By my calendar, it's been 62 days since the news first broke of the shady deals of Dan Seals' biggest donor, Congressman Charlie Rangel (D-NY).
First, it was the four rent-controlled apartments that the politically-connected Rangel somehow got when most of his constituents couldn't even get one.
Then it was news that he'd been pressuring companies with business before the Ways and Means Committee, which Rangel chairs, to donate to a school that Rangel humbly named after himself.
Now we learn that the guy who writes our country's tax code (that's what the Ways and Means Committee does) engaged in a 20-year pattern of tax fraud by hiding over $75,000 in income from the IRS.
The incredible thing is: all of this broke within the span of two months. Rangel is a veritable scandal machine. The ethics committee is going to need to hire more staff just to deal with him.
Yesterday the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics (CREW, a non-partisan, anti-corruption watchdog group) named Rangel one of the 20 most corrupt members of Congress. He shares that honor with William Jefferson, Tom DeLay, Duke Cunningham and Bob Ney.
Yet despite all of this, Dan Seals continues to have a death grip on the $50,000 that Rangel funneled to him. Even the DNC, which is lagging badly in fundraising, returned $100,000 from Rangel, and that was before his latest scandal broke. What will it take for Dan Seals to do the honorable thing and return the tainted cash?
At this point I'm starting to think that he is never going to return the money. He needs that $50,000 too badly, and he trailing in the polls by too much, to worry about a little thing like ethics.
First, it was the four rent-controlled apartments that the politically-connected Rangel somehow got when most of his constituents couldn't even get one.
Then it was news that he'd been pressuring companies with business before the Ways and Means Committee, which Rangel chairs, to donate to a school that Rangel humbly named after himself.
Now we learn that the guy who writes our country's tax code (that's what the Ways and Means Committee does) engaged in a 20-year pattern of tax fraud by hiding over $75,000 in income from the IRS.
The incredible thing is: all of this broke within the span of two months. Rangel is a veritable scandal machine. The ethics committee is going to need to hire more staff just to deal with him.
Yesterday the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics (CREW, a non-partisan, anti-corruption watchdog group) named Rangel one of the 20 most corrupt members of Congress. He shares that honor with William Jefferson, Tom DeLay, Duke Cunningham and Bob Ney.
Yet despite all of this, Dan Seals continues to have a death grip on the $50,000 that Rangel funneled to him. Even the DNC, which is lagging badly in fundraising, returned $100,000 from Rangel, and that was before his latest scandal broke. What will it take for Dan Seals to do the honorable thing and return the tainted cash?
At this point I'm starting to think that he is never going to return the money. He needs that $50,000 too badly, and he trailing in the polls by too much, to worry about a little thing like ethics.
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13 comments:
You're dreaming, TA, if you think Seals or his campaign will fess up to this and return the cash. They're going to use it, combine it with what the DCCC is pouring in to his coffers to buy air time for their sleezy attacks on our Congressman. Expect to see a lot of cheap shots at Mark Kirk beginning next week. That kind of attack with distortions and outright misstatements will begin in earnest next week. It takes a lot of money to buy airtime, to print slick pieces of campaign clap trap that will flood our mailboxes beginning next week. So, TA, don't expect Seals to give back 50K anytime soon. Perhaps never. You are known by the company you keep. We all know Dan and his team, don't we.
Seals has no idea how many Republican lawyers are going through his connectons to Rangel.
This Republican lawyer is content to simply make snarky comments about it on his blog, but we all chip in where we can...
Rumors are that Congressman Stark (D-CA) is preparing to take over the Ways and Means Committee once Rangel resigns.
Rangel is not going anywhere unless he dies, we take congress or he's indicted.
The best news this week is that for the first time in 6 years, generic republicans are favored over generic democrats on a congressional ballot.
This is really good news for mark, aside from the local impact because the national democrats will have to make choices in the next 2-3 weeks about whether or not they are going to spend money to help dan. Their number one priority is to help keep democratic incumbents and if they have to re-up to help those people, or even feel they could do better elsewhere, they will cut their support to him, since he has no good polling to report, they know this area is super expensive, and mark is loaded.
Anon 3:16, forget it, Pete Stark isn't taking anything now or in the future. I agree totallly with Anon 4:09. Rangel will die in that chairmanship since I see no realistic way for a Republican take over of the Congress on 11/4. At least not 11/4 in 2008.
We know what's coming in the weeks ahead from those "friends" at the DCCC. They're hell bent on trying to slash and burn our Congressman. The truth doesn't matter. All the DOES matter is getting their media buy of 1.4 million to hit hard. We need to hit hard right back with the TRUTH. I trust that the Kirk team will do that and more. In the meantime, we need to get out our vote, call the Kirk campaign and let them know that they can count on you to help on election day and/or before. How about calling 847 498-0300. Join the most successful team in Kirk history.
More information reported to be coming out on Rangel next week...
"Remember when it seemed like Republicans were going to be massively outspent by the Democrats on every level, from the presidential race all the way down to ballot initiatives? Well, it’s still likely that the Democrats will collectively outspend Republicans, but it appears those margins won’t be as drastic. This likely has some of the folks at the Democratic committees second-guessing themselves on their decision to horde money to the end. It’s possible, particularly on the House side, that the Democrats might have saved some money too long. Now it’s going to be harder for them to use their money to their advantage in a wider swath of races. It’s probably safe to dial back House Democratic pick-up projections to the single digits. Republicans are seeing more money flow in and some of their independent expenditure groups are going to see bigger last minute budgets.
DOWN GOES DAN!
TA-
News is that several Democrats are going to give back their Rangel money this week. Good news for you if Seals keeps the dirty money.
DCCC is up on the air attacking Mark. Hopefully we'll come back with some good zingers.
I am a big fan of this.
http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=%22dan%20seals%22%20israel&ie=UTF-8&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&sa=N&tab=wv#
Anon 3:07, who can or will ever forget the words of Dan and his commitment to peace. I've just seen the DCCC rubber stamp blast at Mark. I'm sure it's being played in every congressional district in the country, the only difference is changing the name to fit the particular district. I am hoping that Team Kirk will get on the air and blast the truth: Mark Kirk is not a clone of Bush, Mark Kirk is a moderate leader with the record to prove it.
10th District voters don't really like sleeze, so it's hard to imagine that many will agree that Seals is in good company with the likes of Rangel, Bob Creamer, Rosty and others. One is known by the 'company' they keep, and Dan keeps company with sleeze, personified.
TA, are you still thinking that the Pup will return Rangel's money?
Does Seals have any friends who are not sleazy?
Dan Rostenkowski - 4 felonies
Robert Creamer - 2 felonies
Lauren Gash - Big FEC fine
Terry Link - Campaign indicted
Rod Blagojevich - too be indicted
Eddie Washington - "My God Is allah!"
Todd Stroger - walking nightmare
Yikes! Imagine what Seals campaign meetings are like.
Mr. Rangel is becoming the Mark Foley of 2008 -- a radioactive politician dragging down his whole party.
See latest here:
http://www.nypost.com/seven/09142008/news/nationalnews/another_power_trip_by_rangel_129015.htm
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