Pelosi: No decision yet on Rangel’s chairmanship

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said the question about whether Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) should hold on to his committee chairmanship while the ethics panel investigates mounting ethics charges is up in the air. 

“I don’t think that decision has been made,” she told CNBC’s John Harwood in an interview Monday night. “We have a lot of confidence in Mr. Rangel and when we have news on that we will let you know what it is, but that decision has not been made.”

{mosads}Rangel, who chairs the powerful Ways and Means panel, met with Pelosi earlier in the evening to seek her guidance about how to respond to the mounting pressure on him to give up his gavel and afterward responded tersely to reporters’ questions about his immediate political future.

When asked whether she had asked for Rangel’s resignation from the chairmanship or whether he had offered it, she responded “no” and emphasized that Democrats were focused on Monday’s dramatic events on Wall Street.

Rangel spoke only briefly to reporters after the meeting.

“As much as I would like to respect and recognize your profession, on this very sensitive topic … I don’t intend to tell you my name so please don’t waste my time,” he said.

The meeting took place the same day Rangel’s hometown newspaper, The New York Times, ran an editorial calling for him temporarily to give up his chairmanship. House Republican Leader John Boehner (Ohio) sent a letter to Pelosi calling on Rangel to take a leave of absence last week.

Meanwhile, several senior House Democrats stood by Rangel. Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), chairman of the Government Reform and Oversight Committee, said he disagrees with The New York Times.

“That’s their view,” he said. “I don’t think you ask a person to step aside until you know they’ve done something wrong.”

Rep. Nick Rahall (D-W. Va.), chairman of the Natural Resources Committee, said Rangel has handled the mounting ethics allegations correctly by asking the ethics committee to investigate them and providing reporters with material in an attempt to explain himself.

“I think he’s dealing with it in the appropriate manner,” Rahall said.

Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.), who has served in the House since 1974 and has faced ethics scrutiny in the past and during this Congress, said Rangel hasn’t been formally charged with anything and the ethics committee should be allowed to work its will before any steps are taken against Rangel.

When asked what Rangel should do, he said, “I’m always hesitant to make statements…people are elected from different districts. [The New York Times] may know something I don’t know. He hasn’t been charged with anything. He’s waited a long time to be the chairman. I’m sure he’ll make the right decision.”

Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-Mich.) declined to comment on the matter.

Rangel on Monday announced that he was hiring a forensic accountant to investigate 20 years’ worth of his tax returns and financial disclosure reports.

Last week, he admitted to failing to disclose $75,000 in rental income on a property in the Dominican Republic and this week several media outlets reported that he either had omitted or misreported several figures on other property sales.

Rangel has sent letters to the ethics committee asking it to review the rental income omission, as well as two separate allegations involving his rental of subsidized apartments and improper use of Congressional letterhead to fundraise for a City College of New York education center bearing his name.