Five Birthday Gifts for Charlie Rangel

Happy 80th birthday to former (? See note below) Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charlie Rangel, born on this day in 1930. In honor of this momentous occasion, here are five birthday gifts for Rangel — one for each decade in which he has served in Congress.

The five Ethics Committee investigations of Charlie Rangel that remain open:

1. For “[u]sing official resources to transmit letters in 2005, 2006, and 2007 to potential donors to the Charles B. Rangel Center for Public Service at the City College of New York [.]” (Committee on Standards of Official Conduct news release, 9/24/08)

2. For “[a]partment units leased … in the Lenox Terrace apartment complex located in Harlem, New York [.]” (Committee on Standards of Official Conduct news release, 9/24/08)

3. For the “financing of his ownership interests in a guest unit within the Punta Cana Yacht Club located in Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic and his compliance with financial disclosure requirements regarding that property [.]” (Committee on Standards of Official Conduct news release, 9/24/08)

4. With respect to his “compliance with Committee on House Administration Rules regarding storage of a vehicle in a House garage, lot, or designative parking area [.]” (Committee on Standards of Official Conduct news release, 9/24/08)

5. With respect to “all Financial Disclosure Statements and all amendments filed in calendar year 2009 [.]” (Committee on Standards of Official Conduct news release, 10/08/09)

NOTE: Notice Rangel’s use of the present tense in a recent piece in The Hill: “Being a chairman, I can’t stop being the local congressman. I work all day with legislation.” (Lauren Victoria Burke and Bob Cusack, “The 25 Hardest Working Lawmakers,” The Hill, 6/09/10)