Stark Probe Could Scramble Democrats' Plans

Stark Probe Could Scramble Democrats’ Plans
Richard E. Cohen
National Journal
12/30/09

With its murky Christmas Eve announcement that Rep. Pete Stark, D-Calif., was the target of an unspecified ethics investigation, the House Standards of Official Conduct (Ethics) Committee has added new uncertainties to the fate of Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., and potentially fueled Republican charges of House Democratic misconduct.

Prospective charges against the 78-year-old Stark are intriguing for several reasons: As the No. 2 Democrat on Ways and Means behind Rangel, 79, Stark is next in line to take the powerful chairmanship if Rangel exits, voluntarily or otherwise. Rangel has been the target of a separate ethics inquiry for more than a year into several aspects of his personal finances; many editorial writers — as well as Republicans — have demanded that he step aside as head of the tax-writing panel.

Because Stark’s East Bay district is separated by only a few miles of the San Francisco Bay from the district of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, he might seem a logical successor to Rangel.

But as House insiders have been saying quietly for many months, Stark’s increasingly maverick voting patterns and his sometimes unpredictable behavior have raised serious questions about whether Pelosi — and the Democratic Caucus — would be comfortable giving him the top committee post and the responsibilities of party leadership, though it has not been at all clear how House Democrats could avoid such a scenario.

Read the entire article here.