The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Charlie Rangel: Guilty! Guilty! Guilty!

Posted on | November 16, 2010 | 10 Comments

Even his fellow Democrats can’t deny he’s a crook. Isn’t it amazing that a guy who’s been in Congress since 1971 — and indeed was chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee — still manages to claim victimhood?

“How can anyone have confidence in the decision of the ethics subcommittee when I was deprived of due process rights, right to counsel and was not even in the room? . . .
“While I am required to accept the findings of the Ethics Committee, I am compelled to state again the unfairness of its continuation without affording me the opportunity to obtain legal counsel as guaranteed under the U.S. Constitution.”

Right. In all his corrupt swindling — his seaside resort in the Caribbean, arranging tax loopholes for his benefactors, setting up a bogus campaign consulting contract for his son, running a shakedown over rum taxes  — it never occurred to Rangel to set aside any of his ill-gotten gains to pay for lawyers to defend him if he were to get caught.

BTW, for youngsters who may not remember Watergate, the headline on this post is borrowed from a once-famous “Doonesbury” cartoon about Nixon’s Attorney General John Mitchell:

Youngsters probably also don’t remember when “Doonesbury” was occasionally funny.

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