Rangel for re-election?
Washington (CNN) - Democratic Congressman Charlie Rangel may not be ready for a change in career.
According to a statement of candidacy filing with the Federal Election Commission, Rangel plans to seek a 22nd term in the U.S. House of Representatives. Bob Liff, a spokesman for Rangel, told CNN, "It is what it says. You file in order to raise money to run for re-election, that is what he has done."
While the statement of candidacy is not binding should Rangel choose not to run, it's the first formal indication of Rangel's intentions for the future. But Rangel has never indicated that he was ready to retire from the House, a seat he's held since 1971.
Rangel stepped down as chairman of the House Ways & Means Committee following an ethics investigation that found him guilty of violating House rules, including failure to pay taxes on a home in the Dominican Republic and misuse of a rent-controlled apartment for political purpose. He was subsequently punished by censure of the full House of Representatives.
Following a tough primary battle in September that emptied his campaign coffers, the 81-year old congressman won re-election to represent the 15th district of New York in November of 2010. Rangel is now the third-longest serving member of the House with 40 years under his belt. But his Harlem district will face boundary changes as a result of the recent Census, and a re-election bid may be even more of a challenge than past years.
No reason we should expect members of Congress to pay their taxes, the Secretary of the Treasury leads by example, doesn't he? I'm guessing the Kool-Aid drinkers of your increasingly marginal audience will find some way to twist this story into "Why I Hate Sarah Palin."
The democrat party is such a bunch of losers that, of course, Rangel will get re-elected.
The voters need to send him packing.
The folks in his district will reelect him in a landslide. He's their role model.
What a crook. Where are the cries of "culture of corruption" from the Dems?
Rangel got a raw deal in being censured after Newt Gingrich got less for much worse violations. Rangel was censured with his party in the majority. Gingrich was given an easy way out when his party was the majority. The modern day neo-con republicans still view their crimes as permissible and refuse to police their own.
Rangel might try it. Republicans like Vitter get re-elected. Newt Gingrich is talking about running.
Rangel lives in Harlem with no one to defeat him.
This is my message to ALL Americans. We need to petition the Government to cut the pay of ALL elected officials. Cut their staff, their expense accounts and perks. Cut their healthcare and pensions.Most of them are millionairs anyway and if not when they first come into office they surely are when they leave office. This may not fix the deficit but, it is a start. We are their employers. If the taxpayers are expected to make sacrifices then let the elected officials make sacrifices as well.
Obviously the Republicans couldn't get someone qualified to kick him off his pedestal.