Top Dem: Rangel will have more difficult job as chairman

The House ethics committee's admonishment of Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) will make his job more difficult as the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, a top Democratic chairman said Friday.

House Education and Labor Committee Chairman George Miller (D-Calif.) said that Rangel is "entitled" to have the ethics panel complete its investigation before Democratic leaders decide whether or not to officially punish him. 

"It makes it difficult, there is no question about that he and the members of his committee and the leadership will have to discuss that," Miller said in a C-SPAN's "Newsmakers" interview that will air in full this weekend.

Miller echoed his ally House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) in supporting Rangel's standing as chairman, for now, but acknowledged that the Harlem lawmaker's political standing as chairman might be diminished.

"He's entitled to have that investigation completed that may make me uncomfortable or other members uncomfortable but at some point," he said. "You have to kind of do the best you can within those confines."

Republicans and some members of the Democratic rank-and-file have called on Rangel to step down as chairman of the powerful ways and means panel.

The ethics committee found that Rangel accepted improper reimbursements for Caribbean trips in 2007 and 2008. The committee is also exploring allegations that Rangel improperly used his office to fundraise for the City College of New York and that he failed to pay taxes on a New York City condo.

Miller suggested that, at the end of the day, Rangel may have to face some kind of punishment.

"It's not about dodging the issue, it's about trying to do the right thing," he said. "Sometimes the right thing in a heated political environment is very difficult to do."

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