Ironic Surrealism v3.0

Fresh off of the presses. The rat has been smoked out. Good!

NBC New York

Rangel Giving Up the Gavel
Could step down as early as tonight

Harlem Democrat Charles Rangel now says he will step down as chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, NBC News has learned.

He may make the move as early as tonight and Michigan Democratic Rep Sander Levin will temporarily take over the committee.

Some details still need to be ironed out, but sources said Rangel has been pushed to step down before the House voted on a bill to forcefully strip him of the coveted chairmanship.

……

First Published: Mar 2, 2010 7:49 PM EST

It’s about damn time.

Update: Rangel denies earlier news reports claiming he is stepping down.

FOX

Rangel says he won’t step down. FOX News asked if he would still be chair on Wednesday,  he said that he was 79 years old and noted,”I don’t lie to the press.”

When asked if Rangel would still be chair on the Ethics Committee, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said “no comment.”

CBS

Rep. Charles Rangel is denying that he’s stepping down as chairman of the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee.

A Democratic source, however, says Rangel is likely to “temporarily” relinquish his chair in wake of an ethic report that admonished him for taking two corporate paid trips.

Rangel told reporters “you bet your life” when asked if we was still chairman. He had just emerged from a meeting with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to discuss his fate.

Pelosi had no comment.

……

The Ways and Means chairmanship is especially important this year, when Democrats are trying to overhaul the nation’s health care system and Congress has to decide what to do about billions of dollars in tax cuts Americans at every income level have enjoyed for a decade – but are due to expire in December.

If this was Rangel’s only ethics problem, it might not be crippling to Democrats. But still looming is a much larger ethics investigation. That one is focusing in part on Rangel’s use of official stationery to raise money for a college center in his name; and his belated financial disclosure of hundreds of thousands of dollars in previously unreported assets and income.

The unreported assets included a federal credit union account worth between $250,001 and $500,000; a Merrill Lynch account valued between $250,000 and $500,000; tens of thousands of dollars in municipal bonds and $30,000 to $100,000 in rent from a multifamily brownstone building in New York. [...]

Update 2:

Politico

Charlie Rangel emerged from a closed-door meeting in Nancy Pelosi’s office Tuesday night to declare that he’s still the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee and hasn’t agreed to give up his gavel – even as some media outlets were reporting that he’d done just that.

But asked whether he’d still be the chairman tomorrow and in the coming days, Rangel said: “I can’t make all those promises at my age.”

……

As late as Monday evening, the New York Democrat seemed to be surviving his latest ethical challenges. But the tide turned against him quickly, and by Tuesday night, at least 14 Democrats had said that Rangel should go. Democratic leaders expect more to come, and the Capitol is braced for Rangel to lose his gavel one way or another – by force or voluntarily, temporarily or permanently.

“The dam broke today,” said a senior Democratic aide.

Rangel suffered a significant blow Tuesday afternoon when Rep. Artur Davis – a member of both the Ways and Means Committee and the Congressional Black Caucus who’s running for governor back home in Alabama – issued a statement in which he said the chairman “should do the right thing and step aside.”

Republicans are planning to bring a resolution to the House floor calling for his removal as chairman, and Democratic aides said Tuesday that the party’s most vulnerable incumbents are not willing to risk the electoral fallout that would come from standing by the 39-year House veteran.

If all House members vote and all 178 Republicans favor removing Rangel, the GOP would need 39 Democrats to turn against the chairman to win the vote. [...]

Update 3:

The Hill

After meeting with Rangel, Pelosi initially said, “No comment” when asked if Rangel remains panel chairman.

She added, “I guess he is still chair of Ways and Means…”

Cowards all.

Fast and furious.

Stay tuned…

Update 4:

MSNBC

From NBC’s Domenico Montanaro, Luke Russert and Shawna Thomas
Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-NY) announced at a 9:00 am ET news conference that he was temporarily stepping aside from his post as chairman of the powerful Ways and Means Committee.

He did not take questions, but made a point of saying that he has previously made this offer to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi…

(Rangel tossing Nancy under the bus, or what? lol)

……

Rangel’s letter to Pelosi:

March 3, 2010

Dear Madam Speaker:

“I respectfully request a leave of absence from my duties and responsibilities as Chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means until such time as the Committee on Standards completes its findings on the review currently underway.”

The Honorable Charles B. Rangel

Here is the email sent to committee members canceling this morning’s meeting:

FYI:
THIS MEETING HAS BEEN CANCELLED
————————————-

NOTICE OF MEETING

COMMITTEE ON WAYS AND MEANS

U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2010

Dear Committee Member,

The Chairman has scheduled a meeting of the Committee to be held in Room 1100 Longworth House Office Building on Wednesday, March 3, 2010 at 10:30 a.m.

Markup of:

Views and Estimates Letter to the Committee on the Budget

Respectfully,

________________________
Chief Counsel and Staff Director

Charlie Rangel should not only be permanently removed from his chairmanship of the Ways and Means Committee he should be ran out of DC on a rail.