In Other News The Sky Is Blue
As others have noted there have been some political developments in New York today involving Governor Paterson and Congressman Rangel. In news that is slightly less surprising than the idea that the sky is blue, grass is green and rain is wet, the reactions of the two men have been slightly hypocritical.
Governor Paterson announced he won’t seek re-election. In his statement he spent most of the time talking about all the things he’s done as Governor. He then indicated that because he could not both run for office and serve the people of New York that he won’t run for re-election (or election since he technically has never been elected Governor).
The fact that he’s endured months of scandal after scandal and that virtually then entire Democratic party was telling him to quit did not seem to enter in to the decision. His only real mention of the incidents was to talk about how he was going to be exonerated.
Congressman Rangel has been found guilty of doing basically the same things Tom Delay did. When Delay did them Rangel (correctly in my view) said he should step down. But now that Charlie has done the same things somehow he doesn’t think it merits stepping aside.
Even worse he tried to blame his staff for the mess. Shame on you Mr. Rangel.
Paterson did at least step aside, Rangel should do the same.
14 Responses to “In Other News The Sky Is Blue”
“Even worse he tried to blame his staff for the mess. Shame on you Mr. Rangel.”
Yes, that was terrible. He walks out…”can't blame me for something a staffer did” and then leaves. Rangel is dirty…has been dirty..and will continue to be dirty as long as he is in office.
nd will continue to be dirty as long as he is in office.”
Yesterday, he said to Obama: “I guess you saved the best for last.” And, then he gave his little contribution to the “summit” show.
Pelosi looked on.
But Rangel still has Pelosi on his side.
Was it really that long ago that she said the Dems were going to clean up that culture of corruption? Maybe I misheard what she said, or perhaps there was some nuance that I don't understand.
I'm not here to defend Rangel in any way. In fact, I think he should resign.
But there's not a single link to a single source in this article by Patrick.
Presumably, that's because his comparison of Rangel to Delay won't withstand scrutiny.
Absent any other sources I went to the Wikipedia, which has footnotes. According to the Wikipedia, here are some of the important dates in the Tom Delay scandal:
Delay certainly didn't resign the same day the Ethics Committee made their findings!! In fact, Delay held his seat for well over a year after the House Ethics Committee nailed him, and for ten months after he was indicted.
The Wikipedia also notes the following:
Again, I'm not here to defend Rangel, who I think should resign. But a few links might have imposed a certain fact-based discipline on Patrick, who is way over the top in comparing Delay to Rangel!!
Here's a wikipedia link
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_B._Rangel#…
According to the source he has in the last couple years had the following ethics issues:
1. Getting apartments for well under market value
2. Undervalued real estate he owns
3. Failing to report income from rental property
4 Underpaid his taxes.
5. Used campaign funds to give money to family members
These are just a few things… it's not the one violation it's the many
How about something defending your comparison of Rangel to Delay?
If all the things that Rangel did don't qualify for you then the only conclusion I can come to is nothing will.
Both men had/have a long list of ethics violations and both are corrupt.
Patrick–
Quoting you:
You are specifically comparing Rangel to Delay.
If you can't back it up, you shouldn't say it. And don't blame me for your own failure.
Not that it proves anything, but: Rangel is worse than Delay ever was. Comparing Rangel to Delay is an insult to Delay.
The Wiki notation of Delay trading endorsement for a vote is correct.
As to the second charge you mention: everyone here in Texas – and I mean EVERYONE: Dems, Repubs, everyone – knows Delay is the victim of a politically motivated hit job by notorious political hack Travis County DA Ronnie Earle. Dems and left oriented media publicized and promoted charges which never came close to having validity. IMO, Earle and the media were part of an eventually successful effort to promote a “culture of corruption” meme which partially led to Repubs losing both houses of Congress in 2006.
A note: Grand Jury indictments are close to meaningless: a Grand Jury will indict a ham sandwich.
Earle's first charge against Delay was eventually thrown out of court by the Dem appointed judge. Earle's second attempt to get Delay was no-billed by a grand jury. When that grand jury's term expired, Earle offered another charge against Delay to a newbie (4 hour old) grand jury which was seeing Earle's act for the first time. That grand jury indicted Delay in a still-pending case. Delay has since filed charges of prosecutorial misconduct against Earle.
Earle's problem was that Delay was not doing anything illegal. This Byron York article has an interesting take on the situation:
I don't know how to say anything more. I believe what they did is equal, you don't. We have to agree to disagree. I'm not blaming anyone, it's just two people looking at the same thing and seeing something different.
I said in my original post they did basically the same things, and looking at the accusations it seems to be they did. They both used campaign funds for personal use, they both misled Congress, they both had tax issues.
I think they are equal, you don't, so we agree to disagree.
That's what politics is, life would be pretty dull if we all agreed on everything.
Patrick–
Meanwhile, the comment previous to yours is about how you insulted Delay.
By the way, Delay was actually indicted.
As I show above: Delay was indicted twice, and remains under the second indictment as I type this. So what? A grand jury would indict the sun for rising. I stand on my point: comparing Delay to an actual crook – Rangel, is an insult to Delay.
Every Republican in Texas knows it, that is.
Everyone who pays attention knows it – Dems included, and they will tell you so. Delay is being railroaded so people like you, Sorwell, and Edaburn can say “Delay's indicted” and then pretend that the indictment means something about Tom Delay. You guys are smart enough persons, but you are falling for the manure in this instance, and you are as a result disseminating manure. I'm not particularly a Delay fan – but Delay is not a crook. Re any allegations of criminal behavior: Delay was targeted – by Ronnie Earle, Nancy Pelosi, MSM, left blogs – for political purposes. The targeting was part of the successful Dem Congressional electoral efforts in 2006 and 2008. But the targeting was and is manure.
When you hear the right – Andrew Breitbart, for instance – say the left follows Alinsky rules, i.e identify the target, isolate it, attack it, kill it: the horse manure targeting of Tom Delay is exactly the kind of thing they are speaking of. Such is not an accusation of any formal plot. Rather, people naturally know how to contribute to such isolation and targeting, if they choose to. It's easy to find examples of targets – just look for the overreaction and the suppositional accusations of evil motivation. Examples would be Cheney, Yoo, or any of the number of public persons who have been accused by mindreaders of various evil “isms” – for instance, did George Allen say anything worse than Joe Biden? IMO, even Bill Clinton and Geraldine Ferrarro were isolated and targeted. Blue on blue. Look at Larry Summers at Harvard: blue isolating and targeting purple. No one at Harvard believed Larry Summers was misogynistic. They wanted to win a faculty vs administration fight, and they isolated and targeted Larry Summers on a bogus and unrelated accusation in order to achieve victory in the faculty vs. administration fight. And they succeeded.
A similar thing went on with Delay. So far, you guys are falling for it and propagating it. It's not big deal, to me or to much of anyone, at this point. But it is a big deal if you guys continue to make public comments about it. Your integrity is on the line. Forget everyone else: it's a most personal issue; a most personal question of who you are what principles you hold dear.