Unions and PACs partner with corrupt congressmen to pay legal bills...

OddsOn · Jul 29, 2010

This kind of makes my points in the other thread regarding term limits, transparency in fund raising donations, etc.

Where is the culture of corruption? It looks like all over to me....

K Street goes to the defense of Charlie Rangel

Every person accused of a crime or an ethics violation deserves a competent defense. Charlie Rangel's legal defense, fittingly, comes from K Street.

Two of the three firms providing legal counsel to Rep. Charlie Rangel, D-N.Y., in his pending ethics cases are lobbying firms. In fact, one firm, Oldaker, Belair & Wittie, conducts much of Rangel's political fundraising, while operating four different lobby shops.

But who's ultimately paying Rangel's legal bills? Mostly corporate and union political action committees along with individual lobbyists. Over the past six months, PACs and lobbyists have accounted for a majority of the money Rangel's campaign has raised this year, not counting transfers from Rangel's other fundraising operations (more on them below).

In turn, Rangel funnels his campaign cash into his legal defense. In 2009, three-fourths of Rangel's $2.16 million in campaign spending went to legal fees. The House Ethics Committee allows campaign funds for legal fees that are not "primarily personal in nature, such as a matrimonial action, or could result in a direct personal benefit for the Member." Otherwise, legal fees are a legitimate use of campaign cash because "the protection of a Member's presumption of innocence in such actions is a valid political purpose," the guidelines state.

That means any politically savvy donor who cut a check in 2010 to Rangel's reelection knew the donation was, in part, a contribution to Rangel's legal defense -- indeed, in the first two quarters of 2010, Rangel's campaign spent $655,232, with $230,749 (35 percent) going to legal fees. Zuckerman Spaeder LLP got biggest haul of Rangel cash -- $182,000. The firm had lobbying clients including one top drugmaker until last year, when the K Street legal shop de-registered as lobbyist.

Another lobbying firm defending Rangel is Oldaker, Belair & Wittie, pocketing $28,000 in legal fees so far this year. Oldaker's clients include Indian tribes, health care companies and financial organizations such as the Debt Buyers' Association. But the firm also houses two other lobbying firms: the Oldaker Group and the National Group.

The National Group's lobby clients include defense giant Lockheed Martin and other aerospace companies, as well as many universities and hospitals.

In the Oldaker orbit is lobbyist Michael Allen Andrews, a former Ways & Means staffer, now a Rangel donor. Andrews is registered to lobby for "National Health Advisors LLC," a lobbying operation launched by Oldaker and another K Street firm days before Obama's inauguration.

In a press release, Oldaker explained: "As the Obama Administration and the 111th Congress begin their work to reform America's health care system, the Washington DC-based joint venture offers lobbying and consulting services to companies needing to understand and impact the reform debate." Rangel's Ways & Means Committee was one of three with jurisdiction over the bill.

Oldaker lawyer Phu Hunyh is also the treasurer for a fundraising committee called the "Rangel Victory Fund." This is different from Rangel's principle campaign committee ("Rangel for Congress") and Rangel's PAC ("National Leadership PAC"). The treasurer of those two committees is Basil Paterson, father of New York Gov. David Paterson, a former union boss, and now a senior member of a law firm that also lobbies.

The final arm to Rangel's fundraising machine is the now-defunct Baucus-Rangel Leadership Fund. This was a joint fundraising committee Rangel set up with Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont. What did they have in common? When they formed the committee, the two men had just become chairmen of their chambers' respective tax-writing committees. The committee held a fundraiser or two in 2007, pulling in cash primarily from New York City real estate developers and investors. The fundraisers reeked of auctioning off tax policy, or shaking down businesses vulnerable to tax changes.

Lobbyists are filling the campaign bank accounts that are paying these lawyers. Some high rollers on Rangel's donor lists are: Joseph Dowley, representing the Institute of International Bankers; Justin Gray, representing taxpayer-owned GM; Alan Wheat, representing Sanofi-Aventis and Roche; and Akin Gump lobbyists Robert Leonard and Jayne Fitzgerald, who represent Boeing, Bechtel, General Electric and Aetna. Lobbyists from Patton Boggs, the Podesta Group and Ernst & Young have also funded Rangel.

