EDITORIAL: Rangel Given Pass by Democrats

Given a prime opportunity to restore public confidence in congressional accountability, U.S. House Democrats and some sympathetic Republicans last week voted once again to protect one of their own amid allegations of gross tax and ethics violations.

Rather than strip the chairmanship of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee from Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., the House voted 246-153 to send the GOP resolution to the idling House Ethics Committee. The committee, which has yet to take any action after a year of alleged violations by Mr. Rangel, announced the next day it was “widening” its probe of the chairman whose congressional panel writes the nation’s tax laws.

And this, after Rangel, who has served almost four decades, was allowed to revise past financial-disclosure forms that weren’t quite accurate, to say the least.

Read more: (Editorial, “Charlie’s Pass,” Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, 10/12/09)