Rangel’s inexcusable ethics

Opinion: November 19, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

Philadelphia Inquirer: The House ethics committee’s guilty verdict Tuesday against once-powerful Rep. Charles B. Rangel, D-N.Y., was a well-deserved rebuke.

The former chairman of the Ways and Means Committee was found guilty of 11 ethics charges, among them failing to disclose income from rental properties, failing to pay taxes, and soliciting charitable donations from companies that had business before his committee.

Rangel, 80, was long ago marginalized by these charges. He gave up his committee chairmanship, as this Editorial Board urged him to do more than two years ago.

Rangel further discredited himself with his antics as his case went to trial. He claimed he couldn’t afford counsel, after he and his first legal team parted ways over strategy. Then Rangel walked out of his trial, claiming he was being railroaded.

Back on track

One positive development in Rangel’s case is that the ethics committee followed through with its prosecution. Just a few years ago, the panel was so paralyzed by partisanship that punishing a lawmaker as powerful as Rangel was unlikely.

House Democratic leaders deserve credit for managing to get the stalled ethics process moving again by creating a new office to investigate complaints and make recommendations to the ethics committee.

The disgrace of Rangel was all the more striking because it’s concluding in the same week that a new majority of freshman Republicans arrives in Washington, pledging to change the way Congress does business.

In spite of Rangel’s being ethically challenged, his constituents in New York City rewarded him earlier this month with another two-year term. It was their prerogative, however misguided.