Check out the PACs giving to Rangel this year and you will see names like the National Bankers Association, Pfizer, New York Life, GE and Lockheed Martin. Lobbying firm PACs funding Rangel's re-election include Baker & Hostetler; McKenna, Long & Aldridge; Holland & Knight; and O'Melveny & Myers.

PACs and lobbying firms have given more than $120,000 to Rangel in the past six months while individual lobbyists have chipped in another $28,000.

All of these companies and lobbyists are savvy enough to know they're funding Rangel's legal defense. This is why politicians like Rangel benefit when K Street gains clout. Starting this week, we'll find out if K Street is powerful enough to save Rangel.

GladiatoRowdy · Jul 29, 2010

K Street gives politicians money? Say it ain't so!

Rashmon · Jul 29, 2010

Odd Son reads the ultra-conservative free weekly Washington Examiner owned by ultra-conservative billionaire Philip Anschutz? Say it ain't so.

rimrocker · Jul 29, 2010

I found this interesting...

Shelby steers cash to ex-aides
By: Manu Raju and John Bresnahan
July 29, 2010 04:25 AM EDT
http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=1C296E0D-18FE-70B2-A8C9796FE606A733

Since 2008, Alabama Sen. Richard Shelby has steered more than $250 million in earmarks to beneficiaries whose lobbyists used to work in his Senate office — including millions for Alabama universities represented by a former top staffer.

In a mix of revolving-door and campaign finance politics, the same organizations that have enjoyed Shelby’s earmarks have seen their lobbyists and employees contribute nearly $1 million to Shelby’s campaign and political action committee since 1999, according to federal records.

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a government watchdog group that compiled the data on Shelby’s earmarks and campaign contributions, believes that Shelby’s actions are similar to the favor trading that clouded the tenure of late Pennsylvania Democratic Rep. John Murtha.

“Sen. Shelby, like Rep. Murtha before him, takes trading earmarks for campaign dollars to a level most members of Congress can only dream about,” said Melanie Sloan, executive director of the organization. “Also like Murtha, Shelby earmarks for the benefit of his former-staffers-turned-lobbyists.”

Shelby, elected to the Senate in 1986, has long been one of the most prodigious earmarkers in Congress, and he’s unapologetic about sending money back home.

Jonathan Graffeo, a Shelby spokesman, strongly defended the senator’s requests, saying they’re “based on their merits, regardless of who represents those seeking them or whether they contribute to his campaign.”

Shelby’s earmarking doesn’t appear to run afoul of Senate rules or federal ethics laws. But critics said his tactics are part of a Washington culture in which lawmakers direct money back home to narrow interests, which, in turn, hire well-connected lobbyists — often former congressional aides — who enjoy special access on Capitol Hill.

“It is a system that is in direct conflict of interest with our oath of office because it’s parochial,” said Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.), an earmark critic who declined to comment on Shelby directly.

Shelby secured $427 million worth of earmarks in 2008, $322 million in 2009 and $173 million in 2010, according to Taxpayers for Common Sense. Shelby has often provided earmarks to entities that don’t have his former staffers doing their bidding, like $210 million for a prison in the tiny Alabama town of Aliceville.

A Hill insider familiar with Shelby’s earmarking said that the senator is “looked at like Robin Hood in northern Alabama,” especially in the Huntsville region, with its growing military and space industries. “The people there genuinely feel like they’ve been victims of federal policies. Shelby is helping them get even.”

In particular, five former-Shelby-aides-turned-lobbyists have seen their clients win more than $250 million in the senator’s earmarks for clients in Alabama in recent years. Ray Cole, Richard Roberts, Wesley Ryan Welch, Phil Rivers and Jennifer Bendall — who all worked for Shelby in various capacities — have won millions of dollars’ worth of Shelby earmarks since 2008. They all either declined to comment or did not respond to inquiries.

