arrogance

Charles Rangel: Swamp Still Full

by Brian McGraw on November 18, 2010

in Politics as Usual, Sanctimony

Today the House Ethics Committee, which was in charge of investigating the accusations against Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-NY), recommended that he be censured. A signal to future politicians: if you (knowingly?) break numerous laws over an extended period of time including not declaring investment income and improper use of rent-controlled apartments, you will receive a slap on the wrist. I’m sure they will be terrified. Maybe Congress will write him a very angry letter.

And rather than going quietly, as Obama himself suggested, Rangel will likely continue with business as usual.

His arrogance is astounding:

“I truly believe public officials have a higher responsibility than most Americans to obey the rules because we write them,” Rangel said in a statement released Thursday morning. “There can be no excuse for my acts of omission. I’ve failed in carrying out my responsibilities. I made numerous mistakes.”

But, Rangel argued, “corruption and personal enrichment are certainly not part of my mistakes and the (ethics committee’s) chief counsel made that abundantly clear. And that was the point I was always trying to make.”

He doesn’t seem to feel that he should be held to much of a serious standard, as he will continue to serve in office. Furthermore, the idea that he didn’t benefit financially from from any of the laws he broke is laughably false. Are we to believe that he paid tax on his undisclosed investments despite not declaring them?

Not that I can think of a better solution, but this is bound to happen when you have colleagues investigate colleagues. Rangel will return to office, largely still a hero to his constituents — he received over 80 percent of the votes in his re-election.

Image credit: pamhule’s flickr photostream.

Britain Prays for Obama Miracle

by Iain Murray on January 20, 2009 · 2 comments

in Bailout Watch, Economy, Features, International, Stimulus to Nowhere, Zeitgeist

Over in the UK, their own financial mess is reaching genuine crisis levels. With a trillion dollar national debt, a currency crisis and their own bank bailout (the model Paulson followed) having conclusively failed, Britain is on the edge of bankruptcy:

The country stands on the precipice. We are at risk of utter humiliation, of London becoming a Reykjavik on Thames and Britain going under. Thanks to the arrogance, hubristic strutting and serial incompetence of the Government and a group of bankers, the possibility of national bankruptcy is not unrealistic.

The political impact will be seismic; anger will rage. The haunted looks on the faces of those in supporting roles, such as the Chancellor, suggest they have worked out that a tragedy is unfolding here. Gordon Brown is engaged no longer in a standard battle for re-election; instead he is fighting to avoid going down in history disgraced completely.

The tastefully-named Iain Martin is obviously angry, but he has every right to be. Gordon Brown encouraged Britain to gamble much more of its national income on his watch than America did, all the time proclaiming he had put an end to “boom and bust.” Brown’s bust is now so large it wouldn’t look out of place in a Russ Meyer movie.

That is why Brown and his cronies will be watching today’s inauguration with an audacious hope in their hearts:

In this gloom, the Prime Minister has but one slender hope: that somehow, by force of personality, the new President Obama engineers a rapid American recovery restoring global confidence, energising the markets and making us all forget this bad dream.

If this is the case, it is plain that officials of Her Majesty’s Treasury have not read the So-Called Stimulus Bill.

UPDATE: More on Britain’s plight from the excellent Andrew Lilico.