The exclusive picture below is via a source in the House. It seems that just as his colleagues appear prepared to censure disgraced Rep. Charles Rangel, he has decided to capitalize upon the deaths of NYC residents who gave their lives in military service to their country from 2006 through 2009, most likely as something of a distraction from his own misdeeds.
And, yet, once, again, Rangel is violating House Rules for his own benefit.
In a rare ritual of public humiliation, House lawmakers Thursday will begin considering censure of Rep. Charles Rangel, a legendary New York politician found to have broken 11 different ethics rules.
The 80-year-old Harlem Democrat was found to have misused congressional perks, failed to pay taxes on some income for 17 years, failed to report assets properly for a decade, and misused a rent-stabilized apartment as a campaign office.
It isn’t that it’s somehow wrong to honor our fallen American heroes, despite a rule clearly prohibiting it, it’s that on the one day his offices are likely to see a larger than ever press presence, Rangel would so brazenly interject them into the news on the very day when the focus of his office should be on Rangel’s own shameful conduct and abuse.
3.4.1 Furnishings of any kind, including but not limited to furniture items (including sign-in/registration tables, pedestals, easels, carpets, rugs and mats); shades, drapes and screens; artwork, exhibits or posters; and trees, flowers and other plans may not be placed in a hallway or exit access.
The source has also informed me that Rangel’s staff appears to have developed the habit of only putting up the display on days when his office is assumed to be coming underseige by the press and it is taken down as soon as the cameras go away. No doubt many patriotic members of the House would like to honor their own home state, or town’s fallen in such a manner, were it not prohibited by House rules.
Clearly the disgraced Rangel has not learned the lesson of playing by the rules, when ignoring them might offer him some potential benefit. Have you no sense of decency, Charlie Rangel, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency at all? Evidently the poster only makes an appearance on bad news days for Rangel, perhaps otherwise being left in some closet somewhere to collect dust.