A former Shelby state director and campaign manager, Cole is registered to lobby for The University of Alabama System, which has received $175 million in Shelby earmarks since 2008, the first year lawmakers had to publicly declare their sponsorship of pet projects. The earmarks have included $30 million for a state-of-the-art science center, $10.5 million for Gulf of Mexico weather research and $10.2 million for facilities and equipment at the Tuscaloosa campus.

Shelby’s influence is hard to miss at Alabama campuses. There’s Shelby Hall at The University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa. In 2008, the Huntsville campus opened the Shelby Center for Science and Technology at a cost of $60 million — two-thirds of it built with federal dollars. The University of Alabama at Birmingham is home to the Richard C. and Annette N. Shelby Interdisciplinary Biomedical Research Building.

Employees of The University of Alabama System contributed more than $153,000 to Shelby's campaigns since 1999. And since that time, Cole’s firm has received $3.5 million from the University of Alabama System in lobbying fees.

The senator “is proud to secure significant funding for math, science and engineering facilities at universities in Alabama,” Graffeo said. “If you or anyone else represented our state’s universities, he would work just as hard for the funding because he understands the economic impact these projects will have on our state for decades to come.”

Cole, who left Shelby’s staff in 1999, is a vice president at Van Scoyoc Associates, which has enlisted more than 18 Alabama clients, including the cities of Gadsden and Gulf Shores, which respectively received Shelby earmarks worth $800,500 and $514,500 in fiscal 2008 and 2009.

Roberts, a former Shelby chief of staff, represents technology services firm Colsa Corp., and for fiscal 2011, Shelby requested a $9.3 million earmark for a Huntsville project proposed by the company.

The CEO of Colsa, Francisco Collazo, has been a major campaign contributor to Shelby over the years, and employees of Collazo’s companies have contributed at least $246,000 to Shelby’s campaign and leadership PAC over the past decade.

In 1996, Collazo hired G. Stewart Hall, a former Shelby legislative director, as a lobbyist. Over the next decade, Colsa was the recipient of more than $50 million in Shelby earmarks, according to a 2006 Bloomberg News report. Hall terminated his lobbying contract with Collazo’s firm in 2004.

Although Collazo declined to comment, Graffeo noted that a number of the national security projects at issue have been approved by the relevant federal agency and “provide good jobs for Alabamians.”

“Sen. Shelby doesn’t need or consider any other reasons to support such projects,” Graffeo said.

Welch is another former Shelby staffer who has succeeded in winning the senator’s earmarks. In 2007, Welch left Shelby’s staff as legislative director and joined Cauthen Forbes & Williams; soon afterward, the Alabama District Attorneys Association and Auburn University became clients of the firm. Shelby has earmarked $9.3 million to the association since 2008 and $35 million to the university — along with $5 million for a new life sciences building at Alabama State University, another client of the firm.

“Funding for district attorneys and localities supports law enforcement efforts across Alabama,” Graffeo said, adding that any other assertion “is baseless and absurd.”

The district attorneys’ group has paid Welch’s firm $160,000 in lobbying fees, while Alabama State University has shelled out another $220,000.

In 2008 and 2009, Shelby earmarked $2.1 million to the University of North Alabama for a green campus initiative and for geospatial analysis. Since 2007, the university has paid $280,000 in lobbying fees to Locke Lord Bissell & Liddell, where Rivers, the former Shelby chief of staff, is a partner.

The Alabama city of Calera received $341,000 in earmarks in 2008 and 2009 for technology and equipment upgrades and hired Bendall, a former policy adviser to Shelby, to lobby on its behalf for fees of $190,000.
Click to expand...

So, Shelby earmarks projects favored by his ex-staffers who then contribute large amounts to his campaign.

Then there's this...

The cash-for-speaker program
By: Jonathan Martin
July 29, 2010 04:26 AM EDT

To the House minority leader, “Speaker” Boehner seems to have a nice ring to it.

