Chuckles Charlie Rangel on verge of losing gavel

charlie-rangelUpdate: Rangel to take a “leave of absence until investigation is over?”

Democrats, who are obviously very worried about their elections come November are jumping on the dump Rangel bandwagon! Rangel suffered a significant blow Tuesday afternoon when Rep. Artur Davis – a member of both the Ways and Means Committee and the Congressional Black Caucus who’s running for governor back home in Alabama – issued a statement in which he said the chairman “should do the right thing and step aside.”

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Another Democrat member told POLITICO Tuesday night:

“I think Charlie should do the right thing and step down. We expected that out of Tom DeLay. He should do the honorable thing … There’s no double standard. “

For a few days, the New York Democrat’s grip on power seemed steady even after the House ethics committee found him in violation of House gift rules last week. Speaker and Rangel ally Nancy Pelosi (DCal.) vowed to wait to see if ethics acts on more of the allegations that have been lodged against him.

But Republicans are planning to bring a resolution to the House floor calling for his removal as chairman, and Democratic aides said Tuesday that the party’s most vulnerable incumbents are not willing to risk the electoral fallout that would come from standing by the 39-year House veteran.

If all House members vote and all 178 Republicans favor removing Rangel, the GOP would need 39 Democrats to turn against the chairman to win the vote. By Tuesday night, at least 14 Democrats had said Rangel should give up his chairmanship – and it was clear that more were coming.

Rangel declined to talk with reporters at the Capitol Tuesday night. A source close to him pushed back against rumors that he planned to step aside from his Ways and Means post, saying Rangel wanted to wait until the House votes so that he can “see what his strength was.”

A senior aide to a vulnerable House Democrat said that Rep. Joe Crowley, an ally of Rangel who has also played a leadership role at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, is leading the whip count efforts on Rangel, acting a go-between between the vulnerable freshman and sophomore Democrats, on the one hand, and Rangel and Democratic leadership on the other.

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March 2, 2010 · Filed Under Charlie Rangel, Corruption, Democrats


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