Iron Mill News Service » Charlie Rangel

Tricks of the Trade With TWT’s Emily Miller

Ironmill — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 18:30:16 +0000

Today’s “Tricks of the Trade” is with TWT Senior Opinion Writer Emily Miller. Credentials: She’s a former reporter for Human Events, where she often got in lawmakers’ faces for ambush reports, and previously wrote for Politics Daily. She’s also a former flack to ex-House Maj. Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas).

1. Favorite Interview Technique: Take the elevator in the Capitol. Members and senators are less likely to be staffed, and they are, well, trapped. It’s where I caught Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-N.Y.) with high-priced defense lawyer Abbe Lowell right after asking for a continuance in his ethics trial because, he claimed, he couldn’t afford a lawyer.

2. Most Compelling Question You’ve Ever Asked: “What happened?”

Rangel walks out of his own ethics trial, members debate acting in absentia

Ironmill — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 00:33:40 +0000

Editors Note: Charlie Rangel Complained to the Ethic committee that he did not have time to read the 500 page document referring to the charges against him. WE wonder, If Charlie couldn’t read 500 pages in a week.. how did he read a Stimulus and Health Care Reform Bill both over 2000 pages in less then 72 hours? Just wondering.

Rep. Charlie Rangel, D-N.Y., requested a delay in his ethics hearing on the grounds that he lacked counsel. His request was denied.
The members of the Ethics subcommittee holding the hearing now appear to be considering whether they can grant the equivalent of “summary judgment” against Rangel. The committee has a set of uncontested facts — regarding Rangel’s rent-controlled apartments and his failure to report income to the IRS — which establish that Rangel violated ethics rules. From these, Ethics committee counsel Blake Chisam said, the panel should be able to determine whether he violated House rules without any further hearings or testimony.
They’re also debating whether one of the counts — Rangel’s fundraising for an academic institute that bears his own name — is really a violation.
You can watch the ongoing proceedings here on C-Span.
Rangel walks out of his own ethics trial, members debate acting in absentia | Washington Examiner.

Charlie Rangel's Birthday Bash: A Night for Ethics Amnesia

Ironmill — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 20:43:48 +0000

NEW YORK – It was the antithesis of Chelsea Clinton’s wedding — a glittering social event on the New York political calendar that many prominent politicians wished (very privately) they did not have to attend and hoped (very secretly) would somehow be canceled.

But Charlie Rangel’s 80^th birthday party and campaign fundraiser in the Grand Ballroom of the Plaza Hotel went off without a hitch Wednesday night . . . if you don’t count the formal ethics charges filed against the 20-term Harlem Democratic congressman last month, his rambling and defiant defense of his conduct on the House floor Tuesday, and the last-hurrah aura to his re-election campaign. Grabbing a microphone at the beginning of the evening and abandoning any pretence of stiff formality despite the lavish setting, Rangel declared, “I’ve been to a lot of funerals, but this damn sure ain’t no funeral, is it?”
From the large “Sold Out” signs outside the Grand Ballroom to the crush of political New York (city council members and U.S. senators, Harlem ministers and Hasidic rabbis, community activists and Wall Street executives) standing shoulder to shoulder for more than two hours, this was an event designed to signal to the world that Rangel still boasted, at least, local clout. Yet there was edginess in the room, partly because the three New York newspapers had spent the week gleefully recounting the evasive answers from political figures about whether they would attend.
Mike Bloomberg — with the bluntness of a three-term billionaire mayor with nothing to lose — said pointedly, “I know a few people couldn’t be here tonight because, as they tell it, either they had to get a haircut unexpectedly or they were sure that they’d have a headache. But Charlie, as you know, they were with you as long as they could be.”
Read the Rest at Charlie Rangel’s Birthday Bash: A Night for Ethics Amnesia.

Did Charlie Rangel Just cut a Deal?

admin — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 17:59:49 +0000

WCBS in New York is reporting that Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-NY) has cut a deal with the House Ethics Committee to avoid a trial on charges he violated House rules. The first meeting of the subcommittee that will hear the charges against Rangel is set to meet at 1 p.m. ET. So now’s the time for cutting what amounts to a plea deal. We should know one way or the other within the hour.
via Rangel Deal Done? | Talking Points Memo.