So much so that months before any midterm votes are cast, John Boehner of Ohio is putting his own face on the GOP’s drive to take back the House by quietly launching a “Boehner for Speaker” committee that aims to boost the party’s lagging fundraising, in part by introducing him as a “regular guy” from Ohio.

But while the effort plays up Boehner’s modest roots, the going rate to participate is pricey: According to materials distributed by Boehner’s camp and obtained by POLITICO, lobbyists and other major donors across the country who give the maximum or help raise $100,000 will get meetings with Boehner, calls from senior aides with updates on the campaign and “VIP access to all events, including roundtables, briefings, breakout discussions and interactive panel discussions.”

Boehner convened a meeting of top Republican lobbyists at the National Republican Congressional Committee last Thursday to enlist them in the cause and armed them with slick, presidential-level brochures and fundraising materials making the case for putting him in the speaker’s chair.

[Documents: Boehner for Speaker brochure and Boehner for Speaker fundraising levels.]

It’s the most aggressive step the clubby Ohioan has taken yet to stamp his imprint on the GOP’s 2010 House campaign and comes as Republicans fret that their lack of money could be the only barrier keeping them from dethroning Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

That was the urgent message Boehner delivered last week to a group of lobbyists, some of whom are his closest advisers, according to two sources in attendance.

“He said that we’re hitting on all cylinders with the exception of funding,” one of the sources said.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee had $34 million in the bank at the end of the June, while the NRCC had just $17 million on hand.

To bring in more cash, the minority leader has set up a joint committee that allows individual donors to contribute up to $37,800, which will be split between Boehner’s PAC, his reelection account and the NRCC. His reelection funds can be transferred to the NRCC.

Boehner reported raising about $570,000 for the committee during the most recent quarter and is expected to show considerably more in the next filing.

He told the group Thursday that he will be spending almost all of August raising money for Republican House hopefuls and the NRCC.

Don Seymour, a spokesman for Boehner’s PAC, said Boehner will headline fundraising events for more than 30 GOP candidates, traveling state to state by bus.

All told, Boehner will stop in 17 states for events benefiting candidates and the NRCC.

The pitch laid out in the materials includes much standard-issue rhetoric on halting the Democratic agenda, but to a hitherto-unseen degree it’s also about introducing the man who would become the new speaker if the GOP recaptures the majority. It's reminiscent of the Democrats effort in 2006 to put Pelosi's stamp on their House campaign. Like the Republicans now, Democrats created SpeakerPelosi.com and told about an Italian Catholic mother and grandmother who would be the first woman speaker.

The GOP strategy now is especially important because it gives Republicans a way to personalize the coming election — an effort aimed at reassuring donors that there money will be well spent. Many key party contributors are hesitant to give to the Republican National Committee or party committees because of concern over RNC Chairman Michael Steele’s stewardship of the national party, as well as lingering concerns about the last House GOP majority’s transgressions on ethics and spending.

So the pamphlets attempt to tell the Boehner story. Under a picture of him in his Archbishop Moeller High School football uniform, the leader is depicted as a child of the Midwest who grew up as the son of a Cincinnati tavern owner, learned life lessons from legendary football coach Gerry Faust and got his start in politics by joining his neighborhood homeowners’ association.

It’s an image far different from the perpetually tan, cigarette-smoking, golf-playing Boehner of Washington caricature and is geared toward introducing the leader to donors beyond the Beltway.

“Some people are more comfortable helping what they see as a cause rather than just a party committee,” explained John DeStefano, Boehner’s political director and deputy executive director at the NRCC. “And they want to be confident that we’ll do what we say we’re going to do.”

To this end, the literature depicts Boehner as different from both the current Democratic majority and the Tom DeLay-era GOP.

“A staunch opponent of pork-barrel politics and backroom deals, John made a name for himself by taking on the establishment in the House of Representatives — Democrats and Republicans,” one brochure reads.

Boehner’s refusal to take earmarks is recounted along with his efforts to curb spending in President George W. Bush’s second term.

