I rise in support of

Congressman Peter King, Republican, New York

Peter King has backbone. He has a sense of fair play. The House of Representatives does not have any appellate process on a 'censure' resolution, and clearly this one would be appealed if it
did. It would not be a frivolous appeal. To borrow a phrase or two, this was a " 'Cluster-F' high -tech lynching."

Peter King was only one of two Republican reps who argued for the lesser penalty for Rangel of 'reprimand' rather than the rather unusual 'censure' measure that has been reserved and used so rarely it applied in the past to things like armed insurrection against the United States for Civil War Confederate backers and sexual abuse of minors during the Senate Page Scandal.
The 'reprimand' amendment, where they would have substituted for the vote the lesser penalty of 'reprimand' was actually very close.

The report against Rangel bore none of the above gravity. There were no findings of criminal behavior, no findings of any 'mens rae' intent to do anything against the laws, no finding of his self-dealing or profiting personally off any of it. No finding that he did not have a right to rely on advice of accountants who might have folded, as King suggested his Dominican Republic rental income into a mortgage deduction (he had a mortgage on the property he is accused of not declaring enough rental income on) . What is he accused of really? Trying to get a lot of underprivileged kids in New York educated. Please.

What was inferred with the charge that he used Congressional letterhead while he was on the Ways and Means Committee to solicit contributions was that he was strongarming contributors in sort of kick-back fashion who gave millions of dollars to a worthy charity-that bore his name in part. Here is where it is -to borrow a Boehner phrase that I cannot believe he actually used "chicken crap."

1. These well financed lobbyists who gave to a CHARITABLE EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTION were able to get no doubt tax write offs for this, and this thus benefited also the corporations.

2. There was no suggestion or statement that any of these lobbyists or corporations felt strong-armed or that they did not want to contribute to this.

3. There is nothing in the record suggesting that this is not the way that Chairs of the Ways and Means Committee people always did business in the past. Was Rangel being selectively singled out- and what is wrong with offering to give a corporation a place to put charitable dollars when corporations often have Foundations attached to them for precisely this reason- they look to enhance their community service profile by giving charitable contributions to worthy endeavors- and what could be more worthy than educating people who normally could not afford it.

Do you remember Bud Shuster? There is an enormous four or six lane highway in Central Pennsylvania named after him. Didn't he sit on the Ways and Means Committee? Do you mean to tell me that NO OTHER Ways and Means Chair had pet projects that they promoted while
Chair of the Ways and Means Committee. Of course that is a load of "chicken crap."

There was so much misinformation out there to inflame the public that it was irresponsible and dishonest on the part of the Republicans who will use this in every commercial to unseat Obama in 2012. You could tell from the callers on C-Span that they were fed a load of manure (chicken crap) to incite them to call their congresspersons. They were saying things like "he did not pay his taxes for 17 years!" This is false. He filed returns, he paid taxes, he relied on accountants to configure the deductions and they were apparently wrong-and when he found out they were wrong, he paid the difference to the IRS.

There were disturbing procedural deficiencies in this prosecution. They denied him the use of Pro Bono Counsel after his own lawyers billed him close to 2 Million and dumped him. Nice. I know firsthand that to be true because I offered to be his Pro Bono Counsel. Secondly, they refused him an extension or delay to raise more funds in a legal defense fund to defend a trial.
One Congressman who is a former Superior Court judge was disturbed by that. I know also first-hand that it is standard protocol to give someone more time for trial preparation if they lose counsel. This former Superior Court judge was appalled by that and I agree.


This was unprecedented. Peter King noted that his religious and ethical orientation relies on 'tradition ' in part, and his training as a lawyer makes him respect Precedent. The Censure of Rangel violated both tradition and precedent. It was a smear job. It was not fair, it was not
balanced, it was a sad display of trying to pass blame off on someone for the collective failings of an entire Institution which has been so negligent in doing things that are really serious ethical breaches, like institute a Leahy-requested 9-11 Truth Commission, prosecute Torture, prosecute mis-statements to the CIA leading to War, prosecute people who lie in Senate Confirmation hearings and the like.

Rangel did none of that. He 'zealously' raised money for kids in New York to go to college.
He used Congressional letterhead thinking it was a legitimate constituent service and it is. It isn't a public highway named after him, it is a college. Anyone who contributed got a tax write off.
There was zero evidence of strong-arming . There was zero evidence of personal enrichment.

I am actually appalled that the Congress wasted TWO years and MILLIONS of dollars on this -as though there are not bigger scandals to hit their desks- like Halliburton No Bid Iraqi oil deals, like secret torture renditions, like boiling people literally in oil and/or threatening to in Uzbekistan to compel false confessions of alleged 'terrorists' that we fly in from Afghanistan.

Charles Rangel will go down in history as the biggest diversionary scape-goat for Congressional ineptitude that ever was. And he will go down in history as the Korean War decorated Purple Heart Hero who saved the lives of many many New Yorkers by giving them an education.

Zoe is pretty much done.