Opinion: Rangel gives up Ways and Means gavel as Democrats respond to anti-Washington fever
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Call it a panic attack by Democrats.
Stunned by the election in Massachusetts of Republican Scott Brown, sobered by the surge of anti-Washington fever that is sweeping the country (see Kay Bailey Hutchison in Texas), House leaders have done the once-unthinkable. They have thrown the popular Charles B. Rangel under the bus.
Funny, too, because before the 2006 election, the gravelly-sounded Harlem congressman said that if Democrats didn’t take the House, he wouldn’t run again. I mean, what’s the fun of being in Congress for all those years (he’s been serving since 1971) if you couldn’t be chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee.
Well, be careful what you wish for. Installed as chairman of the powerful tax-writing committee, Rangel ran into a few tax issues of his own. Also some ethics issues -- as in accepting payment from corporations for corporate reimbursement for travel to the Caribbean and failing to disclose rental income from an apartment in the Dominican Republic. In normal times, Rangel, who overcame a troubled childhood to make something of his life, could probably apologize and move on.
But these are not normal times. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi promised on assuming office that she would run the most ethical Congress in history. And with many Americans struggling to find work or hold on to their homes, a Caribbean-junketing congressman is not the image Democrats want to project.
So on Wednesday, Rangel announced that he would temporarily step down as chairman, pending completion of the Ethics Committee investigation. The Ways and Means Committee, without a chairman, canceled its scheduled meeting today. In a press announcement without questions, Rangel was pretty clear that he was falling on his sword for the good of his party.
Will it be enough to hold off angry voters? Watch this space in November.
-- Johanna Neuman
Video credit: CBS via YouTube
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