The “Boehner for Speaker” apparatus is housed in the NRCC and led by DeStefano, Boehner’s close aide and liaison in the building.

Also helping are a group of lobbyists Boehner is close to, many of whom were present last Thursday. The K Street crowd included former Reps. Bill Paxon and Susan Molinari, NFIB President Dan Danner, Altria lobbyist Bruce Gates, former Boehner aide Sam Geduldig, Citigroup’s Nick Calio and Ogilvy’s Drew Maloney.

According to a source in attendance last week, the leader implored the group to help the cause.

“He said, ‘You’re my friends, and I need your help now more than ever,’” the source said.

But Boehner aides emphasized that they hope to use conservative anger toward the current majority to develop a national network of donors and supporters who perhaps haven’t traditionally given to GOP House efforts but see retaking the chamber as the party’s best bet for gains this November.

Republicans must be creative about how they raise money this cycle and look beyond the usual sources, said a lobbyist who attended the meeting.

“Democrats being in the majority means a lot of the PAC money is going their way,” the lobbyist said. “And the resources we’ve traditionally gotten from the RNC are not going to be as plentiful as in years past.”
http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=1BA3DA50-18FE-70B2-A8F6F951F5336DCB
Click to expand...

And there's this...

Cantor Rakes In Wall Street Donations After Questioning Obama's Commitment To Finance Industry

Back in February 2010, House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.) made a pitch to the titans of the financial services industry. "I sense a lot of dissatisfaction and a lot of buyer's remorse on Wall Street," the Virginia Republican said, referencing the industry's supposedly souring relationship with the Obama administration.

The remarks, delivered in the pages of the Wall Street Journal, were part of a broader effort to splinter the relationship between Wall Street donors and the Democratic lawmakers they helped fund to power in 2006 and 2008. For a cynical observer, they appeared to be a signal that the GOP was prepared to do the financial services industry's bidding.

Either way, they appeared to have worked. Months later, an emerging campaign theme is the Democratic Party's trouble collecting Wall Street donations. The Republican Party, save for a handful of members, voted en masse against financial regulatory reform and some GOP lawmakers have pledged to repeal the final product. At the same time, it has been widely reported that Obama has a frosty relationship with the business community. And, perhaps most tellingly, Cantor has seen his campaign coffers bulge.

Data released on Wednesday morning by the good government group Public Campaign shows that Cantor received more than $460,000 from the financial sector during the second quarter of 2010. That total represents a "32 percent increase from the average of the previous five quarters," the group found. And the donors included some of the biggest names on the Street as well as those they pay to lobby on their behalf in Washington.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/07/28/cantor-rakes-in-wall-stre_n_662423.html?view=print
Click to expand...

GladiatoRowdy · Jul 29, 2010

rimrocker said:

I found this interesting...
Click to expand...

Stop it, Rimmy, I was convinced that politicians went to Washington just for the warm fuzzy feeling of doing public service. Then, you and the Odd one had to go and ruin it for me.

rimrocker · Jul 29, 2010

S.E.C. Charges Wyly Brothers With $550 Million Fraud
By EDWARD WYATT
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/30/business/30sec.html?_r=1&hp=&pagewanted=print

WASHINGTON — Samuel and Charles Wyly, the billionaire brothers from Dallas who are large donors to conservative causes, were charged Thursday with conducting an extensive securities fraud that the Securities and Exchange Commission said reaped them $550 million in undisclosed gains.

The brothers, who founded Sterling Software, a business software and services company that was sold for $4 billion in stock to rival CA in March 2000, were also charged with insider trading violations that reaped more than $31 million in gains, the S.E.C. said.

Most of the activity in both the insider trading and the securities fraud cases were conducted in the stocks of companies where the Wyly bothers served as directors or executives, including Michaels Stores, Sterling Software, Sterling Commerce and Scottish Annuity and Life Holdings.

