Tuesday, November 16, 2010

BloggeRhythms 11/16/2010

A congressional panel delivered its findings today in the case against Charles Rangel, Democrat Representative from New York. Eight house members handed down their findings, which will now go to the full ethics committee for a hearing.

The congressman was charged with 13 counts of financial and fundraising misconduct, which means that what he really did wrong must have been enormous, because most often these panels use every means they can to help cover up the truth. Since, when all is said and done, they all play the same game and expect to be protected themselves, when and if they get caught with their own hand in the till.

Rangel called the findings "unprecedented" because there was no rebuttal evidence. He complained that the rejection of his appeal for more time violated "the basic constitutional right to counsel." What he left out was that he paid his counsel $2 million and supposedly ran out of funds, so they quit. So, I guess what he's saying is similar to the guy who shot both his parents, then asked the jury for mercy because he was an orphan.

He went on to say that "any failings in my conduct were the result of 'good faith mistakes' and caused by "sloppy and careless record keeping, but were not criminal or corrupt." Yet what the panel found was he'd used House stationery and staff to solicit money for a New York college center named after him, and also solicited donors for the center with interests before the Ways and Means Committee, suggesting that the money donated could influence official actions.

He was also found guilty of failing to disclose at least $600,000 in assets and income in a series of inaccurate reports to Congress, and using a rent-subsidized New York apartment designated for residential use as a campaign office, lastly failing to report rental income from a housing unit in a Dominican Republic resort to the U.S.

Yet, while it's all well and good that they finally nailed Rangel, who's been under suspicion for years, even after conviction, he's not facing much of a sentence. Because the possible sanctions only include a House vote deploring Rangel's conduct, a fine and denial of privileges.

In other words, it's the equivalent of sending him to his room without supper. Because being deplored by the House is like being reprimanded for bank robbery by Willie Sutton or Jesse James, he'll never pay any fine levied on him and it's obvious he doesn't care what gets denied to him, he'll go on taking what he wants anyway...that's why he's on trial in the first place.

So, when it's all said and done, this whole scenario will get swept away and be forgotten. But, if one of us plain old citizens had done half what he did, maybe less, we'd be doing ten to twenty in some federal cell. But, then again, we'd have the price of our food, clothing and health-care costs paid by the government, just like he does.

That's it for today folks.

Adios

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