Charles Rangel and House Ethics

Read for yourself what the 20-term Congressman has been charged with by a subcommittee of the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct after a case was recommended by Speaker Nancy Pelosi's Office of Congressional Ethics. It is hard to deny that some of this stuff he is accused of is the rather fishy side of politics -- as in, why did he do such a sloppy with paperwork or a good-old-boys-will-take-care-of-good-old-boys thing? As head of the House Ways and Means Committee, which, among other things, oversees taxes, why was he so bad at filing his own?

But, even holding one's nose, it is easy to say that under the rules of the game, a whole lot of legislators have done the same, or similar, things. The rules began to change when Speaker Pelosi came into office vowing to clean out the "swamp." It's primary occupants appear to be black members of the House. At last count seven of the 42 members were under some sort of investigation. As radio talk show host Santita Jackson asked earlier today: What is going on?

I am personally leaning towards the position that Rangel (D-New York) should step aside with dignity -- the President's position and that of some of Rangel's whippersnapper opponents in the September 14 Democratic primary in New York. But maybe he and Rep. Maxine Waters (D-California), who is also among those apparently under investigation, are on to something in declaring that they will fight it out no matter what it means ultimately for Democrats' continued control of the House. Maybe this does come down to the principle of the thing.

I've been writing about Rangel for The Root. This is the last piece I posted. There will be more. Let your voices be heard on this.

Why So Many of Us Are Mad at Congress

A whole lot of us, including me, are officially unemployed. If we are lucky, we can collect unemployment benefits each week -- welfare. But our do-mostly-nothing Congress members each gets paid a minimum of $174,000 per year and has access to what is called the "Cadillac" of health care insurance. I have absolutely no health insurance. It's triage for me and my two cats. Which ailment do we take care of out of my shrinking pocket at this particular time? Or do we resort to chicken soup and Vicks and meditation and dipping our toes in healing waters and other home remedies?

Official unemployment is in the low double digits (10%?); the unofficial, we know, is much higher.Why doesn't Congress know what we know and DO SOMETHING? Well, probably because they have those "Cadillac" options.

The summit meeting the President recently hosted proved that politics trumps all. Even as the President bends over backwards to come up with some kind of compromise that Republicans and nervous Democrats can agree to, they are sitting on their hands while looking to the possibilities of their prospects in November elections.

The Honorable Charles Rangel

For so many years we in New York, and particularly in Harlem, have been persuaded that the reason to keep returning Mr. Rangel to office was that he would be head of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, the place in Congress where the money gets decided upon. BUT...

Mr. Rangel has not lived up to the expectations because of so much baggage -- a sense of entitlement at a minimum, lost of touch with the real world perhaps, corruption at the most.

Dear, Congressman: You've got some explaining to do.

AND: The next generation -- post Adam 2d, post Rangel, post Gang of Four --needs to step up. Where do we go from here? Stop the butt-kissing and state your case -- our case.