GOP LEADER ALERT 10-9-09

STUCK IN THE SWAMP: SPEAKER PELOSI PROTECTING RANGEL “A GRAVE MISSTEP,” SIGN OF “BUSINESS AS USUAL”

GOP LEADER: “WHAT MORE HAS TO HAPPEN BEFORE SPEAKER PELOSI DOES THE RIGHT THING?”

October 9, 2009
House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH)
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This week Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-NY) and all but two House Democrats voted to protect Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-NY) and allow him to stay as chairman of the powerful tax-writing committee even though he is under investigation for not paying his taxes. Yesterday, the House Ethics Committee announced it was expanding its inquiry further. It begs the question: What more has to happen before Speaker Pelosi does the right thing? Here’s what a number of editorials and opinion-makers are saying today:

EDITORIALS: “FORGET HOUSE SPEAKER NANCY PELOSI’S PLEDGE TO ‘DRAIN THE SWAMP’ …”

“Sinking with Mr. Rangel. It is time for Democrats in Congress – who once justifiably complained about the corruption of the Republican majority – to demonstrate to Americans that someone in that august body has ethical standards. Instead, House Democrats have again shielded Representative Charles Rangel from his serial ethical messes and ducked their responsibility to force him from the chairmanship of the Ways and Means Committee. Speaker Pelosi won her gavel with a promise to ‘drain the swamp’ … But protecting Mr. Rangel as chairman is a grave misstep that can only hand the ethics issue back to her opponents.” (New York Times editorial, 10/9/09)

“Our view on congressional ethics: Step aside, Chairman Rangel. … But this is not an ‘innocent until proven guilty’ criminal case. The House is merely deciding whether Rangel should continue to have the high honor of chairing its most powerful committee. It already has more than enough evidence to determine that someone else is more worthy. … Formal disciplinary action can and should await the committee’s report. But failure to replace Rangel as chairman now sends a number of unfortunate signals — chief among them that House Democrats consider blatant ethical sloppiness to be no big deal.” (USA Today editorial, 10/9/09)

“Ethical issues reasons to step down. … Forget House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s pledge to ‘drain the swamp’ … It is past time for Rep. Rangel to step down.” (Watertown (NY) Daily Times editorial, 10/9/09)

“Rangel is not above the rules. … Rangel ought to step down on his own while the query continues. Barring that, the House leadership should force him to do the right thing. If it won’t — and that’s the most likely outcome – it signals business as usual on Capitol Hill and further deepens the gulf between lawmakers and the American people whose interests they were sent to Washington to represent.” (Clarksville (AL) Leaf-Chronicle editorial, 10/9/09)

“Democrats duck obligation to take action against Rangel. … Still, the Democrats need to show that they can keep their House in order – and they should begin by taking strong action against Rep. Charles B. Rangel, the chairman of the powerful Ways and Means Committee. … There are only two possible explanations here. Either Rangel is lying or he isn’t. If he is, he should be forced out. If he isn’t, his shoddy bookkeeping and poor command of the most basic tax rules make him ill-suited to serve as chairman of a congressional committee that writes the tax code and oversees the Internal Revenue Service. Either way, Rangel needs to go. If not, the credibility of House Democrats will.” (Santa Rosa (CA) Press Democrat editorial, 10/9/09)

OPINION-MAKERS: SPEAKER PELOSI NEEDS TO EXPLAIN TO VOTERS “WHY THE AFFLUENT MAN WHO SETS THEIR TAXES DIDN’T PAY HIS”

“The issue has the potential to become a ‘political liability’ for Democrats, a veteran political analyst said. ‘These charges are serious. And they keep adding more charges,’ said Stephen Hess of the non-partisan Brookings Institute. ‘So they’re going to have to be met and dealt with and voted upon. They can’t be swept under the table.’ … Nonetheless, Democratic strategist and CNN contributor James Carville said the controversy and ethics investigation could have an effect on the political future of not only Rangel but also the Democratic Party. Rangel should ‘take all of this ethical stuff dead seriously,’ he said. ‘This thing, it has a bad odor to it.’” (CNN, 10/9/09)

“Charlie Rangel’s Cloud. An Ethics Case Could Drag Democrats Down. House Democrats had better start taking the ethics allegations against Rep. Charlie Rangel seriously. I know it’s difficult for those steeped in Capitol Hill’s hermetic culture to understand, but a verdict of ‘mistakes were made’ -- which a lot of Democrats would like to reach -- doesn’t cut it in the real world. Strange as it seems. Seriously. … Speaker Nancy Pelosi may owe her job to Rangel, but she needs to press the ethics committee to do its work without fear or favor. And she needs to contemplate the prospect of explaining to voters, come next fall, why the affluent man who sets their taxes didn’t pay his.” (Eugene Robinson, Washington Post column, 10/9/09)

“The Republicans are, however, completely right about Rangel. Whenever a powerful committee chairman has so many problems that you need a timeline to keep all the allegations straight, he is a liability. When those problems revolve around things like failure to pay taxes, it is not a good plan to have him be in charge of tax policy.” (Gail Collins, New York Times column, 10/8/09)