The House ethics committee on Thursday recommended that Representative Charles B. Rangel be formally censured for ethical misconduct, the most serious punishment the House can mete out to a member short of expulsion....
>>>The House ethics committee on Thursday recommended that Representative Charles B. Rangel be formally censured for ethical misconduct, the most serious punishment the House can mete out to a member short of expulsion.
The 9-to-1 vote came after an emotional day and deliberations that the panel’s chairwoman, Zoe Lofgren, Democrat of California, called “wrenching.” At one point, Mr. Rangel struggled to compose himself as he pleaded for mercy from the panel.
“I don’t know how much longer I have to live,” said Mr. Rangel, 80, his eyes watery and his voice quivering. But, he said, whatever time he has, he will spend it trying “to help people and thank God for what he’s given to me.”
A censure would mark a momentous downfall for Mr. Rangel, a Democrat who for 40 years has represented Harlem, where he was born. As a decorated Korean War veteran and civil rights advocate, he became a combative and irrepressible voice for liberal causes and, in 2007, snared one of the most powerful positions in Congress, the chairmanship of the Ways and Means Committee.
Censure requires approval by the full House, which plans to take up the matter after its Thanksgiving recess.
[ read more about the possible censure in the article linked below]
Image is from the White House flickr photostream
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/19/nyregion/19rangel.html
