Free Republic

U.S. Rep. Barney Frank said yesterday he has “no regrets” about his role in helping a troubled Boston bank qualify for a $12 million federal bailout now at the center of ethics charges against California Rep. Maxine Waters. In fact, Frank - chairman of the powerful House Financial Services Committee - says he never helped OneUnited at the behest of Waters, whose husband had served on the bank’s board. Instead, the Bay State congressman said he worked to promote the bailout at the request of scandal-plagued then-state Sen. Dianne Wilkerson. “I was already working on behalf of OneUnited, I was...

  Despite predictions he would be swiftly abandoned by his colleagues, House Democrats are shrugging off Rep. Charles Rangel’s ethical scandal as they head for the exits for a six-week summer break. At least for now. Most Democrats are suggesting that they’ll let Rangel go through his upcoming ethics trial, taking a wait-and-see attitude as the ethics procedures unfold. There seem to be three key reasons Rangel is surviving the initial ambush of bad publicity without a true drive to oust him from Congress. First, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and other party leaders advising Democrats to stay calm – lawmakers...

My column today exposes the swamp creatures who coddled and protected Charlie Rangel all these years. Three House Dems have called on him to resign. And Democrats here in Colorado are bailing on him. But it’s too little, too late to mask the Democrat Party’s Rangel stench. Below I slam the House ethics panel for its wrist-slap wimpiness. Underscoring my point: The NYPost reports today that the panel is pushing for the least-punitive action against Rangel — a reprimand.

BOSTON (WBZ) ― Senator John Kerry found himself answering questions Monday about his new $7 million yacht and the controversy about where he's docking it. "There's nothing more to say about it," he told reporters at an event at the former South Weymouth Naval Air Station Monday. The "Isabel" is docked in Rhode Island rather than at Kerry's summer home on Nantucket or in Boston Harbor. That means he avoids paying nearly $500,000 in taxes to Massachusetts and he doesn't have to pay a $70,000-a-year excise tax. Rhode Island repealed those taxes in 1993. That has made the state something...

Treasury Secretary Says Letting Bush Tax Cuts for Rich Expire Will Not Slow Economic Growth July 24, 2010 6:00 PM In an exclusive interview on ABC News’ "This Week" to air Sunday, Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner said the White House would push to let the Bush tax cuts expire for individuals making more than $200,000 a year and families making more than $250,000, but keep them for middle and lower income Americans. “We think that's the responsible thing to do,” Geithner said, “because we need to make sure we can show the world that they're willing as a...

Embattled Rep. Charles Rangel said Saturday it would be unpatriotic to resign rather than fight his pending ethics charges - despite a call that he do so to save the Democratic party. "Well, it wouldn't be the American thing to do \[to step aside\]. I think I owe it to the process to find out first what the investigative committee finds out," Rangel told reporters after speaking at Harlem Hospital. The 80-year-old legendary lawmaker is accused of failing to pay taxes, abusing rent-control rules and trading donations for favors. A public federal trial on Thursday will determine his fate after...