Original Blog Entry: President Barack Obama abandons Rep. Charles Rangel

truesee — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 03:18:53 GMT

President Barack Obama abandons Rep. Charles Rangel against ethics charges

Michael Mcauliff and Richard Sisk

DAILY NEWS WASHINGTON BUREAU

Saturday, February 27th 2010, 4:00 AM

Burke/AP

House Way and Means Committee Chairman Rep. Charlie Rangel, D-N.Y., makes a statement on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Feb. 25, 2010, regarding an ethics panel's finding against him.

WASHINGTON - President Obama abandoned his defense of Rep. Charles Rangel against a raft of ethics charges Friday as a handful of rank-and-file Dems echoed GOP demands to demand that Rangel give up his chairman's gavel.

White House officials have privately called Rangel untouchable in the past, but Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said Obama stressed that rules are put in place for a reason and that those rules can and must apply to each and every person.

Obama also said that members of Congress ought to be accountable, Gibbs reported, and that applies to everyone, including the powerful 79-year-old Harlem Democrat who chairs the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee.

Rangel typically tried to wisecrack his way out of trouble, saying he would not resign as chairman following his admonishment by the House ethics committee for taking two corporate-sponsored trips to the Caribbean.

Rangel snapped at reporters: Why don't you ask me if I'm going to stay chairman of the committee in light of the fact that we're expecting heavy snow in New York?

In a statement later, Rangel was defiant and unrepentant. He called the committee's report ill-considered, unprecedented, unfair to Congressman Rangel, and wrong on the facts and the law.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) played for time, giving lukewarm support to Rangel on the issue of the Caribbean trips.

Rangel didn't knowingly violate the rules, Pelosi said, acknowledging more serious allegations are pending with the ethics committee. We'll see what happens with that.

Fearing fallout from the Rangel scandals on their own reelection bids, four Democrats - Reps. Gene Taylor (Miss.), Paul Hodes (N.H.), Bobby Bright (Ala.) and Mike Quigley (Ill.) - called on Rangel to step aside as Ways and Means chairman.

He should step down until all this is resolved, Taylor said.

Other House Dems, including members of the New York delegation, withheld comment out of personal affection and respect for Rangel, but several acknowledged he has become a drag on their campaigns and Democrats' efforts to retain the House majority.

Rangel's office issued a detailed rebuttal to the ethics committee's charge that he violated gift rules by accepting free trips to the Caribbean in 2007 and 2008.

The committee said it couldn't determine whether Rangel knew about the financing, but concluded Rangel's staff knew and the congressman should have known.

The committee has yet to rule on charges that Rangel failed to pay taxes on a Dominican villa, hid $500,000 in income and had a sweetheart deal on four rent-controlled apartments.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/2010/02/27/2010-02-27_dont_want_charles_in_charge_rangel_should_quit_chairman_post__dems.html#ixzz0gnPFxNSX

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