NYT-Editorial----The House Rebukes Mr. Rangel

The tragic tale of Representative Charles Rangel’s ethics violations has ended with a deserved vote of censure by his peers in the House, despite the once powerful lawmaker’s pleas for a less humiliating reprimand.
Mr. Rangel, summoned to the well of the House to be rebuked for having “violated the public trust,” insisted that his failures were of repeated sloppiness not corruption. That admission came only after two years of arrogant denials and evasion during the inquiry.

In the end, he could not challenge the facts of the many ways he brought discredit on his own legacy. Among the 11 violations of ethics rules and federal laws cited, were soliciting funds from special interest donors to a university center bearing his name and failing for years to fully disclose his income and pay his taxes. The latter is particularly scandalous considering the New York Democrat was once the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee and the nation’s chief tax writer.

The mood on the House floor was appropriately grim. Meanwhile, watchdog groups on the right and left united in warning that voters expect something far better of lawmakers and far more vigilance from Congress. They put the incoming Republican speaker, John Boehner, on notice not to gut the Office of Congressional Ethics created by Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat, to do real investigations and stiffen the committee’s spine. The nonpartisan office contributed a 329-page report in the Rangel investigation and must remain a vital force.

We are not sure the committee has learned its lesson. This week, Representative Maxine Waters was supposed to go on trial for alleged ethics violations. That has now been postponed after the announced discovery of additional e-mail evidence. What the committee has not explained is why the two chief investigators on the case were also removed this week.

Ms. Waters has denied allegations that she set up a meeting to seek Treasury Department help for a bank in which her husband owned stock. She is understandably demanding an explanation for the sudden sidetracking.

Taxpayers disgusted by Mr. Rangel’s actions and Congress’s go-along-get-along attitude must demand more, too.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/03/opinion/03fri4.html?ref=opinion