Congress should be ashamed of themselves. On Nov. 16, Congressman Charles Rangel was convicted of 11 of 14 charges by the Ethics Committee of the House of Representatives. The committee recommended censure of Congressman Rangel. Among the charges he was found guilty of were, nonpayment of taxes from rental receipts of a condominium he owned in central America, the taxes of which totaled upwards to $40,000, a large portion of which were not included because of the statute of limitations, submitting misleading and fraudulent financial disclosures,and, improper use of rent stabilized apartments. Minor infractions for a Congressman, even though this Congressman was the Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, the Committee that writes our tax laws!
Throughout the entire process that spanned two years, Rangel feebly attempted to minimize and distract from the core problem. He reminded his cohorts that he was a decorated veteran of the Korean war (that argument didn't work for former Congressman Randall Cunningham, Air Force Ace, who is now sitting in the clink either), that his transgressions were "minor mistakes", and that Censure was only reserved for corrupt politicians of which he was not one.
Attempts were made to reduce the Censure down to a Letter of Reprimand such as was received by Congressman Joe Wilson for calling Obama a liar (HeHeHe)! Does tax evasion fall at the same level of being a tad bit rude? Nope. Let's face it kids, whether or not we look good in stripes, we'd be wearing them for forgetting to pay our taxes! We'd also have a roommate named Bubba.
That brings us to the Rangel 79. The 79 are the members of Congress who voted nay to the censure resolution. In essence they were saying that it's OK to forget to pay taxes, commit criminal acts, because we are members of Congress, and not the "little people" out there in the hinterlands. To top it off, they applauded the criminal Congressman at the end of the censure. I wanted to vomit, and in my mind, they should all have targets on their backs in 2012. Each and every one is up for election in two years.
The Condone rs of Criminal behavior are:
-AK Young (R)
-AZ Grijalva
Pastor
-AR None
-CA Baca
Becerra
Chu
Filner
Honda
Lee
Napolitana
Richardson
Roybal-Allard
Stark
Waters
Watson
Woolsey
-CO Salazar
-CT None
-DE None
-FL Corrine
Grayson
-GA Bishop
Johnson
Lewis
Scott
-HI Hirono
-ID None
-IL Davis
Gutierrez
Jackson
Rush
-IN Carson
-IA None
-KS Moore
-KY None
-LA Melancon
-ME None
-MD Cummings
Edwards
-MA Frank
-MI Conyers
Kilpatrick
Levin
Stupak
-MN Ellison
-MS Thompson
-MO Cleaver
Clay
-MT None
-NE None
-NV None
-NH None
-NJ Payne
-NM None
-NY Ackerman
Clarke
Crowley
Engel
Hinchey
Lowey
Maloney
Meeks
Nadler
Rangel (well Duh!)
Serano
Slaughter
Towns
Velasquez
Weiner
King (R)
-NC Butterfield
Watt
-ND None
-OH Fudge
-OK None
-OR None
-PA Brady
Fattah
Kanjorski
-RI Kennedy
-SC Clyburn
-SD None
-TN Tanner
-TX Gonzalez
Green, Al
Hinojosa
Jackson-Lee
Johnson, E,B.
Ortiz
Reyes
-UT None
-VT None
-VA Scott
-WA McDermott
Smith
-WV None
-WI Moore
-WY None
Darn! That took a long time to type. In the interest of full disclosure, there are only 78 names above. Where the heck the missing person is, is beyond me! I checked 4 sources and all had 78 listed. I'm thinking that a Congressperson from the Marshall Islands or Puerto Rico was omitted.
This approval of criminal activity is not the only angle you can approach this circus with. Race is a good one also. Don't call me a racist, the facts speak for themselves. Mary the Blogger did a great job on this angle.
http://freedomeden.blogspot.com/2010/12/charlie-rangel-censure-vote-and-race.html
Let's all hope that the above listed are looking over their shoulder in 2012!
Listed under "Corrine" for FL, should be Brown, Corrine
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