|
As Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) headed into a meeting that could decide his immediate political future, House Democrats were holding firm against mounting pressure for him to step down as chairman of the top tax-writing committee in Congress. Two major Northeast newspapers, The New York Times and The Philadelphia Inquirer, ran editorials Monday calling for Rangel to give up his Ways and Means Committee gavel while the ethics committee investigates a series of charges that are piling up on the powerful New York Democrat. Rangel plans to sit down with Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) Monday night at 5 p.m. to seek her advice about how to respond to the editorials and escalating ethics allegations, a meeting he had reportedly requested. The New York Daily News first reported the meeting. The 19-term member announced Monday that he was hiring a forensic accountant to investigate 20 years' worth of tax returns and financial disclosure reports in response to reports about a series of egregious accounting discrepancies. Pelosi had sent a letter Friday to Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) ridiculing his calls for Rangel to step aside from the chairmanship while the ethics panel sorts through the ethics accusations. Behind the scenes, Democratic leaders continued to point to key Republican members, such as Rep. Jerry Lewis (Calif.), the top Republican on the Appropriations Committee, and Rep. Don Young (Alaska), the ranking GOP member on Natural Resources, who retain their high-profile positions even as the FBI and Justice Department investigate criminal allegations against them. One senior Democratic aide said The New York Times’s editorial was simply highlighting its own reporting on Rangel, which makes its call for his temporary leave of absence from the chairmanship less powerful. |
