EDITORIAL: Charlie the Coward

This newspaper has had its share of differences with Rep. Charlie Rangel over the years, but one word we never thought to associate with the Harlem lawmaker is “coward.”

Yet what other term is appropriate when a 79-year-old political veteran, the dean of the New York delegation and chairman of one of the most powerful panels on Capitol Hill, ducks responsibility for a pretty obvious personal ethical lapse by throwing his staff under the bus?

That’s Rangel’s story in the face of the House Ethics Committee’s report Friday declaring that he violated House rules by taking corporate-sponsored trips to the Caribbean in 2007 and 2008.

The committee didn’t admonish four other Democratic House members on the trips because neither they nor their offices were aware of how the trip was funded (despite the omnipresent corporate signage in plain view for the attendees).

Rangel’s office knew — and, the committee concluded, “Rangel was responsible for the knowledge and actions of his staff and the performance of their official duties.” That is, the buck stops with the boss.

Read more: (Editorial, “Charlie the Coward,” New York Post, 2/28/10)