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WASHINGTON — What gall!
In a last-ditch effort to save his scandal-scarred name, disgraced Rep. Charles Rangel is asking to speak before the House in an effort to land a more lenient penalty for his widespread ethics abuses — just two weeks after he brazenly walked out of the first day of his trial.
The Harlem Democrat plans to argue — as he has all along — that his violations were innocent mistakes and not the schemes of a “crook.”
He’s hoping to get a reprimand instead of censure, the most severe and humiliating penalty short of expulsion.
A censure is worse than a reprimand because it would require Rangel to stand in front of the chamber — called the “well” — for a public rebuke by the speaker.
A reprimand would be a simple vote of disapproval, and Rangel wouldn’t even have to be in the chamber.
Rangel, 80, wants to make his final plea for leniency on the House floor right before his colleagues vote to censure him for breaking the slew of ethics rules, Capitol Hill insiders say.
It’s up to the chairman of the ethics committee, Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), to decide whether to grant Rangel a last stand on the House floor before the vote, which could come as soon as today.
Rangel would be the first congressman censured in 27 years.
The bipartisan House ethics committee voted overwhelmingly for censure after a trial panel found Rangel guilty on 11 of 12 charges.
Those included dodging taxes, concealing assets and misusing his office to raise money for the City College center that bears his name — all first reported by The Post.
Rangel is expected to argue that censure has historically been reserved for acts of corruption, such as bribery, accepting improper gifts or sexual misconduct.
He has often noted, as he did in an apology e-mail to supporters last week, that the ethics committee’s chief counsel, Blake Chisam, said during the trial that there was no evidence of “corruption.”
But in handing down its recommendation for censure, the committee explained that Rangel deserved the harsh punishment because of “the cumulative nature of the violations and not any direct personal financial gain.”
The House will take up the Rangel censure in the lame-duck session that opens today, but no date has been set.
The last time the House censured members was in 1983, punishing Gerry Studds (D-Mass.) for having sex with a teenage male page, and Daniel Crane (R-Ill.) for having sex with a teenage female page.
The most recent reprimand went to Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC) last year for shouting, “You lie!” during President Obama’s speech to Congress.