PrintSeptember 3, 2009
Cleaning up
It seems that Nancy Pelosi's promise to clean up the House was misunderstood. She was using that term as slang, meaning that under her, the Democrats would make large profits for themselves.
CBS reports that three of the Democrats on the Ethics panel investigating Ways and Means Chairman Charles Rangel received campaign contributions from Rangel. Rangel is being investigated on allegations that he failed to report millions in income on his tax returns and filed incorrect financial disclosure statements. The New York Democrat whose district encompasses the upper parts of Manhattan, has refused to step down. Speaker Pelosi, who promised after the 2006 elections to end the culture of corruption, has not placed any pressure on him to do so.
It appears that Charlie has become an angel of late, bankrolling the campaigns of a great many Democrats colleagues.
CBS 2 HD has discovered that since ethics probes began last year the 79-year-old congressman has given campaign donations to 119 members of Congress, including three of the five Democrats on the House Ethics Committee who are charged with investigating him.
Charlie's "angels" on the committee include Congressmen Ben Chandler of Kentucky, G.K. Butterfield of North Carolina and Peter Welch of Vermont. All have received donations from Rangel.
Note that CBS is treating this as a local news story in the New York Market. Ah, the incredible power of the D after ones name when it comes to suppressing bad news. The Democrat now responsible for writing the nation's tax laws appears to have failed to report millions in income and it is only a local news story. In 2006 when an obscure Republican congressman was discovered to have sent out some suggestive instant messages to some pages of the same sex the media made it front pages news for weeks.
