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The New York Times
Opinion
Chairman Rangel
EDITORIAL,
nytimes.com on the Web, September 15, 2008
Mounting embarrassment for taxpayers
and Congress makes it imperative that Representative Charles Rangel step aside
as chairman of the Ways and Means Committee while his ethical problems are
investigated.
This recommendation does not come easily, considering the New York Democrat’s
four decades of service in Congress. But Mr. Rangel himself has felt
obliged to request three separate House ethics inquiries of his behavior.
While denying serious improprieties, Mr. Rangel concedes that he has not lived
up to the “higher standard” expected of members of Congress.
His latest admission is that as chief of Congress’s tax-writing committee, he
was “irresponsible” in failing to disclose $75,000 in rental income and pay
federal and state taxes on a villa in the Dominican Republic.
His temporary yielding of the gavel is an urgent necessity for a Democratic
Congress elected two years ago on promises of an ethical housecleaning.
The villa dealings only add momentum to the investigations of two earlier
controversies — Mr. Rangel’s favored treatment in occupying four rent-stabilized
apartments in Manhattan, and his improper use of official letterheads to solicit
support from charities and corporations for an academic center to memorialize
his career in public service.
Mr. Rangel has hurt his case with clumsy, combative pleas of ignorance of the
facts and law involving his Dominican villa. “We do make errors, even
though we consider ourselves experts in terms of tax policy for the nation,”
said the lawmaker, who has three decades’ experience on Ways and Means.
His excuse of “cultural and language barriers” with Dominican officials was,
simply, offensive. “Every time I thought I was getting somewhere, they’d
start speaking Spanish,” complained Mr. Rangel.
At the least, the disclosures betray that gross sense of entitlement that
regularly befalls politicians. At the Dominican villa, which the
congressman said he came upon 20 years ago during an overseas trip with Speaker
Tip O’Neill, Mr. Rangel eventually saw his 10.5 percent mortgage interest
payments waived when the developer favored him as a “Pioneer” early investor.
The powerful congressman has enjoyed his rent-stabilized apartments in Harlem —
improperly using one as a campaign office — at about half market value.
This is a $30,000-a-year boon, and the ethics committee must decide whether it
amounts to a gift from a politically savvy landlord that would violate House
rules. The panel must also weigh how badly Mr. Rangel violated official
letterhead restrictions.
As a new Congress approaches with a thick docket of fiscal and tax measures,
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi must see that no cloud hangs over Ways and Means
while the chairman is under investigation. The Democratic majority arrived
last year promising to “drain the swamp” of corruption epitomized by the
previous Republican majority’s quid-pro-quo dealings with Jack Abramoff, the
now-imprisoned superlobbyist.
Committee posts are not bestowed by voters. They are partisan privileges
granted by leaders in Congress, and Ms. Pelosi must not cut slack for an ally.
If Mr. Rangel refuses a temporary hiatus from his chairmanship, Ms. Pelosi
should remove him permanently.
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