Rangel Shows Signs of Strain

Charles B. Rangel , his voice unmistakable, welcomed Speaker Nancy Pelosi into his corner hideaway office at the Capitol last week. Soon afterward, he ushered in Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus.

The visits came just hours after the 39-year veteran from Harlem weathered another Republican effort on the House floor to force him out of his chairmanship of the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee until an ethics investigation of his personal finances and fundraising ends. But there was no mention during the consultations of the still-expanding probe the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct has been conducting since it empaneled an investigative subcommittee last fall.

Instead, aides said later, Pelosi and Baucus spent all their time discussing plans for health care legislation — and thereby sent a clear message that top Democrats in the party’s congressional hierarchy are behind Rangel, at least for now.

Read more: (Alan K. Ota, “Wrangle Over Rangel Shows Signs of Strain,” CQ Politics, 10/13/09)