Charlie Rangel

At the press conference earlier today, I asked David Paterson if had anything to say about today's Times article by David Kocieniewski detailing how Charlie Rangel helped protect a tax loophole that benefited a major donor to  read more »

Henry Waxman’s bid to oust John Dingell from his perch atop the House Energy and Commerce Committee succeeded on Thursday, with the chamber’s Democratic caucus voting 137-122 to hand him the gavel.

The verdict will have an immediate and significant impact on energy, environmental and health care policy, all of which should loom large in Barack Obama’s first-year agenda, pushing a major power center within the House sharply to the left and into alignment with Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s governing vision.

There is also fear among some House veterans, particularly members of the Congressional Black Caucus, that Waxman’s triumph – the first successful bid to depose a Democratic chairman in 23 years, and the first time it’s even been tried since 1996 – will embolden more members to challenge the seniority system that, until now, has guaranteed committee chairmanships to members with the most tenure.  read more »

an election year when the Republican Party and the president are unpopular, and Washington itself has become shorthand for things gone wrong, Representative Randy Kuhl of Rochester is falling back on his state legislature experience, and casting himself a folksy local.

"It's all been about local issues," said Kuhl campaign manager Justin Stokes. "And I think the biggest contrast that we have here is that Congressman Kuhl is a lifelong resident here." Kuhl was born in the town were he now lives, Hammondsport. He also represented the area in the State Assembly for six years, and the State Senate for 17 years, before he was elected to Congress in 2004.  read more »

ALBANY—For the first time since the state's fiscal situation really began to slip, legislative leaders will be accompanying Governor David Paterson as he heads to Washington to lobby for federal aid.  read more »

Fifteen minutes before Charlie and Alma Rangel arrived to vote at this Harlem elementary school, there were already 64 voters standing on line.

Carole Branch, a 41-year-old project architect who lives around the corner in the Lenox Terrace apartments (where the Rangels also live), got there first.  read more »

Charlie Rangel just arrived at an elementary school on 134th Street in Harlem to vote, and walked to the end of a line that already had more than 200 voters, saying, "This is beautiful. This is exciting.  read more »

Ed Towns’ fellow elected Democrats are doing their best to spare him the fate that Hillary Clinton suffered this year.

"We don't want to have Barack Obama in the White House, and all of a sudden lose the seniority that Ed Towns would bring to us," said City Comptroller Bill Thompson at a reasonably well-attended tribute to the 13-term congressman this weekend at the Berean Baptist Church just south of Atlantic Avenue in Crown Heights.

Thompson warned some 200 attendees that they would "lose all the benefits of the years that Ed has put in.”

That Towns, a longtime incumbent in an overwhelmingly Democratic district, should need saving at all is somewhat remarkable.  read more »

DENVER—Speaking to reporters just before a breakfast at the Sheraton Hotel, Representative Charlie Rangel commented on the reported effort of some city politicians to change the laws that govern term limits before the 2009 election.

Referring to the next mayoral election, in which Bloomberg would likely run if term limits were extended, Rangel said, "If I didn't have a candidate in the race, which I do, which is our comptroller [Bill Thomson], I would really say term limits suck."

Then he added,"But this is a hell of a time to do it." (To put the issue before voters a referendum would have to go on the ballot this November).  read more »

DENVER—Bill Perkins, one of the first New York elected officials to endorse Barack Obama, jumped out of his seat and let out an ear-piercing whistle as Hillary Clinton addressed party unity in a speech to the New York delegation this morning.

“I think she hit a home run,” he said when I asked him about the speech later; he also called it “a transformational expression of support.” Perkins went on, “If that enthusiasm continues, then it’s done and she gets credit for moving [her supporters] into the victory column.”

Representative Charlie Rangel, who gave a fist-bump to Chuck Schumer after giving his own address, called Clinton’s speech “fantastic.  read more »

Hillary Clinton has released New York’s delegates from any obligation to vote for her and asked them to vote for Barack Obama instead, according to Representative Charlie Rangel.

Just a few moments ago, as Rangel left a gala thrown by Sheldon Silver welcoming the New York delegation, I asked him why so many officials in the delegation, of which he is dean, are still confused about what to do at the convention.

“Clinton told me to tell everybody that they are released and to vote for Obama,” said Rangel. When asked why so many in the delegation still didn’t know that, he responded, “Now that’s a stupid question.  read more »

Representative Charlie Rangel, who has recently faced a flurry of tough , intense press coverage, is having what appears to be an enormous birthday party for himself at Central Park's Tavern on the Green on Wednesday, August 6.

The invitation notes that Bill and Hillary Clinton, David Paterson, Chuck Schumer, Andrew Cuomo, Tom DiNapoli, Malcolm Smith, Bill Thompson and Christine Quinn will be there. The "special guest" is Howard Dean.

The event will be a fund-raiser for Rangel's campaign committee, the Victory Fund. The committee is highlighting the "top ten targeted house races," all of which are in the DCCC's "Red to Blue" project.  read more »

Here’s Charlie Rangel continuing to blast the New York Times after a front-page story reported that he is occupying four rent-stabilized apartments in Harlem.

“All I’m saying is this established newspaper put me in a penthouse when there’s no penthouse in the building. This established reporter that keeps asking the same question about a gift has put me in a penthouse when I don’t even live on the top floor.”

“The penthouse is not the point,” New York Times reporter Jeremy Peters interjects.

After Hillary Clinton's statement to USA Today on March 7 that she was more electable than Barack Obama among "white voters," from The Politico:

The statement was “the dumbest thing she could have said,” Rangel told reporters before a Clinton fundraiser in a midtown hotel ballroom Saturday.

 read more »

Charlie Rangel said the proof that Hillary Clinton can still win the Democratic nomination is that she is still pursuing the Democratic nomination. Either she has a chance, he said, or she’s nuts.

