early and often

Chuck Rangel Now Under Fire for Stationery Violations

RangelPhoto: Getty Images

Hoo-boy. We missed this, but Charlie Rangel, who was recently busted by the New York Times for having four rent-stabilized apartments in Lenox Terrace, is at the center of yet another shitstorm. The other day, the Washington Post reported that the congressman has used congressional stationery to solicit contributions for his Charles B. Rangel Center for Public Service at the City College of New York.

But the use of the letterhead is only part of problem. The chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee was also soliciting donations for the center — which will house his papers and which his Republican critics called his “Monument to Me” last year after he received a congressional grant to build it — from people who have issues before Congress, like AIG chairman Hank Greenberg and Donald Trump.

Naturally, Rangel doesn’t think there’s anything wrong with this, and yesterday he held a news conference to say he had asked the House Ethics Committee today to look into whether he had violated any rules. “We are as clean as the driven snow,” he said.

Dude, this is New York! The snow is never clean.

RANGEL CALLS FOR PROBE INTO LETTERHEAD OF LAW [NYP]
Rangel Defends Solicitations For His Center At CCNY

Related: Chairman of the Money [NYM]

Chuck Rangel Now Under Fire for Stationery Violations