Opinion

Rangel’s race ruse

Once upon a time, patriotism was said to be the last refuge of the scoundrel.

Today, it’s racism. Or, more accurately, manufactured claims of racism.

Take Charlie Rangel, for example.

The embattled Harlem Democrat has further sullied his tattered reputation by implying that his troubles are racially motivated.

He told CNN last week, “I think that the numbers look odd in terms of the number of African-Americans that have been brought before the [House Ethics] committee.”

Yes, the panel has investigated eight Congressional Black Caucus members over the last two years.

But five of them (including Rangel) were part of an inquiry into whether the members broke House gift rules by taking a corporate-sponsored junket to the Caribbean island of St. Maarten.

Rangel was admonished because the committee determined that he should have known about the corporate sponsorship. (He blamed his staff.) That finding ultimately forced him to step down from his Ways and Means chairmanship.

The committee exonerated the other four CBC members on the grounds that they were unaware of the sponsorship; they were required only to repay the cost of the junket.

Rangel, of course, faces a trial this fall on 13 separate violations of House rules.

But it is truly pathetic that he would play the race card, citing undue attention to the affairs of the black lawmakers who accompanied him to St. Maarten — when he largely was responsible for the trip in the first place.

It seems to us that getting in ethics trouble in the House had much less to do with race per se than it did with proximity to Charlie Rangel.

His pals need to keep their distance — because Charlie’s got ethics influenza, and he’s highly contagious.