It’s official: Charlie Rangel is a crook. A liar. And a tax cheat.
The guilty finding by a bipartisan group of his peers lays to rest any illusion the flimflam man’s disgraceful conduct was an aberration or mere sloppiness. The case revealed a decades-long pattern of willful deceit and intentional evasion.
In a better world, we would be bidding him good riddance. He would be expelled from Congress, and a federal prosecutor would be waiting at the door, ready to pounce on the ton of evidence that convicted him. A grand jury would be going through the bank accounts bulging with cash, the sources of which remain suspiciously unclear.
In that better world, his colleagues, shocked and embarrassed by how he flaunted his violations of tax laws and ethics rules, would immediately tighten the screws and increase the penalties. They would denounce him from the floor, ashamed to have accepted his friendship and favors.
They would call for a vote on term limits, conceding that permanent incumbency magnifies the corruption of power. Rangel, after all, was just elected to his 21st term, and men and women of goodwill would proudly shout “aye” to eliminate the temptations that pile up in a job for life.
Of course, that’s not the world we live in. What justice we have in this one is too often corrupted by a double standard, one for the public and one for our government masters.
Any ordinary American who scammed the IRS the way Rangel did would be socked with fines and probably jail. Any private worker who cheated his employer the way Rangel cheated taxpayers would get fired and arrested.
Rangel will most likely get a letter of reprimand. Tsk, tsk.
And where are the prosecutors? Quaking in their hideaways, afraid to take on someone so big. Cowards all.
Try a little experiment. Walk into a government building — a courthouse, motor vehicles, unemployment — and take note of how you, the taxpayer, are treated. My experience is that it quickly becomes clear who is working for whom.
Most government workers don’t believe they work for you or me. They know we work for them. Public servants? Grow up, sucker.
That’s the overarching lesson of the Charlie Rangel moment. His unruffled arrogance, his air of entitlement, his lack of remorse personify everything wrong with Washington in particular and government in general.
He was shocked — genuinely, I believe — that anybody would dare accuse him of doing anything remotely wrong. Don’t we know who he is!
In fact, we do know his kind all too well, and that was the point voters made two weeks ago. President Obama and Democrats in Congress lost the consent of the governed, just as Republicans sitting in their seats lost it in 2006 and 2008.
Members of both parties believed their own smoke until it was too late, then took turns being shocked to find themselves cast from the temples and into the shadows.
They lost their jobs, but too many who have them still don’t get it. There are thousands of Charlie Rangels in Washington and Albany and in state capitals and city halls across America who believe they are above the law. They have convinced themselves they are public rulers, not public servants.
For too long, we let them get away with it. We the people always deserve the government we get. If we want a better one, we have to earn it by working like crazy for it. We have to relentlessly demand a single standard of justice and refuse to accept anything less.
Above all, we must root out all the Charlie Rangels until all the people in those jobs know they work for us.
We can do it. Yes we can.