Rangel

Rangel Failed to Report $75,000 in Income

I want a perp walk

“ Representative Charles B. Rangel has earned more than $75,000 in rental income from a villa he has owned in the Dominican Republic since 1988, but never reported it on his federal or state tax returns, according to a lawyer for the congressman and documents from the resort. (NYT) ” Wha?  A life-lock congressman from Harlem didn't pay taxes?  Memory Lane Powell's predecessor was Adam Clayton Powell, a famous shake-down artist - think amalgam of  Jesse Jackson and Harry Reid -  who lost his seat to Rangel in 1970.   Powell was so crooked that in 1967 the House voted to exclude (unseat) him. His Harlem constituency was so contemptuous of the white man's law that he ran for his own empty seat, and won.  When House leaders started proceedings to exclude him again, he warned that any such attempt would cause him to start naming names and listing sins.  There was no more talk of exclusion. (The SCOTUS later ruled his exclusion was unconstitutional). I have before pegged this incident as that very moment when  I lost my school-boy awe over the integrity of our elected gummint.  It's been downhill ever since. As an aside, the thought did cross my mind that as his swan song, Bush will sic the Justice Department on the, oh, 100 or so democrat crooks in congress.  Before the election.  Clap Calp Calp!