Opposed to Censure, Charlie Rangel's Friends Have It Wrong

Charlie Rangel, David Dinkins

Over the past few days, a rancid smell has been coming from some New York political power brokers in the form of calls for Rep. Charlie Rangel to escape the Congressional censure he earned for House ethics violations.

It stinks when one-time big shots like former New York City Mayor David Dinkins use whatever bits of influence they still have NOT to bring greater attention to black-on-black crime or Haitian earthquake relief but to make excuses for a guilty friend.

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To Dinkins, the tears Rangel shed before his House colleagues recommended he be censured for 11 counts of ethics misdeeds means one thing: Charlie is being abused and the House needs to lay off "this great proud man."

Dinkins was joined by New York Assemblyman Keith Wright at a rally at a New York church on Sunday to call for leniency for Rangel.

Don't Dinkins and Wright realize that while the censure will smear Rangel's Congressional legacy, it will allow him to keep the seat he won in November's election?

More importantly, Rangel has to pay for breaking House rules.

He hasn't disputed the facts in any of the varied rules-breaking he committed, but he repeatedly says that he didn't benefit from any of his violations.

But if he didn't pay taxes on his vacation villa in the Dominican Republic for 17 years as the ethics panel found, who benefited? It sure wasn't the taxpayers of New York. It was Charlie Rangel.

I've known Rangel for years from my reporting days on Capitol Hill, and I won't disagree with Dinkins that Rangel has been a great public servant for his Harlem constituents.

Good men, though, can do bad things. That's what Rangel did over the years in ducking taxes and improperly using his influence. Let him pay the relatively light price for his long-time tax cheating and let's all move on.