Rangel steps down as Ways and Means chairman

By Larry Margasak
Associated Press

http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20100303/NEWS02/703039738

WASHINGTON — New York Rep. Charles Rangel temporarily stepped aside as chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee today as he struggled with mounting ethics woes that left his political future uncertain at best.

Rangel’s decision cheered Democrats who feared political fallout affecting their own futures, but did little to satisfy Republicans who had been seeking a formal vote bringing about his temporary removal from the chairmanship.

The 20-term congressman has played a key role in President Barack Obama’s attempts to win passage of historic health care legislation, and veteran Rep. Fortney “Pete” Stark of California seemed likely to succeed him.

First elected in 1970, Rangel is among the longest-serving African-American members of Congress, ranking just behind Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., in seniority, and he was a founding member of the Congressional Black Caucus. Rep. Barbara Lee of California, the caucus chairman, said, “We look forward to the conclusion of the investigation and to him resuming his position as chairman.”

A number of questions have been raised about the 79-year-old Rangel’s conduct. Ethics investigators are looking into his use of his official position to raise money for a New York college center to be named after him and his belated disclosure of at least hundreds of thousands of dollars in assets and his use of rent-controlled apartments in New York.

Republicans had been calling for Rangel to step aside since last year, and these demands multiplied after the House ethics panel last Friday released a report accusing him of violating House gift rules in connection with a series of trips he took to the Caribbean....