posted September 20, 2008 01:28 PM            

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WASHINGTON — Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., already in trouble for tax problems, called Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin “disabled” on Friday, and then quickly retreated and said he misspoke saying he meant “disadvantaged.”

Republicans called it a new low for the 78-year-old chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee.

Asked during an interview with New York’s WCBS-2 television why Democrats seem afraid of Pailin’s popularity, Rangel replied: “You got to be kind to the disabled.”

The reporter repeated the phrase.

“Yes,” replied Rangel and then added, “There’s no question about it. Politically it’s a nightmare to think that a person’s foreign policy is based on their ability to look at Russia from where they live.”

Soon after the interview aired, Rangel in a statement said that he meant to say “disadvantaged.”

“Governor Palin is an obviously healthy person who in no way fits the description of disabled. I meant to say then, and I am saying now, that she entered the campaign with a disadvantage in the area of foreign policy,” said Rangel.

Alex Conant, a spokesman for the Republican National Committee, said of Rangel’s remark: “As if achieving new ethical lows was not sufficient, now Rangel is hitting a rhetorical low. Insulting the next vice president will not distract from Rangel’s tax scandals.”

posted September 25, 2008 04:47 PM            

Why is he not jailed yet?
http://www.reason.com/blog/show/128644.html

Has Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-N.Y.) cancelled his subscription to The New York Times yet or what? First, the eminent domain-loving daily breaks the news that Rangel is a self-righteous rent control scofflaw. Now the Gray Lady reports that the dapper Harlem congressman has failed to report some $75,000 in rental fees from a villa he owns in the Dominican Republic. Seriously, this guy has four rent-stabilized New York apartments and a villa that rents out for $500 a night? Now we know how he can afford all those great suits.

From the Times

New York State law classifies filing a false city or state tax return a felony punishable by up to four years in prison, but Kathleen M. Pakenham, a tax lawyer at the law firm of White & Case, said criminal prosecutions are rare and in most cases, the taxpayer is simply fined 20 percent of the back taxes owed.

[...]

Whatever his legal exposure, the tax problems present a political embarrassment for Mr. Rangel, a Harlem Democrat who has sat on the Ways and Means Committee since 1975. As chairman, Mr. Rangel has pushed for higher taxes on the wealthy, unveiling a $1.3 trillion proposal last year that businesses denounced as a threat to the economy.