By Larry Margasak
Associated Press
WASHINGTON – A combative Rep. Charles Rangel told the House last Tuesday he’s not resigning despite 13 charges of wrongdoing and demanded the ethics committee not leave him “swinging in the wind.”
Rangel, who is 80, spoke without notes in an extraordinary, often emotional 37-minute speech that defied his lawyers’ advice to keep quiet about his case.
The New York Democrat and 40-year House veteran had a sharp message in dismissing fellow Democrats who, worried about election losses, want him to quit: “If I can’t get my dignity back here, then fire your best shot in getting rid of me through expulsion.”
Expulsion is the harshest penalty that can result from an ethics case. It would be highly unlikely in Rangel’s case because the former chairman of the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee is not accused of corruption.
Rangel, who said he has lost much sleep during the two-year investigation, was interrupted by applause twice — including when he said: “I am not going away. I am here.” A few Republicans clapped, but most support came from Democrats.
The Democrat from Harlem acknowledged that he made mistakes, especially in belatedly reporting hundreds of thousands of dollars in assets and income, but he insisted he was not corrupt. While the ethics committee charged him with doing legislative favors — for donors he solicited to a Charles Rangel college center — Rangel said he was only guilty of “grabbing the wrong stationery.” He referred to solicitations he sent on his official letterhead.
Several Republican lawmakers embraced Rangel’s call for swifter handling of ethics cases.
“Two years is longer than a normal criminal case usually takes,” said Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif. He said charges against Rangel should have been brought much earlier.
Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., said Rangel drove home the point that lawmakers deserve “a fair process” when ethics allegations arise.
“I’m not asking for leniency. I’m asking for exposure of the facts,” Rangel said in demanding that the ethics panel expedite the hearing of his case.
Rangel noted the committee is scheduled to convene Sept. 13, the day before his primary election, but that the main part of his ethics trial would not come until later in the fall.
“Don’t leave me swinging in the wind until November,” he demanded.
Rangel, known for his friendly, backslapping demeanor but also his toughness on legislative issues, said he had his own interpretation of President Barack Obama’s remarks in a CBS interview on July 30. The president said: “He’s somebody who’s at the end of his career. I’m sure that what he wants is to be able to end his career with dignity. And my hope is that it happens.”
Rangel said, “When the president said he wanted me to end my career in dignity, he didn’t put a time limit on it.”
White House spokesman Bill Burton would not elaborate on what Obama meant, including whether the president was sending Rangel a not-so-veiled suggestion that he leave Congress.
“I think the president’s words speak for themselves,” Burton said.
Rangel said his legal bills have reached nearly $2 million and he can’t afford to keep paying — especially when “nobody is going to read the defense.”
Rangel is charged with doing legislative favors for donors he solicited — on official stationery — for contributions to a college center named after him.
He’s also accused of belated payment of taxes from income on his rental unit at a Dominican Republic resort; the later financial disclosures, which Rangel admitted were inexcusable; and of taking advantage of a New York rent subsidy for residential units, by using a Harlem apartment as a campaign office.
“In the haste of sending out hundreds of letters” to donors for the Rangel Center at City College of New York, Rangel said there “has to be a penalty for grabbing the wrong stationery.” He quickly added, “It may be stupid, it may be negligent, but it’s not corrupt.”
He said the office set aside for him at the center is hardly a gift.
“Who the heck needs an office … in a broken-down building?” he asked.
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