As Rep. Charles Rangel pleaded for “fairness and mercy,” the ethics committee’s top lawyer has recommended a censure of the New York lawmaker, one of the harshest punishments that the House can deliver short of expulsion from Congress.
The full ethics committee will go into a closed session Thursday afternoon to consider the punishment, just two days after a special ethics subcommittee found Rangel guilty on 11 counts of violating House rules. Rangel – who walked out of his ethics trial on Monday — brought some fresh drama to the hearing room once again Thursday, having civil rights legend Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) sit by his side as a supporting witness.
Before the punishment phase in the Rangel ethics trial began Thursday, Rangel issued a long, emotional statement imploring his colleagues not to be too harsh. But Blake Chisam, the lead counsel for the ethics panel, read a statement before the committee recommending censure for Rangel – a tougher punishment than many legal experts expected.
“Public office is a public trust,” said Chisam, staff director of the ethics committee. Rangel “violated that trust.”
Chisam’s recommendation came after Rep. Jo Bonner (R-Ala.), who helped lead the probe into Rangel’s personal finances, angrily slammed Rangel for trying to “evade responsibility” for his behavior.
“Mr. Rangel has only to look into the mirror when he wants to find out who to blame,” Bonner thundered.
Rangel stood up to give a final speech before the ethics committee votes on the punishment, still defending himself on charges that he failed to report income on a vacation condo and improperly raised money for a center named after him at the City College of New York.
“No matter what sanction you finally reach, I will try to work with other members … to protect the integrity of this Congress,” Rangel said as he stood before the ethics committee.
Rangel is clearly asking for sympathy, citing his 40 years of service, his love of the House, and his heroic time in the Korean War.
“How can 40 witnesses, 30,000 pages of transcripts, over 550 exhibits measure against my forty years of service and commitment to this body I love so much? I ask the committee in reviewing the sanctions to take that into serious consideration, as well as the effects this ordeal has had on my wife, family and constituents,” Rangel said in a Thursday morning statement. “…I hope my four decades of service merit a sanction that is in keeping with and no greater than House precedents and also contains a drop of fairness and mercy.”
Rangel also admits that he may have done something wrong with his financial disclosures over the years, but did not go into any specifics.
“There can be no excuse for my acts of omission,” Rangel said in his statement. “I’ve failed in carrying out my responsibilities. I made numerous mistakes.”
(Read More: Politico)
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What a piece of human slime this Rangel is? If Congress had any respect for itself and the people it’s supposed to represent , they’d throw this crook out. Instead of the standard being higher for elected officials , the bar is set so low that you’d have to kill a hundred people to be thrown out. Shame on Rangel, shame on Congress, and really shame on his constituents who just reelected just a person of such low character.