Rangel’s Cloud

House Democrats had better start taking the ethics allegations against Rep. Charlie Rangel seriously. I know it’s difficult for those steeped in Capitol Hill’s hermetic culture to understand, but a verdict of “mistakes were made” — which a lot of Democrats would like to reach — doesn’t cut it in the real world. Strange as it seems. Seriously.

Republicans, I should note, are being baldly hypocritical in calling for Rangel, who has spent four decades in the House, to step down immediately as chairman of the Ways and Means Committee — a position that makes him one of the most powerful men in Washington. Those same Republicans were happy to keep “Dancing With the Stars” dropout Tom DeLay as majority leader for years while he was under a monsoon’s worth of ethical cloud cover.

But just because Republicans are posturing for political gain doesn’t mean that Democrats can do the same without paying a price. If you win big majorities in both the House and Senate by railing against a “culture of corruption” in Washington, as the Democratic Party did, voters tend to get the wacky notion that you actually mean what you say.

Read more: (Eugene Robinson, “Charlie Rangel’s Cloud,” The Washington Post, 10/09/09)