The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
By Ken Foskett
Published: 09-12-08
Congressional Democrats pledged to give Americans strong ethical government. Now’s the time to make good on that promise.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her leadership should insist that U.S. Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) give up the chair of the House Ways and Means Committee the committee that writes the nation’s tax laws while colleagues get to the bottom of Rangel’s ethics problems.
Rangel has admitted not paying federal taxes on more than $75000 in rental income on a villa he owns in the Dominican Republic. The New York Democrat has asked the House ethics committee to review his explanations that it was an innocent oversight on his part.
The tax issue becomes the third inquiry now before the ethics committee involving Rangel. It is also investigating Rangel’s use of four rent-stabilized apartments —- one used for a campaign office —- in New York City which has a serious shortage of affordable housing and his use of congressional stationary for fundraising letters he sent out seeking donations to the nonprofit Charles B. Rangel Center for Public Service in New York.
As Rangel himself acknowledged Wednesday “As chairman of the Ways and Means Committee I am held to a higher standard of propriety.” When voters returned Democrats to power in the House in the 2006 elections they did so in part because they were fed up with a string of serious ethics issues involving longtime Republican congressmen.
As Sen. John McCain acknowledged in accepting his party’s nomination last week Republicans in Congress broke trust with the American people and paid the price for it. Democrats now have the opportunity —- no make that the obligation —- to prove they hold themselves to a higher benchmark.
