Democrats Defeat Effort To Remove Rangel From Chairmanship

Who cares if Rep. Charlie Rangel can't keep the story of his personal finances straight. It's not like he's in charge of writing tax laws everyone else has to follow.

Oh, wait.

House Republicans on Wednesday attempted to pass a resolution to oust Rangel from his chairmanship following the reading of a long and stinging list of alleged wrongdoing. The measure stemmed from a major ethics probe into Rangel's alleged failure to pay his taxes and disclose income on multiple properties -- as much as $1.3 million.

But House Democrats were quick to strike down the measure to remove Rangel, who represents New York's Harlem district, from his post. House Republicans refused to accept defeat of the resolution, and asked for a second recorded vote following the first. The reading of the resolution was interrupted several times, and at one point was challenged by Democrats before being put to a vote.

A representative from Rangel's office on Wednesday blasted the resolution as a "highly partisan effort."

"Let's look at this resolution for what it really is -- a highly partisan effort designed to undermine the important work in Congress on health care reform," the representative, who declined to be named, told FOX News. "It's also an attempt to circumvent House rules, which provide for a comprehensive, bipartisan ethics committee process for reviewing matters such as these. The Congressman himself initiated the request for the committee to review the issues and the members should let the process work as established by the rules of the House."

I'm sure Rep. Joe Wilson is amused to hear about "highly partisan" efforts.

Just another feature of the Most Ethical Congress EVAH!

Thanks Nancy!

posted by DrewM. at 02:40 PM

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