Rangel's Rant (transcript of tax-cheat Charlie's 8/10 House floor speech)

Time ^ | 8/10/10 | Jay Newton-Small

[Libloather]

RE: Rangel's Rant
Posted by Jay Newton-Small
Tuesday, August 10, 2010 at 4:45 pm

The Speaker Pro Tempore: For what purpose does the gentleman from New York seek recognition? The house will be in order. Members will take their seats. The house will be in order. Members will please clear the aisles. The chair is aware of a valid basis for the gentleman's point of personal privilege. The gentleman from New York is recognized for one hour …

Rangel: I rise to the floor because the newspapers and the media have indicated that there's a concern of some of the members of this House that I retire or I remove myself from this body, and I've always tried to play by the rules. And I cannot think of anybody that has encouraged me to speak here, and I want to thank all of you who are concerned about me for saying that, you know, a guy's a fool to represent himself, as some of the people have said.

But I have been losing a lot of sleep over these allegations and my family and my community. And some of these rules that they have [are] that I'm restricted by confidentiality, but for years I've been saying, ‘No comment, no comment, no comment,' to a lot of serious allegations because I could not comment, and I would refer them to the ethics committee. And when the ethics committee finally brought out their statement of alleged violations, it was a long list of things, and somehow the chairman of the subcommittee investigation indicated that I had received a lot of offers to settle this thing so that it would not cause embarrassment to our Democratic friends.

[Libloather]

"We've been called back to this House because the speaker called us here in order to make certain that we provide resources for governors and mayors to maintain our teachers and our firefighters, and Rangel's not on the schedule for anything, which is okay."

Tax-cheat Charlie sounded as if he's more important than anything else in the Milky Way.

[fullchroma]

The Freak Show characters running this country would be hilarious were they not so damn dangerous.

[Opinionated Blowhard]

Fight on, Charlie. Fight on right through November.

[econjack]

And I cannot think of anybody that has encouraged me to speak here...

"And I cannot think of anybody that who has encouraged me to speak here..."

Just a pet peeve of mine.

[shadeaud]

Charlie had an opportunity to open the closet and let some of the skeletons out which would have sealed his position in the house.

[Broker]

Charlie made some valid points in that “rant”. How aweful it must be to have the machine turn against him. It is right for Charlie to demand due process of these charges. The revelations will be rich.

[massgopguy]

Self Pity is poor box office. At least the Flight Attendant had the temerity to grab a few beers and make a big exit.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Keep fighting, Charlie.

[Fiji Hill]

Don't leave me swinging in the wind until November.

Here's an appropriate song: Swing, Mr. Charlie by Judy Garland.

[gibsosa]

bump

[PoloSec]

In the event all else fails...Charlie is preparing an insanity plea.