Is this not a classic picture of a politician trying to BS his way out of trouble?
This sleazeball has been living for years in four (yes, FOUR) rent-stabilized apartments owned by a major campaign contributor, at a savings of approximately $30,000 / year over what he would pay on the free market. He denies there is anything wrong with this, and in fact, it is technically legal.
As a member of Congress, he is entitled to choose a personal vehicle, that the government will pay for. What does he pick? A Honda Accord? Something small, efficient, not unduly burdensome to the taxpayers? Fat chance. He buys a fucking Cadillac Deville, the most expensive sedan Cadillac makes. Also technically legal.
And now, he gets caught not paying taxes on the rental income from a villa he owns in the Dominican Republic, which rents out at $1,100 / night in peak season. The owner of the resort the villa is in is another campaign contributor. And what’s this man’s excuse, the man who is the chairman of the Congressional committee in charge of taxation?
““Every time I thought I was getting somewhere, they’d start speaking Spanish.”
Fucking slimy, smirking, corrupt piece of garbage.
I don’t have any problem with the apartment or the car. Them’s perks of the job. Yes, he should pay taxes on the income, and if he was mistaken, he should pay back taxes and if appropriate, a penalty. But I don’t expect any congresscritter to do perfect taxes because the tax code they made is really, really complex.
As for the doing personal business with campaign contributors, so what? This isn’t influence peddling, it’s living arrangements with friends who have contributed to his campaigns for years. This isn’t Ted Stevens, Tom Delay or Jack Abramhoff. And Ted Stevens and Tom Delay may not have committed criminal acts, I presume them to be innocent of that, but they sure has hell were selling their offices: cash for political favors. Just because it may be legal doesn’t mean it is technically right.
Rangel is entirely different: he’s not selling his office, his bunking with guys he’s buddies with. Oh, and Rangel is one of the good guys.
This is the kind of scandal which makes it so easy to detect the ‘better government types’ from the truly partisan.
Here we have the Chairman of Ways & Means (the nation’s most powerful tax-writing legislator) caught cheating on his income taxes and no one here has said ‘boo’ the few days things have been unraveling. Call me naive, but this story is just as (if not more) hypocritical as the scandal involving that closeted, family-values Senator tapping his shoe and 'psssst’ing for a blowjob in an airport bathroom.
Also mine. And I’m also highly disappointed. No, make that pissed off.
If the OP thinks the newspaper account was bad, you should have seen the performance during the live press conference he gave this morning. Pathetic and downright condescending, to think that one of the reasons he gave for the tax mishap is that he didn’t closely read the tax forms he was given to sign.
He needs to be penalized to the fullest extent possible – tax penalty-, sanction- and criminal-wise. And this from a board lefty.
Ha ha what a joke. His defense is that he didn’t understand all of the tax forms? Welcome to the world of millions of Americans who can’t afford tax accountants or lawyers and have to muddle through that shit by themselves.
And Mr. Rangel, you are one of the assholes who has made the tax code as complex as it is today. Zero sympathy from me.
Come on, though. This reeks, and he knew damn well he wasn’t paying taxes, not that there may have been some errors.
Good guys have higher standards. He may not be evil, but he should be censured and sure as shit shouldn’t maintain his Chairmanship. And I wouldn’t vote for him again (were I one of his constituents).
Is there some context I’m missing, or is that just a throwaway stinkbomb? Participation in democratic processes involves some faith that the things you don’t know about candidates are consistent with the things you know. The fact that your sometimes wrong doesn’t make you a sucker. I’m pretty sure you have some insight into that, Airman, so perhaps I’m being whooshed…
For the record, while it was a drive-by post (and hey, aren’t we all entitled to one every so often?), I’ve never been a fan of Rangel, especially not since his cries for attention about re-implementing the draft. For a guy who is supposed to be good with numbers he didn’t know jack about military demographics, the only thing he “knew” was that minorities and poor were vastly overrepresented, neither of which are true, not at the levels he was claiming. Didn’t stop him from kibitzing about it, though.
Asinine lawmakers always get the point-and-laugh from me anymore. I couldn’t resist.
I agree. I was actually just about to post something along those lines – we’ve had so much shitty Republican conduct in the past few years, with the pitiful excuse that it probably wasn’t “technically” illegal so let’s just move along, nothing to see here folks, that it would be a grievous mistake for us left-leaning types to start writing passes when it’s one of our guys that does it.
I actually don’t care that much whether a politician’s skeevy behavior is legal or illegal. If I think it’s wrong, then he’s doing a bad job as an elected representative. Wrong enough, and he should be removed from office. I think we don’t provide enough public oversight that politicians feel they need to be concerned about how we as voters view their job performance. Simply staying out of jail is not a very high bar.
I don’t know your congressman, and don’t care, but I happen to live where he has his villa and I have to call bullshit on that. English is the de facto language here, so much so that my daughter receives only one hour of Spanish education per day at school. This (PuntaCana, see location) is virtually a private republic, driven by tourism and real state. I have to say that that is the most ludicrous excuse I have ever heard, worse than “my dog ate my tax declaration”. If the person who sold our property to us (nowhere near as nice as his villa, I regret to say) speaks perfect English I doubt they would have assigned him to someone who didn’t. In fact it is just impossible.
Is there some context I’m missing, or is that just a throwaway stinkbomb? Participation in democratic processes involves some faith that the things you don’t know about candidates are consistent with the things you know. The fact that your sometimes wrong doesn’t make you a sucker. I’m pretty sure you have some insight into that, Airman, so perhaps I’m being whooshed…