The House ethics committee has concluded that Ways and Means Committee chairman, Charles Rangel, D-New York, knowingly accepted Caribbean trips in violation of House rules that forbid hidden financing by corporations, a source tells the AP. The source familiar said at least four other members of the Congressional Black Caucus (already under fire for its spending practices) on the trips in 2007 and 2008 have been exonerated.
Rangel is one of the most influential members of Congress because the committee he chairs writes laws setting tax rates and oversees Medicare and Social Security benefits. The decision is certain to raise questions about whether he can continue in that role in an election year in which Congress must deal with several expiring tax laws.
The congressman tells Politico that he’s merely being “admonished” by the committee. “I’m satisfied that when you read the report, that you will see that I have not been found guilty of anything,” he said.
“We were approved, the trip was approved. Whether or not it should have been approved is a serious issue,” he said of the 2007 and 2008 travel by members of the Congressional Black Caucus. Rangel added that “the critical part in the report is they’re saying the ethics committee should not have authorized it if they had known all the facts — that some private funds were involved in the payment of the conference.”
Is there one politician, just one, who’s not or won’t be suspected of some sort of corruption? There has to either be an initial requirement for criminal tendencies in politicians or they need not apply, or the rules and regulations are too convoluted. Another down.
–gerald radford