The ill-gotten gains, according to the S.E.C., were used to buy tens of millions of dollars of art, collectibles and jewelry; $100 million of real estate, including two ranches in Aspen, Colo., and a 100-acre horse farm near Dallas; and to make charitable contributions, including $10 million to the business school at Sam Wyly’s alma mater, the University of Michigan.

Samuel Wyly is also known for his political affiliations, including financing a group that paid for ads in 2000 praising the environmental record of George W. Bush during his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination.

The charges are the result of a six-year investigation that began when Bank of America reported to the S.E.C. that it had terminated numerous accounts held in the name of companies based in the Isle of Man because it could not determine who actually owned the companies.

The S.E.C. found that those companies, and similar trusts registered in the Cayman Islands, were registered as trusts over which the Wylys said that they had no formal control. But in fact, the S.E.C. charged, the brothers directed nearly all the investment activity in the trusts, selling millions of dollars of worth of shares without following S.E.C. disclosure regulations governing stock ownership and trading by company insiders.

Through a lawyer, the Wylys said that they believe the charges are “a misapplication of the law” and that they conducted all of their activities on the basis of accounting and legal advice that they received.

“They have never been given any reason to believe the financial transactions in question were anything other than legal and fully appropriate,” said William A. Brewer III, a partner at the Dallas law firm of Bickel & Brewer who is lead counsel for the Wylys.

Also charged in connection with the scheme were one of the Wylys’ lawyers, Michael French, and a stockbroker, Louis Schaufele, the S.E.C. said.
Click to expand...

Ooops. Well, this will hurt the coffers of Turdblossom's new group... and is another data point showing how money corrupts and corrupt money really corrupts.

rocketsjudoka · Jul 30, 2010

Yep Rangel is corrupt and he needs to go.

I am curious though for the OP. Would you support campaign finance reform that would limit or prevent this type of fundraising?

I am wondering though if the Citizens United ruling has any affect on this type of fundraising.

rocketsjudoka · Jul 31, 2010

Just to add:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38484533/ns/politics-decision_2010

Democrats call on Rangel to resign
Obama says case 'troubling;' defense cites peers' similar donation tactics

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama on Friday called ethics charges against Democratic Rep. Charlie Rangel "very troubling" and said he hopes the longtime lawmaker can end his career with dignity. Several House Democrats went further, flat-out urging the New York congressman to resign.

"He's somebody who's at the end of his career," Obama said in an interview that aired Friday on "CBS Evening News with Katie Couric." "I'm sure that what he wants is to be able to end his career with dignity. And my hope is that it happens."

Obama, speaking on the issue for the first time, praised the 20-term Rangel for serving his constituents well but called the more than one-dozen tax and disclosure charges against him "very troubling."

t was hardly an endorsement for the veteran lawmaker, but fell well short of the calls for resignation Rangel received on the eve of the House's August recess. As House Democrats headed home, they wrestled with how to handle the matter in their districts ahead of the midterm elections.

Republicans, meanwhile, raced ahead with plans to make Rangel the face of corrupt Washington under the rule of Democrats who had vowed to clean up Congress.

'Some sloppiness'
For his part, Rangel, who denies the charges, met with perhaps his staunchest supporters, members of the New York state delegation, in the stately Capitol parlor named for the Ways and Means Committee that he headed until March.

"He indicated there was some sloppiness" in his official papers, Rep. Edolphus Towns, D-N.Y., told reporters, "but, you know, there's no criminality here."

Rangel's defense against 13 charges of misusing his office and tax and disclosure issues includes pointing fingers at peers, The Washington Post reported Saturday. He argues that others have taken the same course of action without fear of punishment in asking corporate donors to give to academic centers bearing their names.

His legal team, in their 32-page rebuttal, said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., helped raise money for a center named for him at the University of Louisville. They also cited similarities with the recently deceased Sen. Robert C. Byrd, D-W.Va. and with former Republican senators Trent Lott of Mississippi. and Jesse Helms of North Carolina.

"These activities have never been regarded as creating an improper benefit to a Member," the lawyers said in their 32-page rebuttal.

