Rangel is worried that his problems may harm Democrats. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35678683/ns/politics-capitol_hill Rep. Rangel steps down from tax committee Embattled Democrat takes 'leave of absence' amid ongoing ethics probe WASHINGTON - After being admonished by an ethics panel for accepting corporate-sponsored trips to the Caribbean, Rep. Charlie Rangel, D-N.Y., said Wednesday that he will take a leave of absence from his chairmanship of the powerful House Ways and Means committee. Rangel made the announcement to reporters on Capitol Hill, saying he would not answer any questions. "I hope you don't mind. I don't take questions," he said. He added that "from the very, very beginning, I had offered" to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to step down from the post. He said he was leaving now "to avoid my colleagues having to defend me" during the campaign season. The powerful and long-serving Democrat was encouraged to step aside before the House votes on a bill to strip him of his chairmanship. "We don't have the votes to save him," one Democratic member said of Rangel. The committee's top spot may temporarily go to Rep. Sander Levin, D-Mich., according to leadership sources, or to Rep. Pete Stark of California, the committee's second-ranking Democrat. In a report released Friday, the House ethics committee said that aides to the 20-term New York Democrat tried at least three times to show him the trips — to Antigua in 2007 and St. Maarten in 2008 — had corporate sponsorship, a violation of congressional gift rules. Several of Rangel's fellow Democrats had called for him to give up his committee gavel in recent days. On Tuesday, Democratic Rep. Artur Davis of Alabama, a member of the Ways and Means Committee and the Congressional Black Caucus, said that Rangel should "should do the right thing and step aside." Rangel said last week that the report by the ethics panel "exonerate[d]" him because it cites no evidence that he knew the trips were sponsored by corporations. In a written statement, the congressman responded to the ethics panel, calling its decision "ill-considered, unprecedented, unfair ... and wrong on the facts and the law." Rangel denied to investigators that he saw any of the written communications from staff members. Rangel, 79, was first elected to the House in 1970 from New York's Harlem district, defeating Adam Clayton Powell Jr., at the time the most prominent black politician in the country and one with his own ethics problems.
Harm them HOW?? They doing plenty of harm to their d*mn selves Rocket River I am beginning to DETEST Democrats bunch of P*ssies At this rate .. Obama will be a one termer and they will accomplish NOTHING!
Well if you remember when the GOP were having scandal after scandal, they made it worse by trying to cover it up, and not taking responsibility. It hurt them mightily in the midterms during Bush's second term. I think Rangel is trying to help make sure that doesn't happen for the Dems. I don't think it really will somehow make Obama look bad.
It's no Rangel. . .its the d*mn Democrats They punk out at EVERY TURN they are spineless and incompetent Our choices in politics is 1. a Brutally Abusive Party or 2. a woefully incompetent one Rocket River
The Dems have been Spineless for almost a decade now. I agree with you there. However Rangel did commit ethics violations. It could make the Dems look worse. He is right to step down.
