Rangel-Pelosi
Posted on 09/24/2011 3:26:22 AM PDT by Libloather
Censure briefly forgotten as House leaders honor Rep. Charles Rangel
By Russell Berman - 09/22/11 07:24 PM ET
House leaders honored Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y) with an official Capitol portrait Thursday, sweeping aside two years of scandal and a formal rebuke to recognize a man who rose from humble beginnings to become a congressional pioneer.
As a packed committee room full of hometown supporters and congressional allies serenaded Rangel with chants of “Charlie, Charlie,” it seemed as though the ethical firestorm that led to a House censure had been briefly forgotten.
Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) lauded his “long and highly decorated service,” joking that the two men were “in some ways cut from the same cloth” because they shared “a particular concern about our appearance.” Boehner, who pushed for Rangel to resign as the first African-American chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, described him as a friend and said that despite their differences, they spoke nearly every day on the House floor.
The second-ranking House Democrat, Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), who voted to censure Rangel on the House floor, hailed him as a hero for his service in the Korean War and said it had been a privilege and an honor to serve with him.
After earning a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star in Korea, Rangel returned to New York and entered politics. He challenged longtime Harlem Rep. Adam Clayton Powell Jr. in 1970 and has served in the House ever since. A liberal stalwart, he rose to lead the Congressional Black Caucus and in 2007, he became chairman of the Ways and Means Committee when Democrats won the House majority.
By 2008, reports surfaced that Rangel had not paid taxes on a villa he owned in the Dominican Republic and that he had used official congressional stationery to raise money for an education center name in his honor in New York.
He relinquished his chairmanship in March 2010, under pressure from leaders of both parties.
The unveiling of Rangel’s portrait came nine months after his moment of humiliation, when a vote of his colleagues forced him to stand in the well of the House in formal rebuke for violations that included unpaid taxes to improper use of his office for fund-raising.
The speakers who celebrated Rangel’s career on Thursday never directly mentioned the ethics cloud, focusing on his 40-year House career while praising his “indomitable” fighting spirit.
“This is a man who had the personality of a basketball. Anytime he hit the floor, he bounced back up,” said Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.), chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus.
It was left to Rangel, ever known for his candor, to bring up the elephant in the room.
“Anybody that wants to ask about the Ethics Committee, I’m not answering any questions,” Rangel quipped.
For most of the hour-long ceremony, Rangel, 81, sat beaming as a parade of congressional colleagues lauded his service and, in particular, his dedication to fighting for the poor. The portrait was painted by Simmie Knox, who painted the official White House portraits of President Clinton and then-first Lady hillary Clinton.
It shows a smiling Rangel dressed in a dark suit and red tie, holding the Ways and Means gavel. To his right are the American flag and a display of the seven service medals he was awarded in Korea.
When it was his turn to speak, Rangel offered a long list of thank-yous and bemoaned what he described as a dearth of “reason” in modern politics and campaigns. He paid tribute to a country that had allowed him to rise so high and achieve so much.
“We know there’s a lot of hypocrisy involved, and we know there’s a lot of racism involved, but we also know that there’s no country in the whole world that is as good to all people as the United States of America,” Rangel said.
“My life is a story that anyone can make it — from a high school dropout to having been chair of this great committee.”
Idiots, all!
What everyone in Congress and all the people that elect them do is show the differernce between say Major League Baseball and congress - can you say Peter Rose or Shoeless Joe Jackson. break the laws of your game and you are removed from EVERY SINGLE RECORD BOOK...worth reading.
A very good analogy.
Why we need term limits...
...Go back to bed America, your government is in control...
I almost lost my Sat waffles when I read this one. Honoring a censure recipient. When did we all fall down the rabbit hole?
Note: the page (on the Workers World Party website) with this photo has recently been removed.
But here's other evidence of his speaking at the event:
"Among the many speakers were elected representatives—U.S. Rep. Charles Rangel and New York City Council members Charles Barron and Margarita Lopez—who have bucked their party to come out against the war. Barron has also introduced a Troops Out Now resolution in the City Council."--Workers World Party
Workers World Party: From Harlem to mayor’s mansion, marchers say, ''Bring the troops home now!'
http://www.workers.org/ww/2005/us/harlem-march-0331/index.html
____________________________________________________
Workers World
55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011
Troops Out Now Coalition
55 W. 17th St. #5C
NY NY 10011
www.TroopsOutNow.org
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"Dear Comrade Kim Jong Il...
With his leadership [Kim Il Sung], the Korean people defeated the Japanese colonial occupation and soon after brought about the first defeat of the U.S. imperialist military machine. ...
Workers World Party values our close, comradely relations with the Workers Party of Korea very highly. We are proud to have known Kim Il Sung as a great leader and a comrade in the international communist movement. ..."
With comradely solidarity, Sam Marcy Chairperson, Workers World Party" (1994):
http://www.workers.org/marcy/cd/sam94/1994html/s940721.htm
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Also speaking at the rally above was communist attorney/terrorist defender, Lynne Stewart. The event marked the 2nd anniversary of the start of the Iraq war (March 19, 2005).
http://www.troopsoutnow.org/photos/march19photos.html
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source:
JOE GARCIA AND HIS CORRUPT, PRO-CASTRO FRIEND CHARLIE RANGEL (D-NY):
http://factreal.wordpress.com/2010/10/17/david-rivera-vs-garcias-controversies-donations-to-his-campaign-from-corrupt-rangel-fl-25/
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"Rangel is an avowed admirer of the former Cuban President Fidel Castro. In April 1993, the congressman introduced legislation to repeal the Cuban Democracy Act of 1992, which ended U.S. assistance to the Castro government, and to lift the American embargo against Cuba. When Castro toured Harlem in October of 1995, Rangel greeted him with a bear hug at an event in a local church, where the congressman joined in a prolonged standing ovation for the visiting dictator."
http://www.zimbio.com/Charlie+Rangel/articles/uMKCuQbf6Wd/Tax+Man+Faces+Tax+Cheat+Mirror
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