Open thread: Rangel ethics hearing starts today; Update: Rangel threatens walkout; Update: No continuance, Rangel leaves hearing
posted at 9:15 am on November 15, 2010 by Ed Morrissey
Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY) begins the process of adjudicating his alleged ethics violations this morning, and CW39 has live video of the hearing. Rep. Zoe Lofgren, who will chair the hearing, opened by stressing the fact that this is not a “trial,” and that Rangel has no requirement to present a defense at this stage. Rangel will shortly give a statement, which won’t be under oath. The hearing will take 20 hours of calendar time, which will put the end of this hearing around late Wednesday or Thursday.
It looks as though Rangel is representing himself, as he’s sitting at the table alone. The lawyer who represents himself has a what as a client?
Update: Why is he representing himself? Rangel is pleading poverty! He claims in his opening statement that he has been “denied counsel” because he wasn’t allowed to establish a legal-defense fund. The New York Post reported yesterday that his attempts to pay his legal team may have violated ethics rules all over again:
Congressman Charles Rangel, whose ethics trial starts tomorrow, appears to have improperly used political-action committee money to pay for his defense.
Rangel tapped his National Leadership PAC for $293,000 to pay his main legal-defense team this year. He took another $100,000 from the PAC in 2009 to pay lawyer Lanny Davis.
Two legal experts told The Post such spending is against House rules.
“It’s a breach of congressional ethics,” one campaign-finance lawyer said.
Obviously, Rangel has no intention of going quietly.
Update II: Rangel threatened to walk out, and Rep. Butterfield then proposed a continuance, which the committee will consider in “executive session” — in other words, in the back room.
Update III: No continuance, the committee decides after a lengthy recess. Lofgren then scolded Rangel for his suggestion that he had received no guidance on representation, and noted the months-long notice of the hearing. Rangel is no longer in the room. It’s the Otter Strategy, only lacking a group of supporters to hum a patriotic march as Rangel walked out.
Blowback
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Keep it up, Chuckles, and your Ethics Committee colleagues will put you on double secret probation.
ya2daup on November 15, 2010 at 3:01 PM
The most open, most honest and most ethical Congress… EVAH!
Slimy is as slimy does.
FlatFoot on November 15, 2010 at 4:11 PM
So Rangle is gonna be tried in absentia? Kool. The committee can call all those witnesses, produce all that evidence, and Rangle’s gonna ignore’m. Heh…
Guilty!. Ok, so what? They’re gonna put a harshly worded reprimand in his personnel file.
Skandia Recluse on November 15, 2010 at 4:23 PM
I think that you’re being a lil’ harsh on the trogladites. Chuckles knows better.
whiskeytango on November 15, 2010 at 6:23 PM
My advice to Charlie is to hang in there. Surely, if the next Congress takes up this matter he’ll get a fairer shake. Do I have to label this as sarcasm?
Sometimes people just don’t have any sense. But, the successor of Adam Clayton Powell is following in good footsteps.
Special Forces Grunt on November 15, 2010 at 7:41 PM
grease trap scum…
royzer on November 15, 2010 at 7:42 PM
Rangel has always just lied and conned as obviously as this, and he’s always walked away from it. Hopefully he won’t walk back in after this walkout.
Merovign on November 15, 2010 at 8:57 PM
As Powell’s corruption problems kept escalating, he ran off to the Compleat Angler bar on Bimini Island more & more, residing astride a barstool as a bumbling, befuddled buffoon of a boozehound.
History often repeats itself – Someone needs to hint in Rangel’s ear that he needs to start hitting the bottle hard and run off to his Caribbean condo whose rental income he never declared on his taxes.
CatchAll on November 15, 2010 at 10:52 PM
+100
itsspideyman on November 16, 2010 at 12:36 AM
Rangel the usable man performed well in the charade.
They pushed off the hearings until after the election. Obama’s trip to Asia finished, they had to complete the hearings before the lame duck ended.
But who wants a hearing, dragging out dirt and messing up the furniture?
So the usable man, Rangel, checks his watch and walks out of the hearing before the floor needs sweeping. Now the committee can quickly issue a summary juudgement, before the lame duck ends
A sleezeball is so useful, to leadership. They know where the skeletons are buried, the sleezeball knows they know, and they all cooperate to the end. After all, Rangel was useful for the program. Business finished, they synchronize their watches and head for the door
Rangel tried to act shocked, shocked to find out there was gambling going on….sorry, that was Casablanca. I get carried away at the obvious. The committee didn’t waste time pretending. Probably had lunch waiting
entagor on November 16, 2010 at 11:22 AM
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