11-19-2010, 11:06 AM
NY POST editorial:
To just about everyone's surprise, the House Ethics Committee last night voted overwhelmingly to recommend that Rep. Charles Rangel be formally censured by the House of Representatives -- the most serious sanction short of outright expulsion.
The committee's judgment was not only severe, it was genuinely bipartisan: Only one member of the 10-member panel, evenly divided between Democrats and Republicans, dissented.
Make no mistake.
This was not the widely expected wrist-slap.
If the House goes along with the recommendation, Rangel will be required to stand silently before all 434 members while his transgressions are spelled out and he is formally rebuked by the House speaker.
Imagine the humiliation he will feel. NO HE WON"T.
Deservedly so.
The outcome represents what the committee chairwoman, Rep. Zoe Lofgren, demanded: "accountability for [Rangel] and credibility for the House itself."
Specifically, Rangel was found guilty by his peers on 11 counts of ethical transgressions.
To be sure, outright expulsion was unlikely; that penalty has only been imposed five times in the House's history.
But Rangel could have spared himself this embarrassment -- either by stepping down or by abandoning his latest re-election bid, which he won handily.
By yesterday, all he could do was plead, pitifully, for mercy -- while continuing to blame the committee and especially the "totally unfair" press (most of his misdeeds were exposed by The Post) for his troubles.
Typical Charlie Rangel -- whining to the end.
It was left for Rep. Jo Bonner to deliver a more spot-on judgment.
"Mr. Rangel can no longer blame anyone other than himself for the position he now finds himself in," said the Alabama Republican. "Not this committee, not his staff or family, not his accountants or lawyers and not the press."
Rangel has rarely done the right thing -- since, that is, leaving the Army after creditable combat service in Korea.
He can do the right thing now.
He can spare himself further humiliation, and the House additional agony, with a simple letter of resignation.
Pity it had to end this way.
But it's over.
To just about everyone's surprise, the House Ethics Committee last night voted overwhelmingly to recommend that Rep. Charles Rangel be formally censured by the House of Representatives -- the most serious sanction short of outright expulsion.
The committee's judgment was not only severe, it was genuinely bipartisan: Only one member of the 10-member panel, evenly divided between Democrats and Republicans, dissented.
Make no mistake.
This was not the widely expected wrist-slap.
If the House goes along with the recommendation, Rangel will be required to stand silently before all 434 members while his transgressions are spelled out and he is formally rebuked by the House speaker.
Imagine the humiliation he will feel. NO HE WON"T.
Deservedly so.
The outcome represents what the committee chairwoman, Rep. Zoe Lofgren, demanded: "accountability for [Rangel] and credibility for the House itself."
Specifically, Rangel was found guilty by his peers on 11 counts of ethical transgressions.
To be sure, outright expulsion was unlikely; that penalty has only been imposed five times in the House's history.
But Rangel could have spared himself this embarrassment -- either by stepping down or by abandoning his latest re-election bid, which he won handily.
By yesterday, all he could do was plead, pitifully, for mercy -- while continuing to blame the committee and especially the "totally unfair" press (most of his misdeeds were exposed by The Post) for his troubles.
Typical Charlie Rangel -- whining to the end.
It was left for Rep. Jo Bonner to deliver a more spot-on judgment.
"Mr. Rangel can no longer blame anyone other than himself for the position he now finds himself in," said the Alabama Republican. "Not this committee, not his staff or family, not his accountants or lawyers and not the press."
Rangel has rarely done the right thing -- since, that is, leaving the Army after creditable combat service in Korea.
He can do the right thing now.
He can spare himself further humiliation, and the House additional agony, with a simple letter of resignation.
Pity it had to end this way.
But it's over.