Rep. Charles Rangel faces censure from the House. AP Photo
For Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.), it seemed to come down to this. All the marching for civil rights, all the fighting he did to illuminate the drug crisis in African-American communities, all the work to become one of the most powerful members of Congress; in a sense, it all came down to a moment in front of the House ethics committee.
And after a grueling day of hearing from Rangel and behind doors discussion by the committee on Thursday, it came down to a censure. The House ethics committee suggested the punishment just below expulsion for his violations of House ethics rules. Censure requires approval from the full House; a vote is expected after Thanksgiving.
Earlier this week Rangel was found guilty of charges ranging from evading taxes to inappropriate use of Congressional stationery.
It was more than a slap on the wrist for the congressman of 40 years; it was a harsh rebuke. It is only the fourth time in committee history that they have suggested a penalty of censure. But the congressman fought back, declaring before the committee, the cameras, and anyone who would listen that he might have made mistakes, but he was not corrupt.
It was a message he hammered home again and again, not only trying to lay out the case of his long years of service, but also repeating what the committee’s counsel Blake Chisam had said, that Rangel was sloppy, not corrupt.
But the House ethics committee took his ethical lapses very seriously. A censure is a kind of public pillory, an embarrassing show where Rangel would be forced to stand before the House speaker while receiving a verbal drumming for his misconduct.
If the House accepts the committee’s recommendation, it would be another moment of political theater in a week full of stagecraft.
Rangel began the week by walking out of his hearings, and ended it with a long and rambling plea to the committee, at turns begging, boasting, and reminding all of the many battles he has fought, both in the civil rights movement and as a soldier in Korea. There was in his performance both the bravura that those who know Rangel have come to know so well, and the sadness of a man trying to control his own narrative. “I don’t know how much longer I have to live,” he said in a rough voice, “but I will always try to help people and thank God for what he has given to me.”
Back in Harlem, the people who Rangel has helped rallied behind the besieged congressman. Early on Thursday morning many community leaders, including State Sen. Bill Perkins and Councilwoman Inez Dickens, gathered inside the Martin Luther King Jr. Democratic Center, the de facto headquarters of all things Rangel.
Behind windows wallpapered in Rangel posters, they watched the TV waiting for the news. There had been a plan for members of the community to come here to board buses bound for Washington. But at the 11th hour Rangel asked his supporters to cancel the trip.
“He asked for a homecoming party instead,” said Dickens. “He’ll be coming home and we are going to welcome him with open arms.” It seemed a move intended to take the focus off of Washington, and turn the spotlight on Harlem.
It is in Northattan, after all, where Rangel’s legacy will resonate loudest. It is also here that he is most loved. These are the voters who made their verdict clear when they re-elected him to Congress earlier this month with 80 percent of the vote. Their sentence for Rangel was different then that of the House ethics committee; they gave him two more years on Capitol Hill.
