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The big stink over Harlem Congressman Charlie Rangel is this:
"The ethics committee said Rangel violated standards of conduct by accepting 2007 and 2008 trips to Caribbean conferences that were financed by corporations. The committee said it could not prove whether Rangel knew of the corporate payments but concluded members of his staff knew about them — and the congressman was responsible for their actions."
Source
So he's stepping down as Ways & Means Chair. Fine. He broke the rules or knew or should have known that rules were being broken. O.K., we get that.
But while Congress is "tut-tutting" and clucking over the Shame of Representative Rangel, The Big Picture seems utterly lost on them, especially Democrats (Republicans damn well know what the deal is).
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The whole "sponsored by corporations" thing seems utterly lost on all those Democrats who have lined-up fainting couches upon which to fall in the wake of Congressman Rangel's indiscretion. Good God in Heaven and Lord love a duck what are those Rules supposed to prevent? Waiting, waiting, waiting . . . you need not all respond at once, we'll give everyone a chance to answer . . .
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The rules against corporations ponying up for trips is to mitigate against corporations influencing/buying/bribing Members of Congress.
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Is there evidence that such influence-peddling happened in Rangel's case? I have no idea. And even if there's not, he should still abide by the rules. I've got no problem with his being slapped on the wrist (through Admonishment, whatever) for violating those rules, whether such was intentional or through a staff cock-up.
But the issue that both Capitol Hill Democrats -- and surprise, surprise, the all-got-the-vapors Media Heathers -- are missing is "So is there corporate influence-peddling going on in Congress via $$$ being thrown at Members of Congress and, if so, why aren't we outing that, the substantive, blatant corporate influence-peddling?"
Whether it's buying a couple of plane tickets and a hotel room to the Caribbean, or donating/spending 1,000s and 1,000s of dollars (millions of dollars, in fact) in order to secure a favorable vote from this or that Member of Congress, it's still influence peddling.
But will the Democrats turn this around on the GOP? Will they dare say anything akin to:
"Look, Charlie violated the rules. We've admonished him. But we see no evidence of his votes, let alone soul, being bought by his Caribbean trip benefactors . . . in contrast to the barely legal bribes you're taking to do the bidding of Big Insurance, Big Oil, Pharma, Wall Street and the rest of the Rogues' Gallery of Mega-Corp thugs. Do we take their money? Hell, yeah. But we fight hard against letting it influence us. Which is what sets us apart from you, you Republicans who willingly take de facto Corporate Bribes and quite willingly dance to your benefactors' tune, whether on Health Care reform, Wall Street reform, Energy policies, or what have you.
"Cluck-away and declare that you're 'Shocked! Shocked! that there's corporate money going on in Congress', but the more you do that the more we're going to turn the spotlight on the Pay-to-Play system you've set up to enrich your campaign coffers and make your masters happy."
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It's just surreal, through the looking glass, that a position that's so obvious, a position to take to wallop the GOP, is so willfully ignored/overlooked by Capitol Hill Democrats and the DNC.
Gad.