What will the Democrats do about Charlie Rangel? The Harlem Congressman has generated more tax violations than the rest of Washington, D.C. combined, including Marion Barry. The IRS has reserved an entire wing of its building to the Rangel paperwork. Wikipedia has 2 1/2 pages on Charlie called "2008-2009 Ethics and Tax Controversies" and 2009 isn't even over. Rangel may be a fixture in the House of Representatives and the Chairman of the "powerful" House Ways and Means Committee (the committee's name never appears without the word "powerful" as a prefix) as well as a decorated veteran of the Korean War, but seriously...
Charlie Rangel is the embodiment of the American success story. Poor NY upbringing, worked all kinds of jobs, law school at night, served in the war, blah, blah, blah. The man he replaced in the House of Representatives was the legendary ACP. (That's Adam Clayton Powell to those west of the Hudson.) Powell was ousted by Congress for an inability to remember which money was his and which was the government's. Powell was immensely popular in Harlem and were it not for the scandal (and his death in 1971) he would still be in the House. How fitting that Charlie Rangel, elected through a scandal, should fall victim to the same issue.
Taken separately, Rangel's tax transgressions don't amount to much. Failure to report a de facto gift by his landlord in allowing Rangel to rent space in Harlem at a much reduced rent. Failure to report as income the rental of a beachfront property he owns in the Dominican Republic. Storing his old Mercedes in a congressional storage facility in violation of the rules. Providing tax cover to a company called Nabors Industries whose CEO donated $1 million to the City College of New York for the Charles B. Rangel Center for Public Service and the Charles Rangel Library. (This last issue might merit a bit more scrutiny if only because of the hubris involved.)
Collectively, however, Rangel's cavalier attitude regarding the reporting of income represents the blatant arrogance of a Congressman who clearly assumes that the laws don't apply to him. The bad press that emanates from petty criminals like Rangel not only distracts from the bigger issues facing Congress, it allows America's bigots to dismiss minority representatives as just another safe-seat, black politician stuffing his pockets. His constituents are painted as too stupid to throw the bum out.
Rangel needs to go or, at least step down from his Ways and Means Committee chairmanship. Failure to clean their own House makes Democrats look no better than the Tom DeLay Republicans, gerrymandering Texas districts. Barack Obama was elected to attempt change in government. How is an ethics committee expected to censure John Ensign? My old English teacher, Fr. Bill Carney use to say "You can't have a clean house if you store the garbage cans under the piano". (Maybe it sounded better when he said it.) President Obama might not be able to clear all corruption from Washington but he can at least encourage his own party to purge the low hanging fruit. The fruit doesn't get much lower than Charlie Rangel.
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