Rangel Meets with Pelosi Over Chairmanship

After reports yesterday that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi asked Representative Charles Rangel to step down as the chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, his fate is unclear. NY1 reports he's keeping the chairmanship, while Politico reports that Pelosi says no decision has been made.

Rangel, Pelosi and other House members met yesterday afternoon to discuss Rangel's problems related to income not reported on his Dominican Republic villa as well as from the sale of a home in D.C. The NY Post reported after the meeting, Rangel wouldn't discuss it, but did say "Do to me what you want, I'm not talking" before "bizarrely rattling off his name, rank and serial number from his Korean War days."

Politico reported that Pelosi denied asking Rangel to step down, saying they were discussing the stock market and the economy. This morning, Pelosi said, "I don't think that decision has been made. We have a lot of confidence in Mr. Rangel and when we have news on that we will let you know what it is, but that decision has not been made."

However, the sentiment from the media seems cast: Besides the Post's continuous coverage of every little step Rangel makes, even the NY Times published an editorial asking that Pelosi remove Rangel from the chairmanship, finding his claim that he couldn't get more details about the villa's rental income because people he called were speaking Spanish "offensive." And U.S. News & World Report's Sam Dealey found this Rangel excuse "priceless": "While over the years I delegated to my staff the completion of my annual House financial disclosure statements, I had the ultimate responsibility."

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Jen Chung in News on September 16, 2008 11:53 AM

Comments [rss]

Future Taliban

"Why are there so many extreme left-and-right winger douchebags on Gothamist?"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4-tu7ts4IQ

The Edge

Why are there so many extreme left-and-right winger douchebags on Gothamist?

EastRiver

Sommelier, so because Bush is a terrible President means everyone can do whatever they want? Sweet! I'm going to go rob a bank.

Felix Hoenikker

Clean house, both parties.

At the very least the lobbyists will have to cough up that much more cash to buy off a fresh generation of whores.

Sommelier

"The arrogance is sickining..."

Yeah... it IS! Telling the White House Counsel to ignore a Congressional subpoena...

Telling the American peole that Saddam had WMDs and was linked to binLaden...

Letting binLaden escape...

Deciding that torturing is OK...

Tapping American's phone calls without a warrant...

It just goes on and on!

Felix Hoenikker

Clean house, both parties.

At the very least the lobbyists will have to cough up that much more cash to buy off a fresh generation of whores.

zodak

if he hadn't been such an arrogant prick when the news broke about his 4 apartments, he might have gotten away with all of it.

i'm glad the newspapers decided to teach him a lesson.

MurphGuide

Power corrupts...

AvenueHebrew

You can't hold all Democrats accountable for the actions of a couple middle-management jerkoffs, just like not every Republican falls in line with Bush and his many, many cronies.

I'm a Democrat, and I pretty much want this guy out on his ass. He should be stripped of his appointments until this shit clears up. He doesn't need to step down as a representative altogether yet (though it would be nice), but he cannot be chairing the Ways And Means Commission with some of the dumb shit he has publically said and done.

Tgirl

no worries (!) Nancy Pelosi is on it

EastRiver

Yeah, I'm really optimistic that change is coming to Washington.

glennQNYC

The arrogance is sickining...

"Do to me what you want, I'm not talking" Rangel

"when we have news on [Rangel] we will let you know" Pelosi

"You're damn right he's the chairman" Levin