It was a Harlem “leadership summit” to discuss an agenda for the rest of Gov. Paterson’s lame-duck term. Except the governor wasn’t even invited.
Embattled Reps. Charles Rangel and Gregory Meeks and state Sen. Malcolm Smith were gang-grim for the cameras yesterday as they assembled at Sylvia’s restaurant at the request of the Rev. Al Sharpton.
Paterson remained holed up in his Harlem apartment a few blocks away.
“The purpose of this meeting was to focus on policy and priorities. We want to take the focus off of Governor Paterson and put it back on the priorities. For one, we’re definitely focusing in on the budget,” Sharpton said in a brief statement before the press was ushered out of the room.
But it was likely difficult for those involved to concentrate on anything but scandal, as Democrats Rangel, Meeks and Smith have serious ethical issues of their own to worry about.
Rangel is battling House Ethics Committee probes into past tax lapses and was admonished by a panel Friday for attending corporate-sponsored junkets in the Caribbean in 2007 and 2008. Republicans and some Democratic critics are demanding he step down as chairman of the Ways and Means Committee.
Meeks is the co-founder of a charity now being probed by the feds for failing to disperse funds to Hurricane Katrina victims.
Smith is the other co-founder of the embattled nonprofit, New Direction Local Development Corp.
Talk of Paterson’s resignation never came up, said City Councilman Charles Barron of Brooklyn, who described the hourlong meeting as “full of passion.”
When asked about the governor, Rangel said, “It’s a rough job . . . We want him to know we support him no matter what.”
Rangel and former House colleague Harold Ford Jr., a potential primary challenger to Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, had a tense exchange over President Obama’s health-care reform, sources said.
Rangel ended it by dismissing Ford’s concern that the legislation might raise taxes for New Yorkers and hurt small businesses.
District leader Maria Luna told the room that the African-American community needed to do more to dispel the scandals swirling in the press.
She said people were asking her if Rangel was cheating in office, and others had said “David’s no good,” sources said.
A Sharpton spokesperson said the event was never intended to be open to reporters, although a press release went out announcing details of the summit the day before.
Democratic sources said Sharpton had organized yesterday’s summit before Paterson dropped out. It was planned as a discussion on whether to support Paterson’s election bid, which Sharpton was leaning against.