Influential Democrat Resigns From Key Post
Jay
March 3, 2010, 8:39 pm

Representative Charles Rangel resigned as chairman of the Ways and Means committee.

The House Ways and Means Committee is a very important. It is the committee through which all tax bills must pass through. As such, it carries a great deal of clout on Capitol Hill. Representative Rangel is under scrutiny for alleged ethical and financial infractions, including shady dealings involving tax evasion and real estate deals in New York and the Dominican Republic.

This matter was actually covered by the Wall Street Journal's editorial page months before Rangel's resignation, which is an ominous sign as prosecutors have probably built up enough evidence to make a serious case. I am not sorry to see him go, as he is one of Speaker Pelosi's pets. Certainly he doesn't belong on such an important financial committee if he himself is guilty of financial fraud.

One thing to take away from this, even as his political enemies crow over his ominous fate, is that this is one man. He is neither representative nor symptomatic of the problems of the Democratic party. When Republican politicians like Tom DeLay were accused of crooked financial dealings, it was unfair when their political opponents smeared them as symbols of Republican corruption.

These politicians were simply (allegedly) corrupt politicians who belonged to a certain political party. There will always be corrupt politicians from now until the end of time. And they will be found on both sides of the aisle.

Corruption is bipartisan.