Rangel To Be Censured
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Rep. Charles Rangel will be censured by his peers in the House of Representatives -- a disciplinary action against him for ethics violations.

The House voted today to censure the 80-year-old Democrat -- the most severe punishment short of expulsion.

Rangel, who has been urging his colleagues to forgo a vote to censure, asking instead that violations be downgraded to a reprimand.

In a decision today, a House report said Rep Range must "forthwith present himself in the well of the House for the pronouncement of censure." He will "be censured with the public reading of this resolution by the Speaker; and (4) Representative Rangel pay restitution to the appropriate taxing authorities or the U.S. Treasury for any unpaid estimated taxes."

The ethics committee voted 9-1 on Nov. 18 that Rangel should be censured for committing 11 counts of fundraising and financial misdeeds that violated House rules.

Rangel plans to argue that censure has been imposed for violations including bribery, accepting improper gifts, personal use of campaign funds and sexual misconduct; none is present in his case.

The ethics committee, in explaining its recommendation, agreed in a report that the discipline usually is reserved for lawmakers who enrich themselves. In Rangel's case, the committee said, its decision was based on ``the cumulative nature of the violations and not any direct personal financial gain.'

To the public, a censure and a reprimand appear similar. Both punishments are meted out on the floor of the House and include a vote disapproving a member's conduct.

A censure goes beyond the vote and requires the disciplined member to appear at the front of the chamber -- called the "well' --and receive an oral rebuke from the speaker that includes a reading of the resolution.

A reprimand is simply a vote of disapproval. It can be a separate resolution or a vote to adopt the ethics committee's findings. The punished lawmaker is not required to stand in the well.

Rangel was found to have improperly used official resources -- congressional letterheads and staff -- to raise funds from businesses and foundations for a center named after him at the City College of New York.

Some of the donors, the committee found, were businesses and foundations with issues before the House Ways and Means Committee.

The contributions left the impression that the money was to influence legislation, although Rangel was not charged with taking any action on behalf of donors.

He also was found guilty of filing a decade's worth of misleading annual financial disclosure forms that failed to list hundreds of thousands of dollars in assets, and failure to pay taxes for 17 years on his rental unit in the Dominican Republic --an embarrassment for someone who presided over tax legislation.

In addition, the committee told Rangel to pay any taxes he still owed.

The sources said Rangel complied last week, sending the Internal Revenue Service a check for $10,422 and a check for $4,501 to New York state.

Rangel has apologized and admitted his mistakes, although he denied any intent to violate standards of conduct.

Twenty-two House members have been censured while nine have been reprimanded. The last censures were in 1983, when the House disciplined Reps. Gerry E. Studds, a Massachusetts Democrat, and

Daniel Crane, an Illinois Republican. Both were cited for sexual misconduct with teenage pages _ Studds with a male page, Crane with a female one.

Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., was the last to be reprimanded. He was disciplined in September 2009, in a partisan vote, for shouting "You lie!' at President Barack Obama during a nationally televised speech to Congress.

Charles Rangel convicted of ethics violations
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Democratic Representative Charles Rangel, Congress's former chief tax writer, was convicted by a congressional panel on Tuesday of ethics violations, many dealing with personal finances.

A congressional ethics subcommittee found the veteran representative guilty of 11 counts, including failing to report rental income and improper use of a rent-stabilized apartment and soliciting charitable donations from people with business before Congress.

The panel's chairwoman, Democrat Zoe Lofgren, said there was "clear and convincing evidence" against Rangel, 80, from New York.

The House of Representative Ethics Committee -- five Democrats and five Republicans -- will now consider punishment, which ethics experts predict will likely be censure or reprimand by the full House, possibly later this week.

With the panel's chief counsel finding "no evidence of corruption" and attributing Rangel's misdeeds largely to being "sloppy in his personal finances," it is not expected to recommend he be expelled from Congress.

Rangel resigned in March as chairman of the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee after being admonished for corporate-sponsored trips in violation of House gift rules.

While Democrats lost control of the House to Republicans in the November 2 midterm elections, Rangel won a 21st two-year term in his New York City district with 80 percent of the vote.

(Editing by Peter Cooney)

Rangel gets slap on wrist; rest of us would go to jail
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The Good Old Boy network has once again gone beyond the pale and protected one of its own. U.S. Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., guilty of 11 ethics violations, including tax evasion, has been punished by the proverbial slap on the wrist.

Would any of us ordinary taxpaying citizens, who had cheated the IRS for thousands of dollars, used our employment illegally and unethically not go to jail? Let alone keep our job?

Rangel is, as are all our elected officials, charged with the public trust. Are our politicians entitled to a degree of dishonesty that we ordinary Joes are not?

We know that the old government, in Washington and in Maine did not get it, let’s hope the next one does understand the message from the 2010 elections.

Government is too big, too expensive and too intrusive.

We want all lawbreakers punished. Those on Wall Street, those on Main Street, those on Pennsylvania Avenue and those on the border.

America is and should be fed up with politicians who think of themselves as our leaders and not our representatives. The saddest and most concerning thing is that Rangel and too many of his crony politicians do not think he did anything seriously wrong and are genuinely shocked that Americans want it to stop.

If this isn’t proof enough, watch what happens in the case of Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif.

Greg Theriault