Sunday, November 28, 2010

CHARLIE'S NOT THE ONLY ONE (2)

On November 17, I wrote: I am not going to get all exercised over Charlie’s financial and fundraising violations. Why not? Because I am sure there are plenty of other Congressmen and Senators who are doing similar things. It’s just that poor Charlie got caught with his hand in the cookie jar.

And now Ben Stein reminds us that Charlie Rangel is a genuine American hero, having been awarded the Bronze Star for valor for his actions during the Korean War when his army unit was overwhelmed by the onslaught of Chinese troops swarming across the Yalu River.
 
CHARLIE RANGEL STILL A HERO TO ME
By Ben Stein
 
CBS Sunday Morning
November 28, 2010
 
By now everyone who follows politics knows that Charles Rangel, the 20-term representative to Congress from New York's Harlem district, has been found guilty of ethics violations by the House ethics panel.

He apparently failed to report rental income from a dwelling in the Caribbean, used his office stationery for fund raising for a school named after him, and used a rent stabilized apartment for a political office.

For this, the punishment is publicly shaming by being censured.

Now, just to me (whom you all know as a lifelong Republican), Rangel's misdeeds seem like extremely trivial matters. The IRS has not prosecuted him for tax evasion. When you are a busy man, small tax issues can get lost in the shuffle.

The other two matters just seem like total and utter nothings.

But what I really want to say about Charles Rangel is that this man is a genuine American hero.

In unbelievably difficult service in the Korean War, his unit was swamped, cut off, overwhelmed by hordes of Red Chinese crossing into Korea. In the worst cold weather imaginable, under fire, starving, acting Sergeant Charles Rangel, in a black unit led mostly by white officers, took a large group of men, led them by example, lifted their morale, as they fought their way out to safety. Men were being shot, freezing, getting captured all around him, yet he got most of his men out.

For this leadership, sacrifice, and courage, Mr. Rangel was awarded a Bronze Star with a V for Valor.

After that, he served as a prosecutor, and then for 20 distinguished terms, as a member of Congress, for a time as chair of the powerful Ways and Means Committee. His erudition and fairness earned him high marks throughout his career.

Now, he has been humiliated over what seems to me like almost nothing.

Just for me, I hope that history will record that a truly great man, Charlie Rangel, a hero of the first rank, was laid low by trivial, no-account matters, censured by people who mostly have no clue of what true courage, fighting, blood and frostbite mean.

Charlie Rangel does know, and to me, he is still a hero.

7 comments:

Centurion said...

Maybe he was a hereo. I wouldn't know.
And sure many of them are probably crooked. But apparantly there is a threshold...(enough violations of a serious enough nature) that...when crossed...will eventually results in sanctions.

A lot of people run red lights and speed too. I tried to tell that to the cop that pulled me over two years ago and guess what?

I still got that ticket.

Centurion said...

"Poor Charlie"? Just because he is in the company of thieves doesn't make him any less a thief.

By way of comparison, Charlie Manson wasn't the only mass murderer in the 20th century. But "Poor Charlie" just got his hands caught in the cookie jar is all...

BarkGrowlBite said...

Centurion, apparently you did not read Ben Stein's op-ed carefully, or if you did, you didn't get his point. You have done that in the past when commenting on my posts.

'Maybe he was a hero.' What part of Ben Stein's description did you not understand? Or maybe you think they gave him the Bronze Star just because he is blsck.

And to bring up Charlie Manson for comparison in this case is just plain outrageous. It's beneath you!

Centurion said...

Just making a point. and that point was....just becuase some people get away with it doesn't minimise the crime.

Look past the rhetoric. Try using logic instead of emotion for a change.

BarkGrowlBite said...

You just don't get it. Ben Stein was making the point that Charlie Rangel, as a genuine war hero, deserved better after 40-plus years in congress than to have his reputation ruined by what he and I consider rather trivial charges.

I rarely ever agreed with any of Rangel's positions and I am sure the same goes for life-long Republican Ben Stein. The ethics charges for which Rangel was convicted were not criminal offenses and no criminal charges are contemplated against him. Democrats and Republicans alike agree that Rangel did not enrich himjself through his ethics violations.

And by the way, I am being logical, not emotional, in this matter.

That's my last word. I don't intend to respond to any additional comments should you decide to make any.

Centurion said...

Fine Howie...don't respond. I'll have the last word.

So you and Stein think Rangel's transgressions are minor.

Fine.

Others do not. And being a war hero does not give "Poor Charlie" (or any one else for that matter) a pass on corruption.

Neither does the fact that "everyone else is doing it."

He did some corrupt shit. He got caught. He will pay the consequenses.

All that other stuff merely clouds the issue.

BarkGrowlBite said...

I forgot to mention that I am convinced they went after Rangel just to make it appear as though the House is cleaning up its act when in fact its members wink at each other's questionable ethics practices.