Will Rangel Help Republicans Regain Congress?
Despite House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s best efforts, New York Democrat Charles Rangel is refusing to step down as House Ways & Means Committee chair. Although his committee oversees federal tax policy, “the Harlem congressman [has] admitted owing at least $10,000 in back taxes.” Â Rangel “failed to disclose rental income from his Dominican Republic beach home.”
The longer Rangel maintains his committee chairmanship, the more people will see that while Democrats regained their congressional majority just two years ago, promising to clean up Congress, they have acted upon promise. Â The situation has worsened since Nancy Pelosi took hold of the Speaker’s gavel.
As Congress fails to rein in excessive spending, its approval rating continues to plummet.
The publicity this scandal generates could remind voters how little the Pelosi Democrats have done to change the ways things are done in Washington. Two years ago, the Mark Foley scandal helped sink any chances Republicans had of retaining Congress. Will Rangel’s problems have a similar effect on the Democratic incumbents?
It’s too soon to tell, but before we Republicans break out the champagne, bear this in mind: the media seems far less interested in Democratic scandals than in Republican ones. And this one doesn’t involve sex.
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I don’t think the media will cover Charlie’s issues as much as Mark’s. Not just on the basis of media bias but a sex scandal is better for ratings than a tax cheat.
Comment by OutliciousTV — September 16, 2008 @ 6:10 pm - September 16, 2008
And here’s the next one: look at the curriculum of “age-appropriate sex education” that Barack Obama supported, endorsed, and wanted used for kindergartners.
Comment by North Dallas Thirty — September 16, 2008 @ 7:16 pm - September 16, 2008
Republicans can’t hit too hard here or else it will look like subtle racism, because Rangel is black. A lot of people are already saying that tying Barack Obama to the Detroit mayor is exploiting racism and fears of blacks in power.
Comment by marc — September 16, 2008 @ 7:35 pm - September 16, 2008
Or the fine example of Obama’s brilliance and superb intellect.
Since reading a speech off a TelePrompTer makes you a dumb idiot who’s just repeating the words other people wrote for you, according to Democrats who were criticizing Sarah Palin……
Comment by North Dallas Thirty — September 16, 2008 @ 8:12 pm - September 16, 2008
Yeah, nothing worse than a curriculum designed to help prevent child abuse. Damn those Democrats and their scandalous uptight ways!
Comment by Nurglitch — September 16, 2008 @ 8:49 pm - September 16, 2008
i know charlie rangle and he’s no tom delay.
Comment by michael — September 16, 2008 @ 9:06 pm - September 16, 2008
Could the leftists leave sex ed and child abuse ed up to the parents please. Not herd 5 year olds into a govenment program.
Comment by Gene in Pennsylvania — September 16, 2008 @ 10:12 pm - September 16, 2008
Bush’s approval rating is 34% The congress lead by Pelosi has an approval rating of 20%
Comment by nobama — September 16, 2008 @ 10:52 pm - September 16, 2008
#6: Delay resigned. Rangel, who has no problem with making others pay more in taxes, failed to pay taxes he owes. The Ways & Means Committee, which he chairs, writes the tax code so he should know better.
And since he believes that gummint spending is the answer to all our problems, he should be happy to pay.
There’s no reason for Charlie to step down – no one cares (it’s certainly not as titillating as, say, foot tapping in a restroom).
And Pelosi? Useless. Can anyone imagine Rangel being rolled by Pelosi? I’d love to hear that conversation.
Comment by SoCalRobert — September 16, 2008 @ 11:26 pm - September 16, 2008
That is, if liberals actually thought the rules applied to them instead of the poor, bitter churls clinging to their guns and God.
Comment by ThatGayConservative — September 17, 2008 @ 1:20 am - September 17, 2008
And what does it say about Barney Frank who still doesn’t believe that Freddie and Fannie were in a huge heap o’ trouble? These are the same folks who don’t want to see anything wrong with Socialist Stupidity and Medifraud.
Comment by ThatGayConservative — September 17, 2008 @ 3:30 am - September 17, 2008
Sorry! The idea that the legislation wasnt about sex and was just about preventing child abuse is a bald-faced LIE, like pretty much everything else that comes out of Obama’s mouth. The legislation, which I have personally read, MANDATES teaching kindergarted children how to avoid sexually transmitted diseases.
