House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is the world’s worst cleaning lady. How has she fulfilled her vaunted promise to “drain the swamp” and preside over the “most ethical Congress in history”? By shrugging her shoulders, downplaying the gravity of myriad ethics charges against corruptocrat Democratic Rep. Charlie Rangel and waiting for the “political chips” to “fall where they may.” Imagine a custodial service that fixed toilet clogs by letting the overflowing waste and polluted waters “fall where they may.”
At a press conference to preempt the bipartisan House ethics panel’s announcement of 13 ethics and federal regulation charges against Rangel on Thursday afternoon, Pelosi claimed to take “great pride” in her swamp-draining record. Unblinkingly, she cited the House trial against Rangel as proof that the “process” is working. But that beleaguered panel has been pathetically understaffed, has dragged its feet for two years on the Rangel case and has administered more halfhearted wrist-slaps than all the pushover parents on a season of “Nanny 911.”
Clinging bitterly to the moral equivalence card, Pelosi carped about Bush-era GOP corruption. (Cue a chorus of “Let’s do the time warp again!”) Her lips were sealed, however, on the continuing wheeling and dealing behind the scenes between Rangel’s lobbyist-funded lawyers and the ethics panel on a deal to avoid a congressional trial.
A full-blown public trial would thoroughly air his self-dealing, habitual bad-faith failures to report income, multiple House gift ban and solicitation ban violations, flouting of franking privilege and letterhead rules, and a fundamental “pattern of indifference or disregard for the laws, rules and regulations of the United States and House of Representatives,” as the House ethics statement of violations put it. But, hey, what about that GEORGE W. BUSH, eh, Pelosi?
Bush-whack all you want. The Rangel stench is overwhelming. Along the way, Rangel has obstructed House investigators, failed to produce documents and refused previous settlement offers — prompting House ethics investigative subcommittee member Rep.
Jo Bonner, R-Ala., to reject the Rangel-as-victim narrative. Misfortune didn’t befall Rangel. He chose his path. While bleeding-heart lefties in the media, like The Washington Post’s Dana Milbank, mourn entrenched incumbent Rangel’s sudden fall (he “took 36 years to climb to the top, only to lose it all in an instant”), there is nothing sudden about the entitlement sclerosis that took hold of his career.
Continue reading page: 1 2
Do you like this story?
I am so numb to all the corruption, I have nothing to say anymore. We have to clean them all out or we are done.
Corruption begets corruption, begets corruption. Voter remorse should be at about Overflow levle by now. Call me Racist if you wish, it's lost it's tooth, it just seems to me that since the 20th of Jan. 2009, the levle of corruption among Black Politicians has exploded exponentially, The Race card is being played as a defense against the Corruption that begins with POTUS, goes to DoJ, then the Congress. How did these people get elected in the first place. I'm sure there are good honest people in the CBC, but they better stand up and be heard before they are Painted with the same Brush. Defending fellow members because they are Black is somewhat understandable, yet highly inappropriate and dangerous to Careers. You can run but you can't hide. Every Man for himself if you hope to survive.
Nancy Pelosy and Harry Reid should concentrate on cleaning their own Houses, the stench is spreading quickly. Actuallu, better that they Resign.
Pelosi took "cleaning house" to mean cleaning selectively. Fortunately, the ethics committee did its job, however poorly.
This is another case that points to term limits. If someone doesn't spend 40 years in office it is a lot more difficult fo them to accumulate the political pull that enables this kind of misbehavior.
Rangel was unlucky that his district, Harlem in NYC, has a conservative newspaper that did some inveatigative reporting.
Had his district been in a single-newspaper [left wing] none of this would have seen the light of day.
Rangel was just unlucky there was an actual active press that covered his district.
I always love to hear politicians act like a bunch of crybaby children. "Democratic Rep. Maxine Waters sniffed that “many members” of the House are as habitually sloppy and apathetic toward House ethics rules as Rangel".
Sounds like my kids when they were little (about 5 years old) But Daddy, everyone else does it!
Charlie Rangle is a thug who has been on the government dole and btibery circuit far too long. He should be tried and forced to resign or be removed, and not be allowed off with a bullshit repremand – which is what the Democrats are pushing for.
As a lifelong Democrat, I adamantly believe that Rangel must go and go without so much as a whisper of exculpatory equivocatiion. I felt this way months ago and two years before that! Why?—-because if you lie and cheat, you are self-expelling from any civil community of peers. Period. No excuses. No parachutes.
I sense the mainstream of my (?) party is finally getting the message on Charlie.
I feel bad for Michelle Malkin for she has exposed so much of the coruption in Cogress which is almost totally ignore by everyone we have elected to correct this problem for too many years. When Barney Frank can continue to lie his way out of things he said previously it points out that perjury is not a respected law in our justice system any more.
I have one foolish qestion is search for an intelligent answer..
If a Presidedent can't rn for more than 2 terms, how come Congress people are allowed to sit ntil they die of old age ??
Mr Rangel, an admirer of the troglodite that owns Venezuela, not too different from the actual occupant of the White Hose, to whom MAD DOG FARRAKHAN is a GREAT MAN, has been able to accumulate too much power during the 40 years he has been in Congress and I wonder how many years as boss of the Ways and Means Committee
Therefore, it should be little wonder he believes he can lead the Ethics Commission by the nose…
And as to Nancy Pelosi and Senator Reed , they can both kiss their seats goodbye coming November, as even their own Democraps don't believe in them any longer…
If the Republicans on the ethics committee don't force a trial, they are complicit with the corruption that has been perpetrated by Rangel and Pelosi. If Rangel was a Republican you can bet there would be a three ring circus, and a trial. Without a trial Rangel's malfeasance will go essentially unpunished.
When Nancy Pelosi talked of "draining the swamp" she figured we wouldn't notice the vipers slithering through the trees.
Term Limits [ 2 ] , flat tax [ for EVERYONE ] , 50,000 dollar fine per employee- for employing undocumented or illegals = 85 % of this nations problems would be solved .
oh , and btw – no lifetime ANYTHING for ex- "public servants " ,when your term is up , you go and do what the rest of us do …..GET A JOB !!!!
And I dont mean "influence peddling " as a lobbyist , because they should ALL– be eliminated and forever banned
And for those with "tunnel vision " corruption amongst politicians is truly BI-PARTISAN, just as self-perpetuation , and being easier on those of one's own party . Let's stop kidding ourselves eh ?
It is a wonder that accusations were brought against Rangel at all. The question should be that after all these years of Rangels funny business they just now decide to go after him. Like they did not know what he had been doing for a long time and just now found out.
There are two theories at least. One is that Adam Clayton Powell's son or grandson wants the seat. The other is that Manhattan is becoming majority White and may soon gentrify Harlem enough to be a threat to Rangel. The new Whites will not be conservatives but they will not want a corrupt Representative.
Yes it is a wonder….considering this article behaves as though that hasn't happened…
Rangel didn't report income….kick him out….it's against their rules. Watching Malkin try to make it reach the level of the Republican corruption preObama is silly. Can really none of you remember the sheer volume of Republican scandals at the time? No probably not…but it was a long string of really dark and in most cases sexual scandals…some with underage people…but a lot of hookers, closet gays and abuses of power…
So Rangel will get the boot and Malkin can pretend that he would have gotten a bigger boot…or something….if not for the racism or corruption…whatever.