Rangel a Symbol of Democrats’ Ethics Problem

Rep. Charlie Rangel endured one of those unflattering television moments that political opponents love when a reporter approached him earlier this week and asked how he allegedly had failed to include hundreds of thousands of dollars in personal assets on congressional disclosure forms.

“You shouldn’t be that way, you know that?” a scolding Rangel, D-N.Y., told MSNBC’s Betsy Klein, waving papers at her as the camera rolled. “I know it’s your job, and I don’t blame you, but it’s really so rude.”

Rangel, the powerful chairman of the tax-writing House of Representatives’ Ways and Means Committee, is feeling the heat from Republican efforts to make him a symbol of Democratic Party ethical wrongdoing, an issue that the GOP hopes will help it regain a sizeable number of seats in next year’s mid-terms elections.

Read more: (William Douglas, “Democrats’ Ethics Problems Spark GOP Election Hopes,” McClatchy Newspapers, 10/16/09)