Rangel Keeps Post but Support Softens

Democrats defeated the latest effort by Republicans to remove Rep. Charles Rangel from his chairmanship of the influential Ways and Means Committee, but couldn’t stop Democratic defections in what had been a united party front.

Two Mississippi Democrats, Reps. Gene Taylor and Travis Childers, joined Republicans in a procedural vote to prevent Democrats from killing the measure. The vote failed by 246-153, with six Republicans siding with Democrats. In the two previous votes, five Republicans crossed party lines and no Democrats. The vote was the third effort by Republicans to remove Mr. Rangel from the helm of the tax-writing committee in the last year.

Read more: (Brody Mullins, “Rangel Keeps Post but Support Softens,” Wall Street Journal, 10/08/09)