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Charlie Rangel Wants Lighter Punishment

By Paul Shepard on Nov 30th 2010 12:43PM
Filed under: News, Politics, Race and Civil Rights

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Charlie Rangel, Charles Rangel scandal


Embattled Rep. Charlie Rangel of New York is spending much of his waning political capital trying to convince his colleagues that he shouldn't be censured for his ethics violations.

In fact, Rangel 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 for previous 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 says 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, is too harsh.

One of the points Rangel makes in his own 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 about soliciting charitable donations. Then maybe he wouldn't had been found guilty of 11 counts of misconduct to begin with.



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