Rep. Charles Rangel, a 40-year veteran of Congress and the flamboyant Democratic chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, has acted for several years as if he were entitled to get away with greedy behavior that takes advantage of his office. He has enjoyed junkets financed by lobbyists and corporations, rent-stabilized New York apartments, dicey donations and unfair tax benefits, all while arrogantly dismissing growing charges that he has abused his office and skirted congressional ethics rules, if not actual laws.
On Wednesday, the rising political heat finally got to him. Mr. Rangel announced that he would take “a leave of absence” from his committee chairmanship. It’s a position he should not get back. Indeed, his action was effectively a resignation — one welcomed by Democrats as well as Republicans — since there are no provisions in House rules to allow a leave of absence.
Mr. Rangel’s shaded term for his departure was obviously an attempt to escape his scandals more quietly than would be possible if he tried to keep his chairmanship amid rising controversy. A quiet exit is hardly possible, however. He had already stayed too long, and the congressional ethics committee — though customarily lax and toothless — may now feel compelled to do more than it has.
The ethics committee admonished Rep. Rangel last week for violations of congressional gift rules. It ordered him and four other congressmen — all members of the Congressional Black Caucus — to repay the $11,800 costs for the two junkets to the Caribbean in 2007 and 2008 that were sponsored by corporations.
They contended the trips to attend business seminars on several Caribbean Islands were arranged by a Carib News charity. That excuse fell apart after two Rangel aides acknowledged that corporations funneled money to the charity to pay for the trips. Rep. Rangel denied knowledge of the back-door corporate funding, but that’s hard to believe.
In any case, the ethics committee admonished only Rep. Rangel, tagging him as the principle organizer of the trip. The other congressmen should have been sanctioned as well for not assuring that their trips met ethical standards.
The slow-moving ethics committee still has unfinished business with Rep. Rangel on more serious charges, and pending penalties could be considerably more severe. It is investigating his alleged misuse of office in raising corporate gifts for an academic center that is named for him; his acceptance and use of four rent-stabilized New York City apartments owned by a Manhatten real estate developer; and his failure to pay rental taxes on a villa he owns in the Dominican Republic.
The outcome of the ethics committee’s investigation is likely to further taint Mr. Rangel’s stature in Congress, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s tolerance of Mr. Rangel up to this point. She should have removed him the chairmanship much earlier.
But the larger problem for Democrats is accommodating the flux in power and influence on the all-important House Ways and Means Committee, which writes most House tax legislation and is integrally involved in the financing of the health care bill that President Obama is now rightly determined to push through Congress.
The committee has a huge role to play in moving proposed health care legislation. Democrats on the committee cannot afford to be distracted by a chairmanship squabble at this critical time.