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Audacity of Truth
"Diplomacy":
"People are saying what in the world is going on with North Carolina, we look like Mississippi." - NC Gov. Bev Perdue (D) on the passage of Amendment One, 5-11-12
President Obama calls on Rangel to end career “with dignity” – PLUS: Mad Maxine’s ethics woes
Wow – I’m sure Rangel didn’t expect to wake up this morning and read this:
If Rep. Charles Rangel was looking for support from President Obama, he’d better not get his hopes up.
Obama last night called the ethics charges against Rangel “very troubling” and sharply noted that the embattled Harlem Democrat is “at the end of his career.”
“I think Charlie Rangel served a very long time and served his constituents very well. But these allegations are very troubling,” Obama said on the “CBS Evening News” in his first comments on the Rangel scandal.
“He’s somebody who’s at the end of his career. Eighty years old. I’m sure that what he wants is to be able to end his career with dignity. And my hope is that it happens.”
As others are noting this morning, it sounds like Rangel is the latest political ally the President has chosen to throw under the bus in the interest of politcal expediency. Mind, I certainly would like to see Rangel exit the House stage left for good, but I’m not under any illusion about President Obama’s motivations here. This isn’t about a desire to do “what’s right” by “draining the swamp” (ha!) but instead a desire to minimize the specter of scandal in an election year.
Through an anonymous source, Rangel has made his opinion of President Obama’s statement known:
But a person close to Rangel tells POLITICO the embattled Democrat “doesn’t give a damn about what the president thinks about this” and won’t step down.
[...]
“[Obama’s] statement comes as no surprise to us,” said a person close to Rangel, speaking on condition of anonymity. “We’re not surprised by this, we’ve known the people in the White House have felt this way for a while, but this doesn’t change anything for us.”
Yes – Rangel knows that if he wants it, his seat is his for life, regardless of what types of ethics charges he faces.
And speaking of, guess who else is dealing with ethics charges of their own? Rep. Mad Maxine Waters:
WASHINGTON — Representative Maxine Waters, Democrat of California, will face charges of misusing her office and is expected to contest the claims in a House trial, the second powerful House Democrat to opt for such a public airing in recent days, Congressional officials said Friday.
A House ethics subcommittee has charged Ms. Waters, 71, a 10-term congresswoman, in a case involving communications that she had with the top executive of a bank that her husband owned stock in while it was applying for a federal bailout in 2008, two House officials said.
Charges are expected to be announced next week, several Congressional officials said, speaking only on the condition of anonymity because the proceedings remained confidential. Details of the specific accusations of wrongdoing were not available Friday evening.
The expected trial, coming just after the start of a similar proceeding on Thursday for Representative Charles B. Rangel of New York, would be a modern-day precedent for the House, Congressional officials said. At no time in at least the last two decades have two sitting House members faced a public hearing detailing allegations against them.
It would also be an embarrassment for the Congressional Black Caucus. Ms. Waters and Mr. Rangel are two of its most revered and long-standing members, and both have spent decades as key leaders in banking and financial services issues in the House.
Mikael Moore, Ms. Waters’s chief of staff, declined to comment on the case on Friday, saying that the congresswoman had not been formally notified of any action by the ethics committee.
Ms. Waters, at the time the investigation by the House ethics panel began last fall, was accused of intervening on behalf of OneUnited, a Boston-based bank. The Times reported last year that Ms. Waters called Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. in 2008, as the economy was in a free fall, to ask him to host a special meeting with executives from black-owned banks.
As a key House player on the Financial Services Committee, Ms. Waters often called Mr. Paulson. He agreed to arrange the requested meeting, The New York Times reported last year.
What Mr. Paulson did not know at the time was that Ms. Waters’s husband, Sidney Williams, owned stock in and had served on the board of OneUnited, whose chief executive turned the Treasury headquarters meeting into a special appeal for bailout assistance. The executive of the institution, one of the nation’s largest black-owned banks, asked for $50 million in federal aid, The Times reported.
Although they haven’t gone through their respective ethics trials just yet, you and I both know these two are corruptocrat extraordinaires … and what they’re both going through gives off the appearance of wrongdoing by Democrats in the House, and as we’ve learned quite well from Democrats over the years, it’s not whether or not their is evidence of wrongdoing, but the “seriousness of the charges” that matter. My, how the tables have turned.
Delicious.
One question: When do you think Waters and/or Rangel will pull out the race card?
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If they’re going to “drain the swamp,” they’d better have a fairly good-sized lake that’s fairly empty, to drain it into.