Nor is it necessary to talk to kids about sexual abuse in order to teach them about stranger danger.
From the Illinois legislation:
Please tell us how you have an age appropriate discussion with 5 and 6 year olds about how not to catch diseases that require sexual contact in order to get?
Comment by American Elephant — September 17, 2008 @ 4:11 am - September 17, 2008
GPW,
Corruption SHOULD make this a landslide election for Republicans. Not just for Rangels abuses, but Democrats are up to their eyeballs in the Fannie Mae Scandal, Obama is one of the top three financial beneficiaries of Fannie Mae from both houses of congress is the three short years he had been there, his involvement, and hidden contributions, to the highly corrupt community organization/vote fraud factory aka ACORN, corrupt land deals with Tony Rezko, having his former opponents divorce records unsealed, and directly attempting to undermine US policy behind the scenes in Iraq…
This SHOULD be a blowout year for Republicans with all the illegal and corrupt crap Obama and the Dems have been up to, and yet McCain and the GOP cant even seem to bring the subjects up.
Comment by American Elephant — September 17, 2008 @ 4:25 am - September 17, 2008
This SHOULD be a blowout year for Republicans with all the illegal and corrupt crap Obama and the Dems have been up to, and yet McCain and the GOP cant even seem to bring the subjects up.
someone should turn the radio off for a while.
Comment by michael — September 17, 2008 @ 6:03 am - September 17, 2008
First of all, I don’t know how much Mark Foley hurt the Republicans in 2006. And I’m not sure how much Charles Rangel will hurt Democrats this year. Regardless, he should resign. And if he doesn’t, Pelosi should strip him from the chairmanship.
Comment by Pat — September 17, 2008 @ 7:37 am - September 17, 2008
AE: check out this video… John is learning
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZqn2nog_S8
Comment by Vince P — September 17, 2008 @ 7:53 am - September 17, 2008
michael.. our October surprise is a hard hitting ad that strings the 12 Democrat crooks together in one ad that ends with “THE DEMOCRAT CONGRESS, ENOUGH OF THE INEPTITUDE AND CORRUPTION. ENOUGH!
We’ re waiting til 3 weeks out. hehe
Comment by Gene in Pennsylvania — September 17, 2008 @ 11:24 am - September 17, 2008
Get Rangel out so that the Fair Tax can come to a vote!
Comment by A Different Peter H — September 17, 2008 @ 2:20 pm - September 17, 2008
You’re right. He’s not. The charges against Tom Delay were so bogus they were thrown immediately out of court . Rangel is obviously guilty.
Comment by American Elephant — September 18, 2008 @ 6:38 am - September 18, 2008
#15 Pat,
By itself the Rangel thing wouldnt do much to hurt Democrats, but combined with the Fannie Mae corruption it could do great damage.
Republicans got smeared with a “culture of corruption” in the end, because a lech was hitting on young adults.
I think Americans are going to care just a wee bit more about destroying the entire finance sector for campaign contributions, corrupt bonus scandal and golden parachutes.
Comment by American Elephant — September 18, 2008 @ 6:43 am - September 18, 2008
Vince,
Thanks! i heard part of that today, its nice to have the whole thing.Im going to put it on my blog just for the record. But I want to see the commercials and i wanna see a HUGE ad buy.
Comment by American Elephant — September 18, 2008 @ 6:44 am - September 18, 2008
[…] the ethics problems of Democratic House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charlie Rangel. Â (Okay, okay, I realize this isn’t related to Obama, bt it’s a big story which hurts […]
Pingback by GayPatriot » MSM’s Missing Stories of Obama — September 25, 2008 @ 6:51 pm - September 25, 2008
[…] this year, including that of another Florida Democrat, Robert Wexler and of New York Democrat Charles Rangel. Not to mention the fundraising shenaningans of the Obama […]
Pingback by GayPatriot » On Tim Mahoney, Mark Foley and Media Bias — October 14, 2008 @ 6:42 pm - October 14, 2008