EmbattledRep. Charlie Rangelof Harlem is spending much of his waning political capital trying to convince his colleagues that he shouldn't be punished with censure for his ethics violations.
In fact, Charlie Rangel has had his staff prepare a 10-point chart to send out to members of Congress, complete with a history of punishments the body has handed out previously for ethical violations.
There is something sad about the 80-year-old lawmaker begging his colleagues to go light on him in the penalty phase of his trial.
Rangel believes that the penalty of censure, which would require him to stand before the entire Congress and have the House Speaker read a resolution chastising him, would be too harsh.
One of the points Rangel makes in his defense is that his offense did not involve personal gain. The fact that he skipped out on paying taxes on his Dominican Republic summer home, though, proves otherwise.
Maybe members of Congress will take pity on the longtime lawmaker and overturn the 9-1 vote for censure made earlier in the month by the ethics subcommittee.
Maybe members of Congress will give Rangel the less serious penalty of a reprimand and let him go about his business.
But I wish Rangel had invested the time and attention he is now using to evade punishment to read up on tax codes and rules on soliciting charitable donations. Then maybe he wouldn't had been found guilty of 11 counts of misconduct to begin with.
16-Nov-10 - Forty-five years after he was killed by an Alabama State Trooper, Jimmie Lee Jackson, whose death lead to the first civil rights march on Selma, he is finally getting a small measure of justice.
12-Nov-10 - In a case better suited for Judge Mathis, Paula Cook is proceeding with her civil suit against Fantasia Barrino for an antiquated legal cause of action called "Alienation of Affection" in a North Carolina court.
