Remember when a political scandal was like a blood sport for the media? Once upon a time a politician found with his pants down, preferred, or his hand in the cookie jar, not quite as titillating but still fodder for the media mill.
It seemed in the good old days that a politician found to have committed or even suspected of some ethical indiscretion would be perused, investigated and hounded until he either was driven from office or totally discredited. His reputation would be ruined and if he remained in office he would be stripped of all responsibility.
Who can forget Senator Craig's misdemeanor wide stance or un-indicted Congressman Foley's text messages. Of course there have been more serious malfeasance over the years which have been brought to the public light by our esteemed media and the political culprits shamed into resignation or at least contrition.
So what about Charlie? You know good old Charlie Rangel, one of the most powerful congressman in the House. Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, you know the one that does those incidental things like, well writing the tax codes for all of us that actually pay them. Fortunately Mr. Rangel understands that as a congressman he should be held to a high standard of ethical accountability and had something to say about it the other day.
"I would never do anything to embarrass my committee, the Congress or my country," Rangel (D-Harlem) told the Daily News. "It's really painful to make the front page of The New York Times with a nothing story because clearly I was supporting expanding educational opportunity for people."
Now that sounds very sincere doesn't it ? Well let's review how Charlie has not embarassed his committee, the Congress or his country.
First, I believe it is first, it is difficult to keep track of the chronology, Congressman Rangel was found to pocess four apartment in what in one of those interesting New York City phenomena called rent stabilized building. This as I understand it sort of freezes the rent you pay despite what the market may be. Basically people get grandfathered into their leases and don't have to worry too much about being priced out of their homes, one of those well meaning ideas sounds good in theory but tend to be either abused or destabilize the true market system. Regardless Congressman Rangel has four such apartments as The New York Times informed us back in July.
Mr. Rangel, the powerful Democrat who is chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, uses his fourth apartment, six floors below, as a campaign office, despite state and city regulations that require rent-stabilized apartments to be used as a primary residence.
Mr. Rangel, who has a net worth of $566,000 to $1.2 million, according to Congressional disclosure records, paid a total rent of $3,894 monthly in 2007 for the four apartments at Lenox Terrace, a 1,700-unit luxury development of six towers, with doormen, that is described in real estate publications as Harlem’s most prestigious address.
The current market-rate rent for similar apartments in Mr. Rangel’s building would total $7,465 to $8,125 a month, according to the Web site of the owner, the Olnick Organization.
Alma and Charles B. Rangel’s Harlem residence, as shown in “Style and Grace: African Americans at Home” (2003).
Nice diggs huh? By the way a little biographical note here Charles Rangel is serving in his nineteenth term in Congress, he was first elected in 1970.
So he was cheating the housing laws in New York, oh well these things happen, down here in Florida we have an almost as powerful congressman Robert Wexler who lived in Maryland while representing a District he did not live in. Not to get side tracked but I love this quote from his (Wexler's) local paper.
Acknowledging that accusations that he doesn't really live in Florida are raising "concerns" among his constituents, Democratic U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler said Tuesday that he will begin leasing an apartment in his congressional district rather than continue to claim residency at his in-laws' home near Delray Beach.
Wexler made the announcement on the same day that his two challengers produced records showing Wexler received property tax breaks by declaring his house in Potomac, Md., a "primary residence" from 1999 to 2002. He also signed a loan document with his wife in 2005 describing the house as "my/our principal residence."
As a Floridian I am a bit upset that a member of our congressional delegation admits that "he doesn't really live in Florida" Awful big of Bob to actually go to the expense of renting an apartment down this way and to at least part time live in the district he represents. Oh and I guess his constituents didn't much care anyway, they re-elected him. What's that old saying, you get the government you deserve? And we wonder why our Representatives in Washington ignore our wishes, we ignore their arrogance and deceit.
At least Charlie lived in the District he represented, well sort of, we'll get to that in a bit. But let's try to keep Charlie's ethical behavior in some sort of order here. The next un-embarrassing item on the roll call of political virtue was the revelation that our Chairman of the tax writing committee owned a little get away bungalow on a tropical island.
Now the New York Post calls Chairman Rangel's Dominican Republic pad a villa, maybe but I doubt if it was a real villa they would have gotten close enough for that embarrassing snooze picture. Either way our chief tax writing legislator, failed to pay taxes on the rental he received from the alleged villa.
For 20 years, Harlem Rep. Charles Rangel has owned a beachfront villa in a sun-drenched Dominican Republic resort, yet has only sporadically declared income on the property in federal filings.
While the villa was rented to paying guests for the past two years, for instance, Rangel reported no income from it in 2006 and 2007, The Post has learned. As a congressman, failure to fully list all income and investments can result in civil penalties or criminal charges.
The powerful Ways and Means Committee chairman, a Democrat, owns "casita" No. 412 on the Caribbean Sea at the Punta Cana Hotel, on the lush eastern tip of the country, where he is affectionately known as "el senador."
His three-bedroom, three-bath villa, which can accommodate three couples, is rented for between $500 in the low season to $1,100 a night in the busiest tourist season and is one of the resort's most popular, managers and staff say.
Notice how both the Post and the Times refer to Charlie as powerful, despite the less than flattering pose. He must be for by this time, August, both of these influential papers in Charlie's home town have called for him to step aside. But Charlie has just begun to be an embarrassment to his committee, the congress and his country.
(to be continued)
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