Charlie Rangel: Stupidity and Greed Part Deux

In a recent post about Rep. Charlie Rangel's possible ethics problems I wrote, "Stupidity and greed favor no political party. There are grafthounds and charlatans in all of them."

It seems both the Democrats and Republicans are hell-bent to prove it.

For the Republicans, the question isn't whether Charlie is ethically-challenged, but whether it's the right moment to cause Democrats the maximum amount of pain with the least amount of collateral damage to themselves. The problem is, some Republican leaders have ethics problems of their own.

Republican Minority Leader John Boehner is worried about ruffling his Halloweenesque toupee with reminders about his own 1990's ethics issues. Plus, some of his cabal aren't exactly virginal members of Team Clean either. He needs to avoid pushing thin-icers like Jerry Lewis of California and Don Young of Alaska into ethics purgatory - especially dangerous for the party of the Ensign affair and Republican governors tangoing the night away in Buenos Aries.

Then there's the race card - the ubiquitous strawman for everything that is right or wrong with Washington - regardless of your race or the actual facts. Republicans may pish-posh its importance as they whine about it, but they're also wary of getting close to anything that might smack of it. They're already busy shooting themselves in the foot without doing a thing to Rangel. As one Republican insider told Politco, “It’s a win-win for us, no question about it. It really can’t go too bad for our side.”

It's nice to know the Republicans are so concerned with truth and justice.

And the Democrats - so pious and pure.

They resisted early Republican calls to kick Charlie to the curb without benefit of an ethics investigation. It was the right thing to do because everyone should be presumed innocent until proven a craphound, but then Marie Pelosiette isn't banging on the Ethics Committee's doors for an answer either.

The Dems are poking their fingers into the ever-changing political winds too. A formerly solid wall protected Charlie as the Ethics Committee fumbles around out of the public glare, but it's beginning to crumble as the problem festers for an ever-lengthening period. The first bricks to fall are some junior members of the New York Congressional delegation and a few others with a nascent case of the ethics. They'll want to stop that though. People will come to expect it from them all the time and that can't be good.

For Charlie's part, he stays seated at the Ways and Means desk and his constituency back home doesn't say a word - their lips locked by Charlie's shipments of the hand-pulled pork everyone decries as nasty stuff...at least when it's someone else's.

My prediction? It'll be a stand-off. The Republicans won't push the point past bombastic blather because they're also the Party of Neuticals. The have little clout and Rep. Blockhead Boehner likes to keep his own dirty laundry in the hamper.

The Dems? Oh, they'll talk a pretty game about partisan attacks and quite correctly - though needlessly and inappropriately - talk of Republican ethical turpitude. Trust me, Charlie will serve until they have to wheel him into the House chambers and hold his withered arm up for votes. There may be a "much feared" rebuke and Charlie will no doubt take to his yacht in shame, but nothing will change.

And we'll all be the worse off for it.

Cross posted at The Omnipotent Poobah Speaks!