Rangel: Ethics probe can meet deadline

Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) expects the House ethics
committee to have no problem wrapping up an expanded investigation into a
series of allegations against him by the end of this Congress.

“They shouldn’t have any problem meeting that deadline,”
he said in a brief interview. “It’s all a matter of public record.”

{mosads}The comments refer to Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.)
statement that she had been “assured” the panel would finish its work by Jan. 3.
She spoke two weeks ago, after the most recent allegations involving Rangel.

The panel has broadened its investigation since Pelosi
spoke, which could make it more difficult to finish its work by early January.
On Tuesday, the panel announced it would expand its Rangel probe to address
questions raised in a late November New
York Times article.

The Times story
alleged that Rangel blocked the Senate from closing a tax loophole that would
have benefited an executive of an oil company who pledged $1 million to the
Charles B. Rangel Center for Public Policy at the City College of New York.

Rangel has insisted his actions had nothing to do with
the $1 million pledge and was consistent with his views that Congress should
not pass any retroactive tax laws.

Rangel has been waging a public relations war to guard
against calls for him to give up his Ways and Means gavel while the ethics
panel looks into the allegations against him. Editorial boards of The Washington Post and the Times have said he should leave his
post, arguing the ethics cloud hanging over Rangel could distract from
President-elect Obama’s agenda, a significant portion of which will need to go
through his committee.

Earlier this week, Rangel sent a letter to colleagues and
reporters, attacking the reporting behind the allegations and expressing
confidence that he would be vindicated.

“Earlier this year a series of newspaper articles raised
questions about my personal finances and living arrangements — questions I
regard as ridiculous, and frankly, without a basis in fact,” he wrote. “I asked
the ethics committee to look at these questions and am confident they will be
resolved favorably.”

Rangel also reminded his colleagues that he had called
for the initial ethics investigation and claimed to have requested its
subsequent expansion.

“I have nothing to hide and never had,” he wrote.

“I can assure you that at all times I try to comply with
both the letter and intent of our ethics rules, and if the committee finds I
failed to do this in any respect, I will take the appropriate steps to correct
those errors immediately,” he wrote.

He reserved his most vehement comments for a recent
report about an $80,000 payment from one of Rangel’s reelection committees to
his son’s website business.

“As far as the recent smears against my son Steven, a
Marine Corps veteran who earned his law degree with the help of the G.I. Bill
and a former FCC attorney, I don’t mind taking the heat that comes with this job
but character assassination against family members should be out of bounds,” he
wrote.