UPDATE: Charlie may not be corrupt, but he’s guilty as sin according to CNN.com. It just reported, “A House ethics subcommittee found Rep. Charlie Rangel, D-New York, guilty Monday on multiple violations of House rules.”
A slap on the wrist to follow.
It took about ten minutes to figure out why the Democrats are suddenly ramrodding Charlie Rangel’s ethics through the House during the lame duck session while they still have a majority. The whole thing is going to be one big ol’ white wash.
(Oh, we beg your pardon. We used the word white. We apologize for the blatant display of racism.)
Politico.com has the sordid, but not unexpected details:
“I see no evidence of corruption,” said Blake Chisam, the top ethics committee lawyer, about Rangel. Chisam’s statement was in response to questioning by Rep. G.K. Butterfield (D-N.C.). Butterfield is serving on the eight-member panel hearing the Rangel case.
“It’s hard to answer the question of personal financial benefit,” Chisam added. ” I think the short answer is probably no. Do I believe that based on the record that Congressman Rangel took steps to benefit himself based on his position in Congress? No. I believe that the congressman, quite frankly, was overzealous in many of the things he did. And sloppy in his personal finances.”
The most serious allegations against Rangel surround his fundraising on behalf of the Charles B. Rangel Center for Public Policy at City College in New York. Rangel sought as much as $30 million in public and private funds for the center, and he was charged for setting dozens of letters on official letterhead to official donors.
Chisam said that Rangel could have avoided any problems “if he had only followed the rules” laid out for such fundraising in the House ethics manual.
Charlie Manson wasn’t a cold-blooded mass murderer. He was just kind of sloppy.
Bernie Madoff wasn’t a swindler. He was just kind of sloppy.
And the Democrats aren’t hushing up this scandal. They’re just kind of sloppy.
Source: Politico.com
