Congressman Charlie Rangel claims victim status

From a New Your Post editorial today - - -

[Rep. Charlie Rangel, a key supporter of Sen. Barack Obama, ] says he's the victim of a "guerrilla war" being waged by the Republican Party and various newspapers.

The papers, he says, have "pried into my private life and used insinuation and half-truths to write stories that sell papers - what car I drive; where I live; where I vacation with my family; and how I handle my personal finances."

For the record, this newspaper proudly pleads guilty to having examined the congressman's "personal finances."

We actually started the ball rolling. And if what's been published to date turns out to be even half true, as Rangel asserts, just imagine how fascinating the full truth is going to be.

"I've never violated the public trust," he says. Which is utter nonsense.

What about Rangel's four rent-stabilized apartments in Harlem - and his admitted failure to report $75,000 in income from the Dominican villa?

Then there's the thousands and thousands of dollars in other real-estate profits that apparently never were reported. …

[Rangel] chairs the House Ways & Means Committee, one of the most powerful in Congress and - most importantly - the panel that writes the tax laws that Rangel holds in such personal contempt.

"Guerrilla war?"

Nonsense.

Charlie Rangel can't be trusted to pay the taxes he owes by virtue of the laws written by the committee he runs.

So he can't be trusted to run the committee, either.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi must fix the problem – and fix it fast.

The entire editorial’s here.

Don’t look for Speaker Pelosi to do anything to force Rangel to step down from his chairmanship, something she’d surely be demanding were Rangel a Republican.