Rangel "Temporarily" Retires His Gavel

Rangel finally asked for a leave of absence from his chairmanship of the House Ways & Means Committee until the ethics committee completes its investigation into his alleged improprieties involving the use of his official position to raise money for a New York college center in his name, his belated disclosure of at least hundreds of thousands of dollars in assets, his use of rent-controlled apartments in New York and espeically, his violation of gift rules in connection with a series of trips he took to the Caribbean. Specifically, the panel found that he "violated standards of conduct by accepting 2007 and 2008 trips to Caribbean conferences that were financed by corporations." Conveniently, it said it could not prove whether Rangel knew of the corporate sponsorship, but that members of his staff knew about them and he was responsible for that. Rangel claimed he was clueless regarding the corporate sponsorship and begged not to be held responsible for something his staff members "may have known." Hmmm, remember the golf trip certain Republican members took with Jack Abramoff? It seems Pelosi's promise to drain the swamp of ethics problems after Republican's "culture of corruption" will swallow up a few of her own.