Saturday, August 2, 2008

Dan Seals and the New York Cash Pipeline from Charlie Rangel

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I'm gonna give you some cash!

A few weeks ago TA detailed Dan Seals' ties to ethically challenged (to put it lightly) Congressman Charles Rangel. Since then there have been letters to the editor on the subject and the articles continue to pile up. Yet despite all this, not only did Seals hold onto the $7,000 he had already received from Rangel, he added another $7,000 to that total in his most recent FEC filing.

And Rangel's not finished helping out his protégé, not by a long shot. On August 6th he's hosting a swanky party at the Tavern on the Green in New York. Bill and Hillary Clinton will be there as well as Howard Dean and other assorted Democratic luminaries. Minimum ticket price: $2,500.



The Pup is poised to get 10% of the take from Rangel's little party. So you can all keep track of how long until Dan gives up the last of his already small store of integrity for some cold, hard (dirty) cash I'm introducing the Rangel-Seals cash grab countdown. Check it out on the sidebar to the right.

For now, I'm going to provide a quick background to the first Rangel scandal for those of you who are not familiar.

The New York Times reported on July 11 that Rangel occupies four rent controlled apartments in a luxury Harlem apartment building. For those of you unfamiliar with the term, rent control freezes rents at far below market rates. It was implemented to keep low and middle income people from being priced out of their homes. These days rent controlled apartments are a hot commodity and most people cannot find one.

Rangel managed to find four. Either he's really lucky or someone did him a big favor. Someone like Sylvia Olnick, Rangel's landlord. She is also a donor to Rangel and met with him at least once to secure his help in obtaining permits to construct new apartment buildings.

And how much is Rangel saving with this cozy little arrangement? Somewhat in excess of $30,000 a year. In fact, Congressional ethics experts say Rangel's acceptance of the second, third and fourth rent controlled apartment is probably a violation of the gift ban. The House rules state that a gift is "a gratuity, favor, discount, entertainment, hospitality, loan, forbearance, or other item having monetary value". I'd say allowing Rangel to rent three extra apartments at significantly below market rates constitutes a favor or discount.

Coming up soon: just how exceptional is Rangel's deal?

TA's NOTE: I originally called this post "Dan Seals' Dirty Sugar Daddy: Charles Rangel." But, the PC policeman in my brain got the better of me, and I did a Google search for the term "Sugar Daddy," just in case anyone out there thought the term meant something that was different from my understanding. For example, this definition states, "A man who spends money for the benefit of a younger person, especially a younger woman." All well and good, as I definitely meant to imply that Rangel is spending money for the benefit of Seals, and that you would expect some kind of quid pro quo will be in order somewhere down the line, although the implication in this context is that it will be a political, not a sexual, payoff. But what really made me decide to change the post title was the fact that Rangel is African American, and Seals is African American, so you know, whenever you use a term that could be considered derogatory (which was intended), the Dems who love to play the race card will scream RACIST at the drop of a hat (and that was certainly NOT intended). Nothing I can see from my research indicates the phrase 'sugar daddy' has any racial connotation. Moreover, clearly, Rangel is an equal-opportunity distributor of dirty money, as you can see by the diversity of the candidates listed as beneficiaries from the invitation above. And, Seals is certainly color-blind when it comes to taking money from felons, indicted or suspected criminals. So, I certainly didn't see anything 'racial' in calling Rangel a 'sugar daddy' as to Seals. But vicious tongues will wag, so it's easier to just edit the title of the post. Now, let's get back to the real issue before we get sidetracked... we'll have more on the Rangel-Seals connection soon.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Even at $4 per gallon, $14,000 would buy a lot of gas!

Anonymous said...

If Dan lived in the district he would learn that Harlem values and Highland Park values are quite different. We prefer our government small and CLEAN, our nation secure, and federal lawmakers out of our wallets.

Also this was on google alerts the other day, I would love to hear the catfight between national democrats, local feminists and the abortion lobby when they read this:



Friday, August 1, 2008
Planned Parenthood Honors Illinois Champions for Choice
Hundreds of Planned Parenthood staff members from affiliates around the country recently met for the annual Organizing and Policy Summit in Washington, D.C. The three-day conference in July entailed intensive training and planning and provided staff with a unique opportunity to work together and learn from each others experiences in various states.

At the conference, the Planned Parenthood Federation of America presented the inaugural “Stand Up for Planned Parenthood Hill Staffer of the Year Award” to Cathy Hurwit, chief of staff for Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky (D-IL).



In addition, the Planned Parenthood Republicans for Choice® Senator Barry Goldwater Award was presented to the Honorable Mark Kirk (R-IL) for his ongoing leadership on choice issues. Congressman Kirk (below) has been a true champion on women's health issues and has courageously stood up for women and their families.

Anonymous said...

Wow TA-

What do
Dan Rostenkowski
Gov Blago
Todd Stroger
Bob Creamer
Charles Rangel
all have in common? They all have or had ethics problems and are folks DAN SEALS wants to learn from.

I wonder if Dan Seals is also close to William Jefferson from New Orleans area (you know the Democrat Congressman indicted federal charges and the feds found $90K in his freezer). I wonder if the $25K Dan Seals took from his campaign was kept in his freezer?

Dan sure does want to hang with the wrong crowd, that is unless you see nothing wrong with what the above listed folks have done.

Anonymous said...

Dan Seals goes out of his way to be with criminals or soon-to-be indictees.

DAN - You are embarrsing we Democrats!

Stay away from this mess, please.

Anonymous said...

The House of Representatives formally voted on a censure of Rangel on Friday.

Rangel is also officially under investigation by the bipartisan House Ethics Committee.

Anonymous said...

Word is Rangel will be indicted soon.

Dan, we thought you would be against the Blagojevich wing of the Democratic party.

Clean Up Your Act Dan!