Embattled Rep. Charles Rangel will not give up his plum leadership position on one the most powerful committees in Congress, his lawyer said today.
Despite growing calls for him to step aside as chairman of the tax-law-writing Ways and Means Committee because he failed to report rental income from his Dominican Republic getaway, Rangel will stay put as the House Ethical Committee investigates his personal finances.
“Mr. Rangel has not considered, nor has it ever been on the table, that he would step aside from his current position as chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee,” said Rangel’s lawyer, Lanny Davis.
“He has no intention of leaving that position, even on temporary basis.”
Republicans have seized on Rangel’s ethics controversies – from the tax-reporting issues to his four rent-stabilized apartments in Harlem to soliciting funds for a City College center named after himself – into a major campaign issue.
“Two years ago, Democrats promised to run the ‘most ethical congress in history,’ yet Charlie Rangel remains the chairman of the most powerful committee in Congress,” said Ken Spain, spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee.
“Now we know that Nancy Pelosi’s promises of change were nothing more than hollow campaign rhetoric.”
The NRCC has already injected the Rangel issue in 83 different races and called on Democratic candidates and incumbents to return his donations.
The Democratic National Congressional Committee countered that “Republicans should get their own house in order before criticizing the ‘New Direction’ Congress that has passed the strongest ethics reform in history.”
Despite what one source said was a quiet push by Democratic Speaker Pelosi to get Rangel to step down on Monday, Rangel returned to work today.
And Pelosi seemed unwilling to have a showdown with her most powerful chairman.
“I see no reason why Mr. Rangel should step down,” she said after meeting with him for the second time today.
Fellow New York representatives have rallied around the 19-term Rangel.
“It was obvious he was taking care of the people’s business better than his own personal business,” said Rep. Gary Ackerman (D-Queens/LI).
When asked by The Post if the public should expect any future revelations or if the worst has passed, Rangel said: “I take it day by day.” With AP