Democrat Dirty Laundry: Charlie Rangel: Democrats' "Cash Cow"

Charlie Rangel: Democrats’ “Cash Cow”

Dems Look Past Legal Issues and Keep Their Eyes On The Money

SPIN CYCLE: Pelosi Promised The Most Ethical Congress Ever

“The American people voted to restore integrity and honesty in Washington, D.C., and the Democrats intend to lead the most honest, most open and most ethical Congress in history,” Pelosi said. (William Branigin, “Democrats Take Majority in House; Pelosi Poised to Become Speaker,” The Washington Post, 11/08/2006)

RINSE CYCLE: Democrats Keep Taking Tainted Money from Crooked Rangel

Rangel is a Mississippi of money to his people, the Democratic Party. That is a huge reason why House leaders are finding it difficult to strand him in the desert. By his own campaign finance reports, which could be as incomplete as his personal finance affidavits, Rangel donated $2.4 million to candidates and party organizations for last year’s crucial campaign.

A dozen state Democratic organizations got four-and five-figure gifts from Rangel. In addition, the New York State Democratic Committee got $100,000. He gave the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee $250,000; $141,000 went to the party’s U. S. Senate campaign and probably more than $250,000 to arms of the National Democratic Committee.

Dozens of individual House candidates got Rangel money ranging from $2,000 to Rep. William Jefferson, D-La., who was facing bribery charges then and was recently convicted of same, to $39,000 raised for Rep. Eric Massa, D-Corning.

Kirsten Gillibrand, then a House candidate and now our senator, got Rangel money. So did Rep. Hilda Solis, D-Calif., now secretary of labor. Likewise, Hillary Rodham Clinton, now secretary of state. Rangel’s report shows he raised and gave more than $60,000 to Rep. Dan Maffei, D-Syracuse.

In the Capitol’s nest of secrets, no one will ever know whether the Democratic Party’s leadership saw in the impregnable Rangel, who wins by 90 percent in his Harlem district, a way to turn a stream of money into a cascade.

But when he was only a minority member of the powerful committee in 2004, he gave away a fifth of what he donated last year. First elected in 1970, Rangel became chairman in 2007. That put him in charge of all tax legislation, all foreign trade bills, Social Security issues, trust funds for airports and highways, even adoptions.

It worked, but now the Rangel torrent is a rapid to some members, who are being charged with using tainted money. Some have returned cash or donated it to charity. Massa and Maffei say simply the money is spent. Presumably, House ethics investigators want to know what else Rangel may have received besides campaign money. By all accounts, Rangel is not “poor” like Auda abu Tayi. (Douglas Turner, “Democrats won’t oust Rangel, their cash cow,” Buffalo News, 9/14/2009)

To read the full article, click here: http://www.buffalonews.com/149/story/794927.html

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