Mon Jul 21, 12:20 AM ET
According to the latest USA TODAY/Gallup Poll, just 14% of voters have a favorable view of Congress. Ouch! Even President Bush polls at twice that number.
To be sure, when voters are in a foul mood — as they are now with sky-high gas prices, a shaky economy and an unpopular war — Congress is an easy target. More so when individual members do things to earn the low grades. The latest example is Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., influential chairman of the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee.
The New York Times disclosed recently that Rangel has no fewer than four rent-controlled apartments in his Harlem district, three for his family and one for a campaign office. For these he pays a fraction of the market rate.
The Washington Post added to the narrative, reporting that the congressman has been raising money from people and businesses with interests before the Ways and Means panel for the Charles B. Rangel Center for Public Service, a $30 million monument to himself and home for his papers at the City College of New York.
(Commonly called Bribes presented by Lobbists or people seeking favors.)
Then there's Rangel's car, a 2004 Cadillac DeVille he leases at taxpayer expense for $777.54 a month. "I want (my constituents) to feel that they are somebody and their congressman is somebody," he told The Times.
(The Government and our Elected Officials want us to conserve Energy and drive Smaller Fuel Efficient Automobiles and they continue to Lease Gas Guzzlers and use Limosines paid for by us Taxpayers. Other than the President no one should have a Limosine.)
With the possible exception of his campaign apartment, these actions might adhere to the letter of laws, but they violate the spirit of public service. By occupying so many apartments, Rangel is sticking it to his constituents, many of whom are trying to get, or maintain, affordable housing in a city where the market rate rents have skyrocketed.
As for the Rangel Center, it's hard enough to abide the increasingly opulent presidential libraries being built with contributions from billionaires, foreign governments and other interested parties. Now, Rangel wants congressmen to get into the act.
(If we do not some how get a Law written that outlaws Lobbists and Donations to whatever some President, Vice President, Congressman, or Senator wants. Then they will continue to sell their Souls to the Highest Bidder while sticking it to us Taxpayers.)
The gregarious, gravelly voiced Rangel is a decorated Korean War veteran and shrewd pol who was elected in 1970 as a reformer. But he, like many of his colleagues, has grown overly accustomed to the trappings of power. That's one reason Congress' ratings are as low as they are.
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