Rangel’s Trial Tests the Democrats’ “Drain the Swamp” Claim

“Rep. Charles Rangel isn’t the only one facing judgment at his planned trial before the House ethics committee. The hearings, coming about a month before Election Day, will also be a public test of Democratic vows to run a clean Congress.”

“The risk for Democrats: the trial ends up reaffirming the general perception among voters that Washington’s hidebound culture is more concerned with self-preservation than with dispensing justice.”

“The committee that probes House lawmakers’ ethics hasn’t held this type of hearing since 1987, when Rep. Austin Murphy (D., Pa.) was reprimanded for misusing government resources and allowing another member to cast a vote on his behalf.

“Since then, most lawmakers facing such a trial have resigned or cut a deal, and most committees have been reluctant to press on to public trials unless they are following work done by the Justice Department. Mr. Rangel, with a nearly 40-year career in Congress, is one of the few lawmakers who were there in the 1970s and 1980s when such ethics trials were more common.

“Technically, the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct tried Rep. James Traficant (D., Ohio) in 2002, but in that instance the panel simply entered into the official record the transcript of his previous federal criminal trial.”

Read more: (Devlin Barrett, “Rangel Hearings to Test His Party, Too,” The Wall Street Journal, 09/04/10)