Rangel Should Step Down for Democrats’ Sake

The emergence of U.S. Rep. Charlie Rangel, D-N.Y., as the poster child for congressional corruption could not have come at a worse time for the Democrats or for President Obama. One of the powers behind Nancy Pelosi’s drive to become speaker, Rangel is chairman of the powerful House Committee on Ways and Means, giving him a special role in the oversight of the federal Internal Revenue Service as well making him lord over the U.S. tax code.

An ongoing investigation into Rangel’s finances reveals, however, that he has not been exactly candid with the IRS or, for the matter, his congressional colleagues about his real estate holding, sales of stock and his reportable income. The revelations have gotten so embarrassing that the liberal editorial writers at The Washington Post are once again demanding he step aside and surrender his chairman’s gavel. They wrote Friday:

Much is expected of elected officials. Much more is expected and demanded of those entrusted with chairmanships and the power that comes with them, especially when it involves the nation’s purse strings. From all that we’ve seen thus far, Mr. Rangel has violated that trust continually and seemingly without care.

Read more: (Peter Roff, “For the Democrats’ Sake, Charles Rangel Must Go,” US News’ “Thomas Jefferson Street” blog, 9/08/09)