Wrangling Charlie Rangel, Part 2

Yesterday I pointed out how the calls for Rep. Charlie Rangel to resign as chair of the House Ways and Means Committee were getting rather serious. Today, the Washington Post piles on:

FOR POLITICIANS with major bad news to release or to make public, there's no time like the dead of August to do it. The thinking goes that the public won't remember a thing come September. We hope Rep. Charles B. Rangel (D-N.Y.) will have no such luck. His belated revelation of previously unreported income, property and bank accounts demands that he step aside as chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee.

Mr. Rangel's amended financial disclosure form, which exposes omissions from his 2002 through 2006 records, is a treasure trove of outrage. He neglected to report a checking account with the Congressional Federal Credit Union and one with Merrill Lynch, each valued between $250,000 and $500,000; the tens of thousands of dollars he's earning from dividends from a number of mutual funds and stocks; and the money made from the sale of a Harlem townhouse. As a result, Mr. Rangel's reported net worth doubled, from between $516,015 and $1,316,000 to between $1,028,024 and $2,495,000.

And they're right, this does look rather terrible for the Dems here. I still don't know if he's going to survive this, but then again the GOP has been jumping on Democrats to resign since Day One of the 111th Congress, starting with Nancy Pelosi.

Still, "Dollar Bill" Jefferson went under for a lot less money.