Charlie Rangel to keep gavel – for now

charlie-rangelSo much for the “most ethical congress ever” and “draining the swamp” by Nancy Pelosi. On ABC this past weekend, Nancy Pelosi, said that Rangel’s participation in the corporate-sponsored trips wasn’t something that had “jeopardized our country in any way,” and she made it clear that she has no intention of taking away Rangel’s chairmanship unless and until the ethics committee determines that he’s guilty of a number of ethics violations it’s currently investigating.

“Well, let’s … why don’t we just give him a chance to hear what the independent, bipartisan [ethics committee says] — they work very hard to reach their conclusions, and we … obviously, there’s more to come here,” Pelosi said.

The Caribbean trips were just a small part of Rangel’s case before the ethics committee. Over the past 18 months, the committee has been investigating a number of issues involving his personal finances, including Rangel’s failure to report hundreds of thousands of dollars on income and assets; his fundraising on behalf of the Charles B. Rangel Center for Public Service at City College in New York; his use of multiple, rent-stabilized apartments in Harlem; and his failure to pay taxes on a Dominican Republic vacation home.

Pelosi said she hopes the committee will resolve those issues “soon,” but she cautioned that the panel is “independent” and works at “their own pace.”

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March 1, 2010 · Filed Under Charlie Rangel


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