Sorry, Charlie

The National Legal and Policy Center has led the investigation into the financial misrepresentations by House Ways and Means Chairman Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY). Today the NLPC has a new ally, The Washington Post. In an editorial dated 9/3/09 The Washington Post is calling for Charles Rangel to resign from the chairmanship:

http://www.nlpc.org/stories/2009/09/03/washington-post-calls-rangel-resign-ways-and-means-chairmanship

The Washington Post editorial:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/02/AR2009090203082.html?sub=AR

The NLPC makes an important point that resignation should not be the end of this investigation, there must be criminal prosecution:

• We welcome the Post editorial but it does not address an even more serious matter— whether Rangel will face criminal prosecution.
  
• The scale of Rangel’s omissions means they could have only been willful and deliberate.
  
• Yes, the Post is right. Rangel should resign. If he refuses, it is incumbent upon House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to remove him. But that should not be the end of it. He should also be subject to criminal prosecution.

"gotten away with murder"

The details of the following article leads me to the startling conclusion that political corruption is not limited to Chicago and Los Angeles:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/21/nyregion/21rangel.html?ref=business

Lets follow the money flow:

1. Representative Charles B. Rangel Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee has received $110,000 in campaign donations from A.I.G.

2. For decades, Mr. Rangel has been a close friend of Maurice R. Greenberg, the chief executive of A.I.G. until 2005, and until recently one of the company’s biggest shareholders. Mr. Greenberg has sponsored fund-raisers on Mr. Rangel’s behalf, and in 2007, a foundation controlled by Mr. Greenberg gave $5 million to the school, the Charles B. Rangel Center for Public Service at the City College of New York.

3. As recently as last year, Mr. Rangel was trying to woo the company to donate $10 million to the Charles B. Rangel Center for Public Service at the City College of New York (named in his honor). And while A.I.G. officials mulled the request, Mr. Rangel supported a provision in a tax bill that saved the company millions of dollars.

For more on Charles B. Rangel see the following website:

http://www.nlpc.org/