Which brings up the question: Why has the EPA not done anything about the stench coming from D.C.? Surely the pollution deserves some attention from those who want to breath nothing but pure and pristine air.
And why couldn’t Rangel, with all his ill-gotten wealth, have hired someone who could hide his loot as well as most other congresscritters bookkeepers do?
I’d read yesterday that Charlie’s punishment will be the dreaded “sternly worded memo.” I suspect Waters pushed for her trial knowing there was no way they could hit her with any worse.
Waters district, CA-35, is next door to my own. Mainly South-Central Los Angeles, it’s not as badly gerrymandered as some, but it’s hugely Democratic: a Republican challenger would have no chance there. Which is a shame, because she ill-represents her constituents and just buys her way back into office via earmarks.
Charley and Maxine. Some people just aint got no class. But you can take their word for it: they don’t need no stinking class.
I’m surprised Rangel didn’t deny Obama had anything to do with the WH statement… it was probably one of those Jooooos did it.
It couldn’t get any better , unless….
Rangel decides he ain’t goin’ down alone……
If the GOP runs ads mentioning them.
Seriously?!?!?! If you are going to think such stupid garbage, why think at all Mr. President?? Charlie Rangel used his seat to serve himself. Just like William Jefferson, just like Maxine Waters, just like Nancy Pelosi, just like most of these politicians. If you grouped these guys together and threw a feather into that crowd, I am pretty certain that feather would land on someone who has used their “power” for their own means. It is time to drain the swamp, and ALL of these that can’t stand, are going to go away in November, Ohh Lord hear our prayer. – Lorica
A BIG AMEN to that Lorica! Charlie Rangel’s contempt is palpable. He has no good will toward his constituents…he has used his position to command all the perks and special treatment he can get. The sad thing about his stepping down is that HE WILL STILL BE GETTING A PENSIONS COMPLIMENTS OF THE U. S. TAXPAYER…
Along those lines, Kate, I wonder why every jackass congresscritter has decried the “golden parachutes” of Wall Street? When was the last time they looked at how much they’re stealing from the taxpayers with their own golden parachutes?
The Wall Street parachutes are peanuts compared to what we poor suckers have to pay…and you know that, if he ever does retire, Charlie will make sure he gets every stinking stolen dime he can get, too. Same with Maxine, same with Nazi, same with Dodd, same with every stinkin’ thievin’ one of them.
And the rest of the House has the gall to say Charlie’s a thief!
You know, first Rangel, then Waters, and NOW Snooki from “Jersey Shore” has been arrested for disorderly conduct!!
Madness, I tell you, complete MADNESS!!!!!
“But a person close to Rangel tells POLITICO the embattled Democrat “doesn’t give a damn about what the president thinks about this” and won’t step down.”
Of course he won’t. Dems never step down when they do something wrong. Only Republicans do that. Dems have no class.
Now, watch out everyone! You’re going to be labeled ‘RACIST’ for even uttering a negative word about these two venerable, long suffering SERVANTS of the people! And I am SURE that our esteemed commander in big boy pants is sincerely shamed and concerned for all involved.
Corruption everywhere. Hopefully when Pelousy drains the swamp she’ll join her fellow dems going down the drain.
Pull the plug!
Just like National health Care
This should make the run-up to the November elections fun!
Duh-1 hopes Rangel will retire with dignity? He can’t! Contrary to what he believes, he has no dignity left.
I think Rangel deserves a “quid pro quo” from Obama. If Rangel agrees to “retire with dignity” then Obama should agree to enroll in his recently enacted health care and ultimately “die with dignity” from it’s required rationaing of care!
What could be more fair?
@Carlos….I have wondered the same thing many times as they rake CEO’s over the coals! I am not sure if any other commentators of note have discussed the sheer hypocrisy under which this congress (democrat in particular) operate. It turns my stomach!
I am not sure if he would lose anything if he loses his round with the ethics committee et al. He should at least have to divest all his ill gotten gains and give them to the poor in his district like a good socialist. How dare he own more than his brothers and sisters in NY.
@Kate: You’ve hit on the crux of the problem with socialism. It’s always “Good for thee, but not for me.”
Socialists are always willing to spend others’ money (after keeping a percentage for themselves – the very heart of capitalism!), but Lord help the person who, on his/her own initiative finds a way to keep that percentage if it doesn’t come from stolen taxes.
With that initiative one finds that government is not the source of everything good, and socialists like Rangel and Obama just can’t stand the thought of that ever being given the chance to see the light of day.