The Rangel Round-Up

For those of you keeping score, Charles Rangel has become to Washington, D.C. and Harlem what Kwame Kilpatrick was to Detroit during his mayoral days there.  You just didn’t know from day to day what new charges of ethical and/or legal lapses would emerge.  So, The Barometer begins the Rangel Round-Up.  The Barometer will attempt to keep you posted on what’s happening with the representative from Harlem (D., NY).  The Barometer is considering a National Forest Service type of posting:  “Ethical Breach Danger Today:  High       Medium      Low.”  Here’s a Rangel summary:  1.  In rent-controlled NYC, Rangel managed to wrangle several apartments from his landlord at the rock-bottom prices that characterize rent-control markets.  When asked about his cornering of the Harlem real estate, Rep. Rangel responded, “What?  There’s a problem here?” 2.  Rep. Rangel, who chairs the House Ways and Means Committee, the group responsible for writing the tax code, failed to report income he earned over two decades from renting his villa in the Dominican Republic. Rangel responded in several ways, “No hablo espanol,” was one defense, followed by  the defense that he didn’t understand the terms of his mortgage or that the rent had to be reported.  Write into the tax code the defenses of “I forgot” and “I was confused,” and we shall forgive and forget the Rangel shortcomings.  3.  The Charles Rangel School of Public Service at City College of New York received a $1 million donation from the CEO of an oil drilling firm at about the same time Chairman Rangel was ushering through the preservation of a lucrative tax loophole for the CEO’s offshore company.  Three years earlier, Mr. Rangel had proposed closing the offshore loophole in order to collect more taxes from off-shore companies.  Mr. Rangel said that there was no quid pro quo.  Mr. Rangel disclosed that he had used House stationery to solicit donations to the college from executives and others, including the oil-drilling CEO.  4.  Rep. Rangel paid $57,500 to his son’s Web-design company over a two-year period.  The funds came from a campaign account held by Mr. Rangel and were paid to Edisonian Innovative Works LLC, a company owned by Steven Charles Rangel and operated out of his Maryland home.  Rep. Rangel lives with his son at the Maryland home when the House is in session.  The payments stopped when Steven Rangel was hired by the House Energy and Commerce Committee in January 2007.  The payments were the largest spent on Web design by any member of the House.  Rep. Rangel said he did nothing wrong, but will amend his disclosure statements to disclose that Edisonian is owned by his son.  A source said of Steven Rangel’s 2007 job at the House, “How does anyone get any gig on Capitol Hill?  It’s who you know.” Rep. Rangel has hired a forensic auditor to review his financial disclosure records. Rep. Rangel said that the auditors would find no forensics in his disclosures, that he is clean as a whistle and does not accept forensics for votes.  5.  Rep. Rangel received a homestead exemption for property he owned in Washington, D.C. even as he resided in the four rent-subsidized apartments in New York City. Rep. Rangel responded that where he lives is a “personal issue,” and is not subject to a House ethics review now expedited by Speaker Pelosi. The Barometer asks, “Is this any way to run a government that is flat-broke?”