Rangel, Boehner exchange words on House floor

Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) and Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) locked horns on the House floor Wednesday evening over a series of ethics allegations Rangel has been trying to fend off in recent days and months.

For the first time since responding to three separate ethics charges, Rangel reminded Boehner about the time back in the mid-1990s when the minority leader violated House ethics rules by handing out campaign checks from the tobacco industry to lawmakers on the House floor during a Congressional debate over eliminating a tobacco subsidy. He said the two had been real friends and that friendship and the last shreds of bipartisanship that exist in the House shouldn’t be ruined by threatening each other for the purpose of scoring political points before an important election.

{mosads}Rangel referred to an interview Boehner had with Tim Russert years ago in which the now-deceased host of NBC’s Meet the Press “beat up on Mr. Boehner” over the tobacco-check issue.

“[Boehner said at the time] it was a big mistake and I regret it. It was an old practice in the House. If you made a mistake, I made a mistake,” Rangel said, warning all House members of the destructive nature of threatening each other for partisan reasons.

Boehner took to the floor to respond to Rangel’s counter punches. He acknowledged the longstanding friendship between himself and Rangel, and said he regretted having to call on Rangel to give up his gavel while the ethics committee investigated the charges.

The top House Republican leader did not, however, back down from his calls for Rangel to leave the top post on the Ways and Means panel.

Instead Boehner acknowledged that “yes, I’ve made mistakes and I’ve paid for it,” but that will not prevent him from acting on his “obligation on behalf of his colleagues” to point out when others are violating rules and laws.

“It pains me to do what I have to do on behalf of my colleagues,” he said. “…But the latest round of stories raise serious questions.”

“I have never condemned or convicted the gentleman because he is my friend,” Boehner said, stressing that he is asking him to step aside only while the ethics committee reviews the allegations.

“Just because he is my friend doesn’t mean I can excuse him from the rules of the House and the rules of this land,” he added.  

At one tense moment, Rangel, who was walking at the front of the chamber, interrupted to object to Boehner’s characterizations that he had received rent subsidies.

“They’re not subsidies, it’s stabilization,” Rangel bellowed.

Earlier this week, Boehner had sent a letter to Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) calling on her to force Rangel to give up his chairmanship of the powerful Ways and Means committee while the ethics committee investigates the charges against him.

Most recently, Rangel is accused of failing to report $75,000 of rental income on a villa in the Dominican Republic to the IRS and on his House financial disclosure forms. He told reporters Wednesday morning that he has determined that he only owes the IRS and local governments less than $10,000 because of the omission and he plans to file addendums to correct the omissions.

Rangel also faced two separate charges involving his subsidized apartment and a campaign office he rented in a Harlem apartment building and the use of his congressional letterhead to fundraise for a City College of New York education center bearing his name.