While it’s doubtful that Charlie Rangel has served his last day as chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, it’s entirely possible that he’ll soon be the subject of an ethics investigation. Here’s why:

Representative Charles B. Rangel paid no interest for more than a decade on a mortgage extended to him to buy a villa at a beachfront resort in the Dominican Republic, according to Mr. Rangel’s lawyer and records from the resort.

The loan was given to him by the resort development company, in which Theodore Kheel, a prominent New York labor lawyer, was a principal investor. Mr. Kheel, who has given tens of thousands of dollars to Mr. Rangel’s campaigns over the past decade, had encouraged the congressman to be one of the initial investors in the project.

The loan, which was extended to Mr. Rangel in 1988, was originally to be paid back over seven years at a rate of 10.5 percent. But within two years, interest on the loan was waived for Mr. Rangel and six other early investors because the resort was generating less income than projected, according to a statement released on Friday by Jose Oliva, director of the resort.

Simply put, that’s unacceptable behavior on Rangel’s part, although it isn’t that surprising. Here’s the first question I thought of after reading this:

How many people get this type of deal?

Here’s the next question:

Why should we believe that “the resort was generating less income than projected” when we’ve just read that the National Legal and Policy Center is asking for a criminal investigation into Rep. Rangel’s not reporting of $75,000 of income from that property?

I hope the advertising department at the NRCC are working overtime this weekend on this one. Something that cuts from Nancy Pelosi promising the most ethical and open Congress in history to Charlie Rangel at his Dominican villa to Paul Kanjorski’s earmarks for his family’s business to William ‘Cold Cash’ Jefferson.

We knew that Democrats were just as corrupt as Republicans. Now we’ve got the proof. This fits perfectly with the McCain-Palin reformer theme, too. Now’s the time to hit them hard with this information.

Technorati Tags: Charlie Rangel, Ethics, Undeclared Income, Investigation, IRS, Nancy Pelosi, Corruption, John McCain, Sarah Palin, Reform, NRCC, Election 2008

Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog

1. What’s that deafening roar of silence I hear from the MSM?

   Comment by Carlos — September 6, 2008 @ 6:14 pm

2. ‘Course, the left will scream “Rascist!” if this is pursued, just like they did with A.C. Powell way back when. And, with Murtha, D. Feinstein et al still sitting reps, with good reason.

   Comment by Carlos — September 7, 2008 @ 3:29 pm