It appears that the new president will have his own scandals to deal with, besides the corrupt governor he supposedly never knew, the corrupt union he received financial backing from, and the corrupt party he belongs to.

It appears his party has left a nice little time bomb for ‘The Anointed One’ to deal with. It seems New York Representative Charlie Rangel has been twiddling the tax law for his own benefit. It appears he might have forgotten to pay some taxes on rental income for a vacation home he owns, some rent controlled apartments in the slums of Harlem, using congressional stationary for raising money for a school that makes him a hero, and to help a contributor get a tax loophole in exchange for a contribution.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is trying to sweep this corruption under the carpet so Obama won’t have to deal with it, but it might be bigger than she can handle. Rangel is already being investigated by the House Ethics Committee (which I find funny since there are very few people in Congress that I consider to have any ethics at all, let alone be able to stand above and judge others), for all of this foolishness, but what really bothers me is that Rangel is the head of the House Ways and Means Committee, which means he decides on how money is spent, and where it comes from. The rest of the legislative body figures out what money should be spent on and then passes laws to allow it to be spent, but waht really happens is that they are just approving it for review by the House Ways and Means Committee, who actually decides whether it should be funded, and how. The other thing that really bothers me about this is that the Dems are not new to corruption in this particular seat. In 1994, Dan Rostenkowski sat in the same seat and was accused of keeping ‘ghost’ employees on the payroll, and using the House post office like his own personal post office. Yes, he was only convicted of the minor charges of the post office issue and did 15 months in the Federal Penitentiary, but he was also pardoned by President Bill Clinton as one of the many ‘no-question’ pardons of questionable worth.

What is also interesting to note is that Rostenkowski was also a part of the Chicago Machine, the corruption laden political environment of Chicago. (Can you see any relationship to IL Governor Blagojevich starting to ooze up from the bottom of the sludge called Chicago politics?)

It also appears from just checking Wikipedia that Rangel has also had several questionable real estate deals that are coming out into the open. It also appears he was claiming a homestead exemption on his taxes for a home in Washington, DC while living in four rent-controlled apartments in Harlem.

Don’t ya just love it when someone starts to claim they are so squeaky clean? Pelosi wants this all taken care of before She comes back from the Christmas break and before Obama is sworn in, I guess she wants to make sure the Dems aren’t continuing on with the ‘culture of corruption’ that she blamed the Republicans for during her rants over the past several years.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had hoped the Rangel inquiry could play out quickly, by Jan. 3. And the Ethics Committee seemed on course to do exactly that, until the latest allegations surfaced. Those regard the tax loophole worked out for a donor to the Charles B. Rangel Center for Public Service at the City College of New York. (WSJ)

It seems with the various scandals ongoing right now, maybe something needs to be done to start attracting more honest people to lead our country. Maybe we need to stop allowing campaign contributions from anyone other than a real person, and limit that as well.

Gardie

Tags: Dan Rostenkowski, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, House Ways and Means Committee, Rangel Charles B, United States House Committee on Ways and Means