If this had been a republican lawmaker it would be all over the news, and you would see it being discussed on every major news show non-stop:

http://wcbstv.com/local/charles.rangel.uncle.2.817769.html

So here is a guy who has been put in charge of the Ways and Means committee, and Pelosi won't even go so far as to ask him to temporarily stand aside. It isn't like he didn't do it - he admitted to some of it including unreported income, and use of low rent buildings. Brilliant.

This is the part I like:

Quote

Rangel's lawyer, Lanny Davis, said the hiring shows Rangel "has nothing to hide and does not believe he has done anything intentionally wrong."

So he didn't intentionally do it, therefore it shouldn't matter. Hmm, how many taxpayers do you think made that argument successfully to the IRS lately?

Quote

Among the new discrepancies:

_Rangel's papers over the past 10 years show no reference to the sale of a home he once owned on Colorado Avenue in Washington.

_The details of a property bought in Sunny Isles, Fla., are bewildering at best. The stated value changes significantly from year to year, and even page to page, from $50,000 to $100,000 all the way up to $500,000.

_Some of the entries for investment funds fluctuate strangely, suggesting that the person either didn't have accurate information or didn't fill out the paperwork correctly.

Rangel spent the past week trying to answer questions about his ethics and his finances.

He admitted he owes the Internal Revenue Service about $5,000 in back taxes for unreported income from the rental of his vacation villa, and probably a smaller amount to state and city tax collectors.

The congressman acknowledged he made mistakes but said they were errors of omission and should not lead to the loss of his high position in Congress.

The home in the Dominican Republic has proven a major embarrassment to the 78-year-old Rangel, who conceded he never reported the rental income over a 20-year period, received a no-interest mortgage on the place for more than half that time and claims to have no idea what it is worth today.

20 years... you know if an average person (not a member of Congress) had not reported that kind of income for 20 years they would have a serious legal problem. Not to mention it is supposed to be his area of expertise. How does something like this not cause him to be pulled off a committee when other people make one off-color comment and get removed? Much like the guy who had $90,000 stuffed in his freezer. Talk about hypocrisy.

Well, to be fair, this has been all over the news--and it should be. There are a number of things that do look pretty bad, and I think Rangel should pay a serious political price. The unreported income though really isn't a big deal. The rental income was not paid directly to him--it was automatically applied to paying down his loan. We're talking about $5000, not $500,000.

Well, over 20 years - he may thinks it is $5000 (and this is only for the vacation villa) but with IRS rules it could be more than $100000 the way they tack interest and penalties onto back taxes. Also the home sale would have been taxed as well - if you own more than a single property only one can be claimed as primary residence, all the rest are investment properties. So if it was not his primary residence (I am guessing not since he is from NY) then it is likely there are a lot of unreported taxes on that as well.

This is the kind of stuff that makes republicans cry foul. If you want to get people to start being above board in Congress then they need to be held accountable for their actions. This is one of the reasons people are sick of Congress - they act like they are above the law all the time. How many times have these idiots gotten off DWI and DUI by claiming they are going into rehab and made a mistake? It gets old after a while.

Registered Voter Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Well, over 20 years - he may thinks it is $5000
> (and this is only for the vacation villa) but with
> IRS rules it could be more than $100000 the way
> they tack interest and penalties onto back taxes.
> Also the home sale would have been taxed as well -
> if you own more than a single property only one
> can be claimed as primary residence, all the rest
> are investment properties. So if it was not his
> primary residence (I am guessing not since he is
> from NY) then it is likely there are a lot of
> unreported taxes on that as well.
>
> This is the kind of stuff that makes republicans
> cry foul. If you want to get people to start being
> above board in Congress then they need to be held
> accountable for their actions. This is one of the
> reasons people are sick of Congress - they act
> like they are above the law all the time. How many
> times have these idiots gotten off DWI and DUI by
> claiming they are going into rehab and made a
> mistake? It gets old after a while.

It happens on both sides and I agree it stinks. Someone in another post mentioned GW commuting the sentence of Scooter Libby after declaring all this crap about getting to the bottom of the Plame scandal. They need to get rid of that executive privilege crap (clinton and Marc Rich). That's not a perk, it's just allowing one person to side step the law.

Presidents are allowed to grant pardons, much like State Governors are. That isn't going to change.

You can only hope they use the commutation/pardon pen wisely and keep the real criminal behind bars. In Libby's case he was put in jail for something he didn't originally do (Plame's identity crisis), instead it was for mis-stating facts in a very similar way to what Bill Clinton did. If anyone should have gone to jail over all that it was Armitage (who admitted to being the leak). Note at least the commuting of the sentence didn't get rid of the guilty verdict, it just got him out of jail.

The Marc Rich case was pretty extraordinary.
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,99302,00.html

I wonder if he has ever paid his back taxes...

this is all about pennies compared to the robbery caused by the republikan party in just the last few days. What is happening is near treasonous!

Right.. And who was Marc rich's attorney asking for the pardon - "Scooter" Libby.

The Taxman Cometh!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xnI4hXBCVE

Radiophile Wrote:
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> Right.. And who was Marc rich's attorney asking
> for the pardon - "Scooter" Libby.

Actually that is not true. He was part of the law firm that represnted Rich for a while, but he was not involved in the request.

http://www.nationalreview.com/york/yorkprint030201.html

Quote

Libby, who said his law firms collected as much as $2 million for representing Rich, testified he had nothing to do with the application that led to clemency for Rich. He declined to say whether he approved of the decision to pardon Rich, but he conceded that he called Rich on January 22, two days after the pardon, to "congratulate him on having reached a result that he had sought for a long time." Libby testified he made the call from his home to make clear that he was calling in a personal capacity, and not as a representative of the Bush administration.

Just a note.