GOP leadership will hold fire on Rangel (sit back and watch the tax-cheat Charlie “spectacle”)

GOP leadership will hold fire on Rangel
By Molly K. Hooper - 07/26/10 08:56 PM ET

House Republican leaders intend to keep their powder dry as the public ethics trial of embattled Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) unfolds.

Throughout the 111th Congress, House GOP lawmakers have offered measures targeting Rangel. But don’t expect one this week.

Republicans are employing a don’t-get-in-the-way-of-your-enemies-when-they-are-destroying-themselves strategy, the same game plan Democrats employed as Republicans grappled with ethics scandals in 2006.

According to several leadership sources, top-ranking Republicans hope that the former Ways and Means Committee chairman fights charges of ethical wrongdoing.

“We want him fighting this tooth and nail. The more defiant he is, the better it is for us,” a GOP leadership aide told The Hill on Monday.

Another Republican leadership aide noted that Republicans can only sit back and watch as the “spectacle” unfolds on Thursday, when the ethics committee will detail its charges against Rangel.

House GOP conference Chairman Mike Pence (Ind.) on Monday discouraged his colleagues from introducing resolutions on the floor while the ethics committee works its will.

“I was heartened to see the ethics committee move forward with this investigation. Now that the ethics committee has assumed its responsibility, it is important that we tone down the politics and let the ethics committee do its job,” Pence told reporters Monday.

A Democratic leadership aide said, “Congressional Republicans are actually watching an ethics committee that is working and reminiscing about the days when they controlled Congress, where they swept it all under the rug and presided over a broken ethics system. As much as they try, the GOP leadership can’t wash off the stench of [Jack] Abramoff and the criminal syndicate that was writing bills and controlling Republican members.”

Many other Democratic aides declined to comment Monday on the Rangel controversy. Similarly, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs dodged questions about it at his daily briefing.

At press time on Monday evening, Rangel was seen on the House floor engaged conversations with various Democratic leaders, including Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (S.C.) and Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman Chris Van Hollen (Md.).

Clyburn was seen shuttling between conversations with ethics committee chairwoman Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) and Rangel.

At one point, Clyburn and Lofgren disappeared into a room off the House floor, and later Clyburn conferred with Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).

Van Hollen told reporters that he shared his own "observations" of the situation with Rangel, but would not divulge the details of his discussion.

Rep. Betty Sutton (D-Ohio), a politically vulnerable two-term lawmaker, told The Hill on Friday that she believes Rangel should resign. But Republican leaders, at least for now, are not going that far.

Should the ethics charges stand up, it’s likely that the GOP will pursue another motion calling for the expulsion or resignation of Rangel when members return from the August recess. That timetable would allow the matter to attract headlines for weeks, if not months. It would also highlight the issue when campaigns kick into high gear after Labor Day.

Some believe Rangel will strike a deal with the ethics panel and avoid what could be a media circus. However, any admission of wrongdoing by the Harlem legislator would help the GOP’s effort to offer a resignation motion and force Democrats to go on the record about the politically sensitive issue.

Still, it is unlikely Rangel would be expelled because such motions require a two-thirds majority.

Rangel is facing a competitive primary on Sept. 14, and Republicans are privately rooting for the 20-term incumbent to win another term. Should he lose and/or resign, the GOP political barbs aimed at Democrats will lose their effectiveness.

Despite being in the minority, House Republicans have flexed their muscle effectively on Rangel this year. As the GOP was about to bring a measure calling for Rangel to give up his chairmanship in early March, the New York Democrat reluctantly gave up his gavel under pressure from leadership officials.

Until that point, enough Democrats voted to keep the gavel in Rangel’s hand on two prior motions crafted by Rep. John Carter (R-Texas).

Carter told The Hill Monday evening that he has no intention of filing any privileged resolutions against Rangel at this time.

The former judge said that he plans to let “nature take its course,” but he left open the possibility of pursuing a resolution in the future.

With fewer than 100 days before the general midterm election, Republicans believe they will benefit politically from a lengthy trial, especially in the wake of Pelosi’s 2006 promise to “drain the swamp” of corruption in the lower chamber.

National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) aides explained their strategy of pressing Democrats who took money from the prolific fundraiser to return funds to Rangel in light of the ethics lapses.

According to an NRCC breakdown, at least 37 House Democrats have returned money to Rangel or donated “tainted” dollars to charity.

Hey, Republicans. Can Rangel prove where he spent $2 million he received from Congressional allocations (tax dollars), plus another $700,000 from the Dept of HUD (tax dollars), that went to the tax-exempt Charles B. Rangel Center for Public Service?

