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(s)Elections See other (s)Elections Articles Title: MORE RANGEL MUCK The ethical clouds hanging over Rep. Charlie Rangel grow thicker by the day. Thursday, it came to light that Rangel's campaign committee steered some $80,000 to his son's Internet company for work that Politico.com's Luke Rosiak and Glenn Thrush describe as "poorly designed" and shoddy. So how can House Speaker Nancy Pelosi practically guarantee when the ongoing House Ethics Committee probe into Rangel's conduct will conclude? Yet she's doing exactly that. So, is the "fix" in? The ethics committee is already something of a toothless tiger: Evenly balanced between Democrats and Republicans, it rarely gives investigated members more than a slap on the wrist. Pelosi sounds as if she wants to ensure that trend continues. During Thanksgiving week, she said she was "assured" that the committee would wrap up its work by Jan. 3 - the last day of the current Congress. But how would she know that - unless she talked with committee members? Since the committee began looking at the House Ways and Means chairman's behavior in mid-September - including his failure to pay taxes on Caribbean property; using a rent-controlled apartment as a political office, and improperly storing a car in a House parking garage - two other serious allegations have come to light: n Rangel allegedly took a DC resident deduction on his taxes - even though he's a legal New York resident. n He pushed to keep a huge tax break benefiting an oil-drilling company whose CEO gave a million-dollar pledge to Rangel's prospective school for public service at CCNY. The National Legal and Policy Center on the right and Common Cause on the left have written letters to the ethics committee urging it to expand its probe of Rangel to include these serious charges. The committee made no response. Yet, on Tuesday, Rangel himself said that Pelosi has promised him continued chairmanship of his powerful committee. Such apparent contact between the speaker, the supposedly impartial ethics committee and the subject of the panel's work is inappropriate and, yes, unethical. The only "guarantee" that Pelosi should make, public or private, is that the probe will proceed as long as necessary - and the outcome will be driven by the facts. Poster Comment: Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread Top Page Up Full Thread Page Down Bottom/Latest Begin Trace Mode for Comment # 2.
#2. To: Jethro Tull (#0)
Does a bear, is the Pope.
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