WASHINGTON – Democratic leaders are pushing embattled Harlem Rep. Charles Rangel to settle with the House Ethics Committee on charges being brought against him this week or risk endangering the Democratic majority.
A trial is set to begin Thursday on a slew of ethics charges against Rangel that have yet to be revealed.
But Democratic leaders don’t want to wait around for an embarrassing or prolonged trial that could tarnish the party’s image heading into the fall elections.
Rangel was in talks with the committee on a possible settlement before an investigative panel made the bombshell announcement last week that charges would be brought against him.
With Democratic control hanging in the balance, leadership’s patience has worn thin.
“This will be the third straight week Democrats are off message,” a Democratic leadership aide fumed to Politico.
“Leadership knows that this is not the way that vulnerable Democrats want to head into the August break. Look for Rangel to face increasing pressure for a quick resolution. Democrats don’t want to give Republicans an opportunity this summer. Rangel is very well liked, but no one is willing to lose their seat or chairmanship over him.”
Rangel, 80, who has already relinquished his Ways and Means Committee gavel pending the investigation, has defiantly vowed to clear his name.
“I think I owe it to the process to find out what the investigative committee found out,” he told reporters this weekend. “Maybe, just maybe, I have evidence to prove that it’s not substantive. But I don’t want any special breaks.”
Rangel has been caught up in a host of ethics allegations that he used his office to hit up corporations to contributions to a self-named center at CUNY, failed to disclose hundreds of thousands of income on reports, and improperly kept four rent-controlled apartments including one for his Harlem campaign-office.
If he resists growing public pressure and refuses a range of sanctions, to monetary fines, a public letter of reproval, more serious censure, or even expulsion from the House.
Meanwhile, Gov. Paterson said this morning that he still backs Rangel.
“I support Congressman Rangel 100 percent; I support him in his re-election bid,” Paterson told reporters after throwing out the first pitch at an Albany Little League game. “Obviously, there are charges that he has to face and I think the resolution of that is something that we don’t know in the future.
“It’s been my honor to watch him for 40 years,” Paterson continued. “I was 16 when he first got elected and think that that he has served not only Harlem and Washington Heights and the Upper West Side well, but all of America well and I wish him well and hope for the best.”
Paterson and Rangel have repeatedly reaffirmed their support for each other in recent months as both Harlem Democrats suffered a series of crushing political setbacks.
Last month, the legally blind governor stunned a crowd gathered to hear Rangel officially announce his re-election bid by leaping on stage.
“There is no height I wouldn’t go to support Congressman Rangel,” he said at the time. “I thought I needed more of a demonstrative way of showing it.”
With Brendan Scott