
The vote requires Rangel, former chair of the powerful Ways and Means Committee, to pay restitution for any unpaid estimated taxes on income from properties in the Dominican Republic and to provide proof of payment to the ethics panel.
(Excerpt) Read more at csmonitor.com ...
Any one else would be involved in a REAL trial.
Oh, wow! A slap on the wrist. You and I’d be in jail.
Tax fraud. Welfare fraud (or whatever you call grabbing 4 rent controlled apartments). When do the criminal prosecutions start?
So much to comment on but it would be a book. I’ll just cite this statement:
“Within the culture of the House, being reprimanded or censured is serious, and Charlie is going to feel that very hard, because he is an institutional creature,” says former House Historian Raymond Smock, director of the Robert Byrd Center for Legislative Studies in Shepherdstown, W.V. “He appreciates the House, even though he has brought some embarrassment to it.”
You just have to laugh when you consider whose ‘Center’ he’s representing.
Another crook gets away with something that little people would go to jail for.
This censure also sets Charlie up nicely for the Nobel “Peace” Prize. I think he’s a shoe in now. He’ll be right down there with Arafat, Cahtah, Gore and Barry on the list of the booby prize winners.
Why is the IRS letting him get away with this?
This is not going to look good on Your Permanent School Record, Mr. Rangel!
But it’ll have to do until you stand before the Almighty, when you’re gonna have a lot of ‘splainin’ to do.
Until the House Ethics Committee imposes real penalties on these scum, they will continue to be a joke.
Congressional Ethics is an oxymoron.
And the corruption in our government continues merrily on its way.
Censure?? Why not make him stay after Congress and write 1,000 times on a white board “I got caught, big deal!”
The very insignificance of his “punishment” is an insult and an affront to every honest, TAXPAYING American!!
Congressional “Ethics” are in and of themselves an oxymoron!!!
“They all claim it, but none explain it: what is so horrid about censure?”
It meant something in a once honorable time.
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