AS I WAS SAYING A YEAR AGO ("Best of Gatey" from 9/20/09):
"Charlie Rangel is a great American patriot. He has been heroic in crusading for a fairer tax system and a better health system. He has told unpleasant truths time and again about the impact of fighting wars with a force made up predominately of folks who needs the money and benefits. He’s been indispensable in helping to elect a Democratic majority in Congress.
But, at the very least, Charlie Rangel’s carelessness, if that is indeed what it is, in handling his personal affairs has become a national embarrassment. Perhaps, if he chaired the committee on Foreign Affairs, it would be an embarrassment we could endure. But, at a time when Democrats hope to greatly expand the services provided through our public sector, to have a Chair of the tax-writing committee who has a casual attitude about his own taxes is highly and dangerously problematic and a serious impediment to the enactment of the programs to which Mr. Rangel has dedicated his career.
It is an embarrassment which makes everything Rangel touches look dubious.
Every Chair of the House Committee on Ways and Means raises shameful amounts of money in a shameful manner to pass onto his party’s candidates. The shamefulness of the protection/access game which attracts this money is so bi-partisan and time-honored that the press largely ignores the very legal scandal which it is.
But there is nothing in Charlie Rangel’s manner of raising such money which should attract any special attention. In fact, by and large, Rangel’s contributors get far less for their money than they did when they gave it to his Republican predecessor.
But now such money attracts special and unwelcome attention to those Democrats to whom Rangel forwards it to, because it came though Rangel. And this is even though the “scandal” which has attached to Rangel has virtually zero to do with the real scandal attached to such money.
There is no doubt in my mind that the public exposure of Rangel’s personal problems probably derives almost entirely from the vast right-wing conspiracy, but that does not make those problems any less real.
Since holding his House seat is a right conveyed to him by the voters, calls for Rangel’s resignation from Congress are premature until voters, or a Judge and Jury, decide otherwise.
However, Congressional Committee Chairmanships are not a right, but a privilege conveyed by a party conference entitled to consider questions of political expediency. Rangel should do his Party and his President a favor and step aside as Chair until his issues are resolved." Validating Right-Wing Frames? | Room Eight www.r8ny.com
