The Most Ethical Congress

In time for the Labor Day weekend, when no one reads what little news gets published, it seems that Charlie Rangell, chairman of the Ways and Means committee, which writes your tax laws, has discovered some $660K of assets that he forgot to mention in violation of the house ethics rules. This would normally be reason to loose the hounds and demand that he step down from his committee chairmanship, if not resign his seat in the house, except that he has significant protections from such a fate.

First, of course, is that he's a senior member of the "most ethical party evah", which invokes the memory of Edwin Edwards who famously claimed that "Unless I'm caught in bed with a live boy or a dead girl, this job is mine as long as I want it."* Pelosi, who is in charge of keeping order in the asylum, as yet sees no reason to act.

“Unless they find $90,000 in his freezer, like they did with Jefferson, we’re going to wait [for the outcome of a House ethics probe],” said a Democratic aide familiar with Pelosi’s thinking on the matter.

It also seems that Mr. Rangel, no fool he, has given money from his re-election war chest to the members of the ethics committee. This is known as pre-paid legal help, or in less savory circles, as bribing the judge ahead of time.

Secondly is that Rangel is a member of the Congressional Black Caucus, making the chairmanship of the committee a "black" chairmanship, which would be difficult to pass on to a white man. Even worse, the next ranking Democrat on the committee is Pete Stark.

The next Democrat in line would be Pete Stark, an outspoken 77-year-old liberal with a firebrand reputation and a penchant for intemperate cracks – like calling Blue Dog Democrats “brain dead.”

Click the link, or save yourself some time by just scrolling down two posts to the Quote of the Day from Mr. Stark.

The next available black member is 4th on the seniority list, and the next available democrat who actually knows something about finance is currently sitting at number five, so I'm not holding my breath for a favorable outcome on this one.

*It is worth noting that Mr Edwards was a bit optimistic on that one as he is currently serving time in the Federal Joint for corruption. Bush the Second refused to consider pardoning him.