THE RANGEL SWINDLE

(1) Took a “homestead” tax deduction meant for year-round DC residents - though he legally resides in New York;

(2) Rangel paid no taxes on his luxe property in the Caribbean;

(3) Has four rent-stabilized Harlem apartments (one is a campaign office);

(4) Improperly stored his car in a House parking garage;

(5) The NY Times reported oil-drilling businessman Eugene Isenberg made a $1 million pledge toward building The Rangel School for Public Service at City College of New York. Rangel later preserved a controversial offshore tax loophole that saved millions for Isenberg’s company. The Isenberg-Nabors deal is, potentially, far more serious: It reeks of a quid pro quo between Rangel’s official duties and fund-raising for his personal project. The Times reported that Rangel held meetings the same day, at the same hotel, with Isenberg to discuss the CCNY project and then with Nabors’ chief lobbyist on the tax loophole;

(6) Took free trips sponsored by corporate lobbyists;

(7) Used Congressional stationery to raise money for the tax-exempt Charles B. Rangel Center for Public Service;

Rangel “forgot” he had the Merrill Lynch Account and the account with the Congressional Credit Union (between $250,000 and $500,000 each)......how he amassed that cash is the issue. A congressman for 40 years is not paid enough to amass that kind of cash.......except for a townhouse sale, where did all that cash come from? Did he earn it? Inherit it? Pay taxes on it?

Can Rangel prove where he spent $2 million from Congressional allocations, plus another $700,000 from the Dept of HUD) that went to the tax-exempt Charles B. Rangel Center for Public Service?

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Rangel's multiple ties with tax-exempt foundations smell to high heaven. The IRS says the biggest potential for IRS fraud are tax-exempt non-profits doing deals with other tax-exempt non-profits----all posing as do-gooder "foundations" and “charities.”

Rangel’s pricey offshore real estate deals are entwined with his financial connections to several tax-exempt entities. There are at least four tax-exempt entities connected to Rangel‘s finances:

(1) The Charles B. Rangel Center for Public Service got $2 million from Congressional allocations, plus another $700,000 from the Dept of HUD,

(2) The NY Carib News Foundation (organized financing for Rangel’s island-hopping luxe Caribbean trips),

(3) The Ann S. Kheel Charitable Trust---supposedly aids "disadvantaged neighborhoods" gave $440,000 to The Charles B. Rangel Center (the largest single donation in the charity's 4-year history). Theodore Kheel, Esq, VP of Grupo Punta Cana Operating Company, (mortgage holder on Rangel’s luxury villa), donated $17,000 to Rangel's congressional campaigns and $52,000 to a Rangel-run political action committee since 1990, federal filings show. (Ann Kheel is his late wife).

(4) The NY-based "tax-exempt Carib News Foundation" subsidized Rangel’s trips to luxury island resorts---perfect places to hide money from the taxman.

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EXCERPT FROM 5-PAGE REPORT........members of the Congressional Black Caucus attended the 13th annual Caribbean Multi-National Business Conference in sun-drenched St. Maarten......enjoying free airfare, meals and hotel rooms paid for by IBM, AT&T, Verizon, Citigroup, Pfizer, Macy's and American Airlines..... Citigroup that last week received a massive bailout, ponied up $100,000 according to one lobbyist....and has supported the conference for several years, but would not reveal an amount.

The yearly event - held in a Caribbean country - draws black politicians, as well as community activists, lobbyists and special-interest groups looking to promote agendas.....the main goal is "promoting business relationships between America's largest firms and the Caribbean's most successful enterprises." American Airlines sent its contribution directly to the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, which is not listed as a sponsor of the St. Maarten event.

"The Carib News Foundation is the sole sponsor for the trip....corporations are contributors to the Foundation. Carib News Foundation pays for more than half of the symposium." Sponsor Karl Rodney, Carib News CEO, said the Carib News Foundation is a charity and allowed to sponsor trips for elected officials. Carib News also publishes a newspaper covering the Carib community in New York. But IRS spokesman Kevin McKeon said Carib News is not listed as a charty. There are no publicly available tax filings for the group, and it is not listed with the NY AG as required by NY state.

In its filings to the Ethics Committee for the luxury St. Maarten trip, the tax-exempt Carib News did not disclose corporate sponsorships paying for the conference. Mr Rodney, the Carib News CEO, filed a "Private Sponsor Travel Certification Form" in October, checking the box that says, "I represent that the trip sponsor(s) has not accepted from any other source funds earmarked directly or indirectly to finance any aspect of the trip."

============================================== REFERENCE The published list of known money-laundering havens includes Panama, the Bahamas, the Cayman Islands, the Cook Islands, Dominica, the Marshall Islands, Nauru, Niue, Panama, the Philippines, St. Kitts, Israel, and the Grenadines. Suspected tax havens include Cyprus, Gibraltar, Monaco, and Antigua.

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