No this post is NOT about any of the charges that he is dealing with through the house ethics committee. This is about the anatomy of an additional totally made-up scandal being pushed by the right, the so-called "The Real Rangel Scandal" read on:
The Real Rangel Scandal: A $6 Billion Taxpayer Gift to a British Company
Did Rangel add a provision to the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) legislation that gives a British conglomerate, Diageo, $2.7 billion in tax relief (the total will ultimately cost almost $6 billion when considering that this is a sixty-year agreement) to build a rum distillery in the U.S. Virgin Islands?
DID HE? HMMMM? The article linked above doesn't really explain the charge very well, but I suppose that's the point. Also, it is a charge, not a proven ethics violation. In fact, in this quote it is just a leading question. I have been following the scandal and this is the first I have ever heard of any charge involving this kind of money. At first I thought "wow they finally found something!" But, it seems I am to be disappointed. If this is related to the TARP, Rangel did not act alone, after all it was signed by G.W. Bush.
So, why did a assets and equity from a British company get purchase by the U.S. Government as a part of the TARP? I don't know, Here is a story about the matter, it dosen't seem to mention Rengal. Can anyone explain Rangel's role and why it is an ethics violation? Can anyone explain how did he benefit? Or who else was involved? (But why bother to ask, none of these questions or their answers matter to the target audience for this story.)
What is the point of this story other than to mention Rengel's name, the phrase "troubling ethical charges" and a large dollar value in the same sentence?
To many people in his district, across the river from me in Harlem, it feels like he is being unfairly targeted since he is a very powerful Democrat (ways and means) and also because of the racial panic Obama has induced in the imaginations of some far right conservatives. (No, it's NOT your country anymore.) There is some truth to this, I have never seen such a small petty scandals get quite so much national coverage unless one party or the other was behind the fuss, trying to get as much mileage as possible out of it. Consider this image from http://www.baracksbirthdaycards.com/ :
(You can choose any text you like to go with number of Democrats that the right dosen't like but this is the default for Rangel. The right seriously believes that a relatively minor set of scandals for a man who isn't connected with Obama is a "big problem" for him. There is only one way to interpret this belief.)
The irony is that the more Fox news and The NY Post blovate about how HORRIBLE HORRIBLE HORRIBLE I SAY! it is to have three rent controlled apartments and try to get school that named after you money, the more the people in his district think "Yup. They ARE just out to get him!" and they get ready to put him right back in office to make a point. The fact that there are charges that seem to be totally made up (like the one I opened this diary with) gives this otherwise conspiratorial view credence.
If this had played out more rationally, maybe it would have raised some real questions and opened a door for honest challengers to his seat. It's too late for that now.
This is why we can't have nice things.