Ethics May Not Be Done With Charlie Rangel

Sorry Charlie but you may not be done with ethics panels.

 

Last week the former Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee went down whining as he was censured by the House of Representatives for eleven different ethics violations, a few of them would have put a regular citizen in jail, such as forgetting to report income on his vacation house for seventeen years.

 

A few days before the distinguished whiner from New York faced censure, a thirty-second tap with a feather from Nancy Pelosi, the New York Post reported that Rangel used his PAC money for his legal defense, a campaign ethics violation. Now the Federal Election Commission (FEC)  is investigating the NY Post's disclosures. 

The FEC is acting on a complaint by the National Legal and Policy Center filed after The Post reported last month that Rangel paid nearly $400,000 from his PAC.

Lawmakers are only allowed to use money in their individual campaign funds for legal fees, or they can set up legal defense funds for such costs.

NLPC yesterday filed a Complaint with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) alleging that Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY) violated the Federal Election Campaign Act by using almost $400,000 in funds from his National Leadership PAC to pay legal bills related to the House Ethics Committee actions against him.

As Billy Mays would say....But There's More:

The center expects to file a second complaint this week contending that Rangel's PAC money included at least $195,000 in donations from lobbyists with business before the House Ways & Means Committee, of which he is a member.

Yesterday, the Harlem pol said he's ready to put the incident behind him.

"In all fairness, I was not found guilty of corruption, I did not go to bed with kids, I did not hurt the House speaker, I did not start a revolution against the United States of America, I did not steal any money, I did not take any bribes, and that is abundantly clear," he said.

But Charlie did use American taxpayer funds for his narcissistic monument to himself at the City College of New York, and he did neglect to pay taxes on part if his income for seventeen years. And it is abundantly clear you got away with it, but maybe you will face some real music via the FEC's latest investigation.