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House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), in light of
increasing pressure regarding the future of Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.), said
she wants to wait for an ethics report on the Ways and Means Committee
chairman. Following new allegations about Rangel, Pelosi released a
statement late Wednesday indicating that she will stand by the New York
lawmaker at least until the report is completed.
“In September, I called on the House Ethics Committee to
look into issues raised by news reports on Chairman Rangel,” Pelosi stated. “This
followed up on the chairman’s own request for an investigation by the committee.”
The Speaker added that she had been “assured the report
will be completed by the end of this session of Congress, which concludes on
January 3, 2009,” she continued. “I look forward to reviewing the report at
that time.”
If the ethics committee finishes its investigation into a
series of allegations against Rangel by Jan. 3, it would have acted much more
swiftly than its usual pace of taking months or years to review charges.
Pelosi’s statement appears to acknowledge that Rangel has become a political
liability for the majority Democrats, as well as the incoming administration of
President-elect Barack Obama, who has vowed to clean up Washington.
Obama’s transition team did not return a Wednesday call
seeking comment about Rangel’s growing ethics concerns.
The New York Times
on Tuesday reported that Rangel met with the CEO of Nabors Industries, an
oil-drilling company, about opposing legislation that would have closed a tax
loophole that saved Nabors Industries nearly a billion dollars. The same day in
February of 2007, he discussed a donation with the same CEO, Eugene Isenberg,
to the Charles B. Rangel Center at City College of New York. The center would
create a masters program in public policy at the Harlem-based college in
Rangel’s honor.
Rangel stopped the legislation, removing the tax loophole
in the Ways and Means Committee, the powerful tax-writing committee that he
chairs. The New York Times in an
editorial called on Rangel to step aside as the chairman of Ways and Means
while the ethics committee concludes its investigation into the allegations
against him. Republicans led by House Minority Leader John Boehner (Ohio) also
called on Rangel to step aside and on Pelosi to remove him from the top job on
the prestigious panel if he refused.
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