House Wrangles Over Rangel

House Ways and Means Chairman Charles Rangel speaking at a news conference in March, 2009.

Image: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

House Democrats on Wednesday deflected a bid by Republicans Wednesday afternoon to force Representative Charles Rangel, a Democrat from New York, to step down as chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee.

By a 246 to 153 largely party-line vote, the House voted to refer a resolution calling for Rangel’s removal as chair of the committee to the House Ethics Committee. That panel is investigating a series of alleged improprieties by Rangel, starting with his failure to report $75,000 in rental income from a Dominican Republic vacation home on his federal and state tax returns.

Republicans want Rangel to step down pending the result of the committee’s 15-month-old investigation. Their resolution, offered by Texas Republican Representative John Carter, was purely political, designed to embarrass Democratic leaders who are standing by Rangel until the Ethics Committee completes its work.

The resolution noted that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, when she was House Minority Leader in 2006, asked former Representative William Jefferson to resign his seat on the House Ways and Means Committee when it was revealed that he was under investigation for corruption. The resolution also noted that House Republican Leader John Boehner persuaded several GOP members to give up their committee seats while they were being investigated for criminal activity.

There’s no indication that Rangel faces a criminal indictment, but there’s enough ethical smoke for him to be fired as the chairman of one of the most powerful committees in Congress. Among other things, the Ways and Means Committee writes the nation’s tax laws. It would be nice if the committee’s leader obeyed them.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner faced a similar problem when it was revealed that he had neglected to pay self-employment taxes on income earned when he was employed at the International Monetary Fund. Geithner was able to convince the Senate that this was merely a careless mistake, and he apologized for it. The revelation, however, got him off to a rough start as head of the Treasury Department, which happens to include the Internal Revenue Service as one of its divisions.

In Rangel’s case, more allegations have followed, including reports that he failed to report at least $500,000 in income on his congressional financial disclosure forms and that he failed to pay property taxes on two lots in New Jersey.

The cloud over Rangel—and by extension, Democrats and the House itself—won’t go away until Rangel goes away, at least as Ways and Means Committee chairman. He’s got a right to defend himself, but he doesn’t have the right to chair a committee, much less such a powerful one. That’s a privilege, one that should be awarded only to members with unquestionable integrity.

“To allow Mr. Rangel to continue to serve as chairman of the very committee with IRS oversight, without paying a nickel in penalties and with no end in sight to his ethics investigation, sends a clear message to the American people that this government refuses to abide by the same laws they impose on the working people of this country,” Representative Carter said.

Rangel is a likable guy, known for his raspy voice and great sense of humor. He probably knows more about taxes than anyone else on his committee, and on some issues, such as cutting the corporate tax rate, he is surprisingly business-friendly for a liberal Democrat. But he’s either a tax cheat or a really bad manager of his financial affairs. Either alternative makes him a bad choice to head Ways and Means.