Charlie Rangel may step down tonight

  Embattled and disgraced chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, Charlie Rangel, may step down as early as tonight. With the Republicans preparing a resolution demanding his removal and with “frontline” Democrats fearing their chances for re-election, the tide appears to be turning away from the corrupt chairman of the committee that writes the tax laws.

  Democrats are now urging Charlie Rangel to step down so that they can avoid having to take a vote on his removal. Democrats are caught in a tough place on this issue if the Republicans manage to send their resolution to the floor for a vote; they will have to chose between their loyalty to the 38 year veteran of the house and aligning themselves with the very corruption that they promised to end if they were given power, or abandoning Charlie Rangel in his time of need for political reasons.

  No Democrat in a re-election campaign can survive siding with Rangel and his corruption in this political climate; they will be forced to vote him out, so privately they are asking Charlie Rangel to help them avoid this embarrassment to themselves and to Rangel.

  It now seems inevitable that one way or the other, Charlie Rangel will not be chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee for much longer, it is just a matter of whether he will go quietly for the good of the party, or whether he will force his own party to vote for his dismissal. Personally, I don’t care whether he steps down or whether he is voted out as long as he is no longer in charge of writing the tax laws that we must follow but that he ignores.