October 9, 2009 | House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH) | Permalink
This
week Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-NY) and all but two House Democrats voted
to protect Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-NY) and allow him to stay as chairman
of the powerful tax-writing committee even though he is under
investigation for not paying his taxes. Yesterday, the House Ethics
Committee announced it was expanding its inquiry further. It begs the question: What more has to happen before Speaker Pelosi does the right thing? Here’s what a number of editorials and opinion-makers are saying today:
EDITORIALS: “FORGET HOUSE SPEAKER NANCY PELOSI’S PLEDGE TO ‘DRAIN THE SWAMP’ …”
- “Sinking with Mr. Rangel.
It is time for Democrats in Congress – who once justifiably complained
about the corruption of the Republican majority – to demonstrate to
Americans that someone in that august body has ethical standards.
Instead, House Democrats have again shielded Representative Charles
Rangel from his serial ethical messes and ducked their responsibility
to force him from the chairmanship of the Ways and Means Committee. Speaker
Pelosi won her gavel with a promise to ‘drain the swamp’ … But
protecting Mr. Rangel as chairman is a grave misstep that can only hand
the ethics issue back to her opponents.” (New York Times editorial, 10/9/09)
- “Our view on congressional ethics: Step aside, Chairman Rangel.
… But this is not an ‘innocent until proven guilty’ criminal case. The
House is merely deciding whether Rangel should continue to have the
high honor of chairing its most powerful committee. It already has
more than enough evidence to determine that someone else is more
worthy. … Formal disciplinary action can and should await the
committee’s report. But failure to replace Rangel as chairman now
sends a number of unfortunate signals — chief among them that House
Democrats consider blatant ethical sloppiness to be no big deal.” (USA Today editorial, 10/9/09)
- “Ethical issues reasons to step down. … Forget House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s pledge to ‘drain the swamp’ … It is past time for Rep. Rangel to step down.” (Watertown (NY) Daily Times editorial, 10/9/09)
- “Rangel is not above the rules.
… Rangel ought to step down on his own while the query continues.
Barring that, the House leadership should force him to do the right
thing. If it won’t — and that’s the most likely outcome – it signals
business as usual on Capitol Hill and further deepens the gulf between
lawmakers and the American people whose interests they were sent to
Washington to represent.” (Clarksville (AL) Leaf-Chronicle editorial, 10/9/09)
- “Democrats duck obligation to take action against Rangel.
… Still, the Democrats need to show that they can keep their House in
order – and they should begin by taking strong action against Rep.
Charles B. Rangel, the chairman of the powerful Ways and Means
Committee. … There are only two possible explanations here. Either
Rangel is lying or he isn’t. If he is, he should be forced out. If he
isn’t, his shoddy bookkeeping and poor command of the most basic tax
rules make him ill-suited to serve as chairman of a congressional
committee that writes the tax code and oversees the Internal Revenue
Service. Either way, Rangel needs to go. If not, the credibility of
House Democrats will.” (Santa Rosa (CA) Press Democrat editorial, 10/9/09)
OPINION-MAKERS: SPEAKER PELOSI NEEDS TO EXPLAIN TO VOTERS “WHY THE AFFLUENT MAN WHO SETS THEIR TAXES DIDN’T PAY HIS”
- “The issue has the potential to become a ‘political liability’ for Democrats,
a veteran political analyst said. ‘These charges are serious. And they
keep adding more charges,’ said Stephen Hess of the non-partisan
Brookings Institute. ‘So they’re going to have to be met and dealt with
and voted upon. They can’t be swept under the table.’ … Nonetheless,
Democratic strategist and CNN contributor James Carville said the
controversy and ethics investigation could have an effect on the
political future of not only Rangel but also the Democratic Party.
Rangel should ‘take all of this ethical stuff dead seriously,’ he said.
‘This thing, it has a bad odor to it.’” (CNN, 10/9/09)
- “Charlie Rangel’s Cloud.
An Ethics Case Could Drag Democrats Down. House Democrats had better
start taking the ethics allegations against Rep. Charlie Rangel
seriously. I know it’s difficult for those steeped in Capitol Hill’s
hermetic culture to understand, but a verdict of ‘mistakes were made’
-- which a lot of Democrats would like to reach -- doesn’t cut it in
the real world. Strange as it seems. Seriously. … Speaker Nancy Pelosi may owe her job to Rangel, but she needs to press the ethics committee to do its work without fear or favor. And she
needs to contemplate the prospect of explaining to voters, come next
fall, why the affluent man who sets their taxes didn’t pay his.” (Eugene Robinson, Washington Post column, 10/9/09)
- “The Republicans are, however, completely right about Rangel.
Whenever a powerful committee chairman has so many problems that you
need a timeline to keep all the allegations straight, he is a
liability. When those problems revolve around things like failure to
pay taxes, it is not a good plan to have him be in charge of tax
policy.” (Gail Collins, New York Times column, 10/8/09)
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