Charlie and the Money Factory

The Washington Post, a much more influential newspaper than the Buffalo News, has seen fit to join the latter in calling for Rep. Charlie Rangel, D(oesn't know how to count his assets correctly)-New York, to step down from his House Ways and Means committee chairmanship, a position that gains even more relevance given the news that ol' Charles has helpfully donated money to the campaigns of 119 members of Congress recently, including three Democratic members of the very ethics committee that's investigating his shenanigans:

"CBS 2 HD has discovered that since ethics probes began last year the 79-year-old congressman has given campaign donations to 119 members of Congress, including three of the five Democrats on the House Ethics Committee who are charged with investigating him.

Charlie's "angels" on the committee include Congressmen Ben Chandler of Kentucky, G.K. Butterfield of North Carolina and Peter Welch of Vermont."

That was sure a convenient time for Rangel to begin "making it rain" on Capitol Hill, wasn't it?

To his credit, Rep. Welch has returned the money, according to the story. The other two seem content to be viewed as having blatantly accepted a bribe.

The accused lawmaker doesn't seem to be worried about any repercussions stemming from his outrageous financial shenanigans, though, as he's currently busy incoherently labeling as racist anyone who don't happen to agree with the Messiah's health care takeover scheme:

"'Why do black people have to bargain for what is theirs? Why do we have to wait for the right to vote? Why can't we get what God has given us? And that is the right to live as human beings and not negotiate with white southerners and not court the votes. Just do the right thing,' Rangel said."

What any of that has to do with the health care debate we have absolutely no clue.

Interestingly, the last article notes that Rangel's employees have apparently been faithfully following their boss's example:

"Financial forgetfulness is apparently a disease that is spreading to his staff. Two top aides -- chief of staff Jim Capel and Rangel legal counsel George Dalley -- are among about a dozen staffers on Rangel's tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee that have filed amended financial reports recently. Capel did not file any financial disclosure statements for six years." (Emphasis mine)

These are the very same people who just love to write piles and piles of laws that unleash the IRS hounds on any poor peasant that fails to file their tax returns in a timely manner, or who is unfortunate enough to screw up their 1040 form and fail to pay enough tribute to the Treasury, or as we tend to view it around here, Congress's personal slush fund.

We think that Jacob Israel of Harlem, one of Rangel's hapless chumps constituents, sums things up very nicely:

"Every last one of them is stealing"

Testify, brother.