McConnell spokesman Donald Stewart told the Post Friday that "Mr. Rangel's efforts to draw comparisons are absurd and without any similarity whatsoever."

House rules and credibility were the reasons cited by more than a half dozen House Democrats known to have called for Rangel's resignation by late afternoon Friday.

A House panel on Thursday made public for the first time the charges against Rangel, 80, as it opened the trial phase of the ethics proceedings against him. If Rangel and the ethics committee do not settle the case, it goes to a public trial this fall, at the height of an election season in which every member of the House, 36 in the Senate and the Democratic majorities of both chambers are on the line.

Resignation calls
Either conditionally or outright, Democrats calling for Rangel's resignation included Rep. Walter Minnick of Idaho, Betty Sutton of Ohio, John Yarmuth of Kentucky, Zack Space of Ohio, Ann Kirkpatrick of Arizona and Mary Jo Kilroy of Ohio.

"Too many politicians, both Democrats and Republicans, have fallen victim to the idea that they are 'different' than regular folks and nothing could be further from the truth," Kirkpatrick said in a statement.

"It is our job as members of Congress to hold each other accountable to a higher standard regardless of party," she added. "If the serious charges against (Rangel) are accurate, he needs to resign."

Rangel has said the indictment released Thursday contains factual errors.

"We've heard Charlie in the Ways and Means Committee, and he's addressed these charges. He never denied they happened. He always has an explanation. You can excuse one or two, but not 13," Yarmuth told the Louisville Courier-Journal in an interview published Friday. "I don't see how he can stay if they're true. I believe they are."

Back home in Rangel's Harlem district, he remains popular with many voters and could well win reelection if his political career survives the ethics probe, though one woman said Friday she had mixed feelings after reading news accounts of the allegations against him.

"I don't think he is 100 percent honest, but he's no worse than other politicians," said Charynda Morez, a college student who was buying groceries at a deli.

She said that she didn't know how he should be punished, but that Rangel should resign anyway. Rangel has four apartments "when there are people who don't have a home," she said, citing allegations that Rangel lived in four combined rent-stabilized apartments instead of one, in violation of New York City law.

'Dirty laundry'
But outside the apartment building in question, food vendor Curtis Parker defended Rangel and said the 40-year House veteran was being targeted despite all the good he's done for the community.

"They're just airing his dirty laundry," he said, adding that the charges fall far short of what would normally deserve "jail time."

Democratic leaders are urging their members to cast the election as one about a choice between their party, which under President Barack Obama has overhauled health care and Wall Street, and a GOP-tea party combination that wants to roll back Democratic accomplishments.

House Republicans relished using Rangel to change the subject — especially if he does not reach a settlement with the ethics committee. A public trial equates to a free media presentation of the misdeeds of one of the most senior Democrats in the House.

The House Republicans' campaign arm released a list of Democrats who have not returned campaign contributions they received from Rangel during their careers and said those lawmakers would face questions about the matter from constituents during the August break.

"It's very difficult for Democrats to make the case that this is a 'choice' election when the national headlines are focused around an ethics scandal that has clearly impacted the party in power," said Ken Spain, spokesman for the National Republican Campaign Committee.

Rangel retained many supporters Friday. The New York delegation and the Congressional Black Caucus, which was co-founded by Rangel, urged their colleagues not to rush to judgment. House leaders eager to avoid alienating black voters remained mum on what Rangel should do.

Some Democrats privately said they took a small measure of comfort in one revelation. Rep. Gene Green, the Texas Democrat who led the four-member bipartisan panel of investigators, told reporters that his committee recommended a relatively mild punishment for Rangel — reprimand, a statement of wrongdoing voted by the whole House that carries no other penalty.

But statements continued to trickle out that left no doubt that at some point, Democrats would have to look out for No. 1 - themselves.

"If at the trial's conclusion Mr. Rangel is found guilty by his peers, then he should incur the full punishment allowed by the House, including removal from office," said Rep. Bobby Bright, D-Ala.

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