WHAT ABOUT HIM?
DOUBLE STANDARDS?
Posted on 12/24/2014 8:11:09 AM PST by SeekAndFind
How Michael Grimm (R-NY) won re-election to the House in November may be the greatest political mystery of 2014, having tax-evasion and fraud charges as well as a televised threat to a journalist hanging over his head. After all, his NY-11 district has only an R+2 Cook rating, so it’s not as though it resembles a district like … oh, Charlie Rangel’s D+41 NY-13, for example. Having prevailed despite those handicaps, Grimm refuses to resign his office even after pleading guilty to felony tax evasion:
Grimm faces up to three years in prison for a tax evasion scheme that concealed revenue and off-the-books cash payments to undocumented workers at the Healthalicious restaurant he co-owned and managed.
After pleading guilty, Grimm said he would not resign but also sounded apologetic.
“I am truly, truly sorry for the mistakes that I made. … As long as I am able to serve I am going to serve, as of right now I am still in the capacity to serve,” Grimm said Tuesday.
House Speaker John Boehner withheld comment until speaking with Grimm. House Republicans said Grimm’s future would likely be decided after the Christmas holiday.
No doubt many House Republicans wish Grimm would leave on his own, too. The GOP already cut him loose for the re-election cycle after it became clear that Grimm would not step aside. He still managed to win his R+2 district by 13 points even with no help, which speaks volumes about the quality of his Democratic competition. Nancy Pelosi demanded that John Boehner provide a do-over by somehow forcing Grimm to resign:
“Now that the election is over, Congressman Grimm is finally admitting the truth to his constituents,” Pelosi said in a statement Tuesday morning. “Clearly, Speaker Boehner must insist that Congressman Grimm resign immediately.”
By all means, Boehner should hold himself and his caucus to the high standards exemplified by Pelosi while she held the gavel in the House. Right? Er …
But a senior GOP aide pointed out that Pelosi didn’t call for the resignations of several House Democrats who found themselves ensnared in ethical controversies.
“After standing behind Reps. Bill Jefferson, Charlie Rangel, Jack Murtha, and many others, Rep. Pelosi has zero credibility of these issues,” the aide said.
Jefferson lost his re-election bid after his $90,000 cash cache was discovered in his freezer; before that, Pelosi had stripped “Cold Cash” Jefferson of committee assignments but pointedly did not ask for his resignation. Murtha didn’t even get that much of a rebuke from Pelosi despite allegations of corruption, remaining one of the most powerful appropriators in Congress.
But Rangel provides the most laughable example of Pelosi’s sanctimonious hypocrisy. While Speaker, Pelosi presided over the censure of Rangel for 11 counts of ethics violations, which included tax evasion as well as cashing in on his office to raise money for a school bearing his name, as well as other abuses of power. Other than censure and losing the opportunity to be the ranking member on Ways and Means, Rangel has suffered no professional setback, and continues to get support from Pelosi and the national Democratic Party in his D+41 district during elections — including the most recent in November.
Don’t get me wrong. Grimm should resign as he promised to do, and if he doesn’t, the House should expel him for felony tax evasion. If Grimm doesn’t abide by the laws passed by Congress for the rest of us, then he should get the heave-ho, and it would be both good politics and good stewardship for the Republicans to clean the House, so to speak. But Nancy Pelosi has zero ethical standing to wag a finger from the sidelines, and the House might want to look at Rangel as a target for similar housecleaning.
NO standards.
I guess she doesn’t want to talk about Little Timmy Geitner, huh?
Résumé enhancement!
NO RESIGNATIONS.
This seat stays Republican until 2016.
FU Pelosi you COMMUNIST bitch.
BTW has anyone started a pool guessing how soon John McCain will take to the floor calling for Grimm's resignation?
Sure Nancy when you demand the same from Charlie Rangel.
Tax evasion? Is this a case where he followed an accountant’s advice to treat revenue as business income (still pay the income taxes but avoid Medicare taxes) instead of as earned income (taxed as earned income but also pay Medicare taxes on the whole amount)?
If so, that’s a common tax avoidance strategy that MANY people follow.
Oh but NAN crickets about your buddy Al Sharpton!!!!!!!
It's not like this is the kind of guy who's helping us as part of the majority.
Agree! We should very publicly repudiate the criminal element in our party & remove it. Then point out all the criminals on the other side who ought to go.
Words fail me. I can't say it better,
An expulsion vote on Day 1 of the new Congress would be in order.
Grimm is scrum who should be in jail. He won because his opponent was beyond belief stupid.
What Pelosi is doing is getting the mainstream liberal media to cover the fact that a Republican pleaded guilty to a crime and he didn’t resign.
The last thing Pelosi wants is for Grimm to really be gone from the Republican caucus. If he resigned, he would lose all demagoguery value to the Democrat “leader.”
Michael Grimm is a double-win for the Democrats: federal income tax-evasion and hiring illegal aliens while paying them in cash.
Get that former decorated vet, now Democratic socialist charlie Rangel out of office FIRST! He’s already been found guilty of fraud in NY state.
Across the little Hudson stream, on the northern end of the other island that helps makes up the People’s Republic of NYC, there is an evil, little man who hates America.
Corrupt, dishonest, and filled with hate, this little man failed to pay taxes for years, was found by his pals to be a crook, traveled to foreign ports for illicit activities . . . AND WAS JUST RE-ELECTED.
Little Charlie ain’t gone.
But, I agree with your idea. We ain’t them.
Let the people of Richmond County elect a new representative. (after all, the Corleone’s house is for sale, lots of changes are in the air.)
First order of business in the new House, (if Boehner doesn’t tear up the Constitution with his bear hands first), refuse to seat the crook and bounce him out on his keister.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.