"If mathematically she couldn't get the nomination, it would mean that Obama has won and so she wouldn't be in the race," said Rangel. "And so obviously mathematically she can."

When asked how she could win the nomination, Rangel replied, "I don't know, but if mathematically she cannot win, then why aren't we declaring Obama the winner? I mean, it doesn't make sense. It is not my job to explain how, if she put $6 million of her money, the team is still together, the campaign is still going on, why do I have to explain mathematically why she can't win? If mathematically she can't win, then they are crazy. They ought to go to an insane asylum."

He added, "Anybody who really knows that they can't win and they won't quit, there is really something wrong with them."

Clinton is still in the race. So by that logic, she must see some way of winning. What is it?

"I have no clue," said Rangel, explaining it wasn't his job as chairman of the House's Ways and Means committee to chart or analyze Clinton's path to the nomination.  read more »

Representative Charlie Rangel has a very meta take on Vito Fossella's predicament, seeing it as another example of an ongoing Republican implosion.

"They are self-destructing," Rangel told me, referencing the president's vetoes of what he said was bi-partisan legislation and ethics lapses by Republican elected officials.  read more »

A State Senator who criticized the dismissal of the top Latina on Hillary Clinton's campaign now says he’ll support Barack Obama as a result.

When reached by cell phone Monday night in Albany, State Senator Ruben Diaz, Sr. said, "I never supported anyone yet, so, you know, if I support Obama? Yes. I am with Obama, yes."

Diaz, who has had a history of criticizing his fellow Democrats in New York, said, "Hillary's campaign has been going down because of Bill Clinton, William Jefferson Clinton. Because people like Charlie Rangel, who called Obama stupid."

But the final straw, Diaz, said, was the removal of Patti Solis Doyle as Clinton's campaign manager, which was announced over the weekend. The next day, Diaz, along with Assemblyman Jose Peralta, sent a letter to Clinton's campaign saying they felt the Hispanic community was being ignored, and Doyle treated as a scapegoat.

"It is hard to understand how the Hispanic community that has been there to keep your campaign alive could remain in your corner when the first Hispanic woman to serve as your presidential campaign manager has 'resigned' from her post," Diaz and Peralta wrote.

More after the jump.   read more »

A release just came in announcing that Alma Rangel is endorsing Barack Obama.

Her husband, Representative Charlie Rangel, is chair of the House Ways and Means Committee and a major Hillary Clinton supporter.

Earlier this week it was reported Alma Rangel had attended a fund-raiser hosted by Michelle Obama.

Here's the release:  read more »

CHARLESTON, SC -- Last night a bit after 9 p.m., Hillary and Bill Clinton were reunited. This took place in a convention center in North Charleston, and the ballroom was showing plenty of floor. The Clintons brought along all their pals, like Charlie Rangel and David Dinkins and David Patterson and Sheila Jackson-Lee (Texas, 18th District) and former South Carolina state Representative Lucille Whipper, and also a few white friends! She brought them on the stage, President Clinton provided a brief introduction, and then Hillary was given the space, all to herself, for a speech.  read more »

This morning at a breakfast held by the Association for a Better New York in Midtown I ran into Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau and I asked the D.A. if he watched last night's Democratic debate.

Morgenthau waved his hand disapprovingly and said, "No--It's too much already."

The top two fund-raisers in Congress right now are Charlie Rangel and Kirsten Gillibrand, according to Congressional Quarterly.

Rangel has generated $2.7 million over the first three quarters of this year, and Gillibrand raised $2 million over the same period.

The rest of the list is here.

More after the jump.  read more »

You know things have gotten weird in a small local primary when Republicans start putting images of Charlie Rangel on their literature.

This piece, which I heard is circulating in Queens, is linking the Queens County Republican Chairman, Phil Ragusa, to Rangel, who thinks Dick Cheney has mental problems.

The mail piece references a 2002 donation of $1000 that Ragusa made to Rangel’s committee and notes that Rangel help engineer the Democratic takeover of congress in last year’s election.

Ragusa, a CPA, is running this year for a male-designated state Republican committee post in the 26th Assembly District. The only other candidate for that slot is Peter Boudouvas, an aide to Republican state Senator Frank Padavan.

The mail may not derail’s Ragusa’s election to that position tomorrow, but it’s certain to fuel the seemingly endless fight for control of the Queens G.O.P. county organization, which has been going on for years and involves technical election law stuff I don't entirely understand. (Critics like John and Bart Haggerty--with the help of Democratic election lawyer Martin Connor--say the way the county counts votes is screwy.)

Credit for kicking off this latest skirmish goes to former congressional candidate-turned-blogger Jun Policarpio, who wrote about the Rangel donation about a week ago.  read more »

Senator Bill Perkins may be endorsing a different presidential candidate than New York Congressional dean Charlie Rangel, but they can still celebrate together.

Rangel, a Clinton supporter, is billed as a “special guest” at a birthday event on Sunday for Perkins, who is backing Barack Obama.

“It’s a birthday celebration,” Rangel spokesman Emile Milne told me. “His birthday didn’t change.”

Others expected to attend include Lt. Governor David Paterson, Senate Democratic leader Malcolm Smith and Assemblyman Herman “Denny” Farrell.

The party is from 4 - 6 p.m. at Carne.

CHARLESTON, SC -- Last night a bit after 9 p.m., Hillary and Bill Clinton were reunited. This took place in a convention center in North Charleston, and the ballroom was showing plenty of floor. The Clintons brought along all their pals, like Charlie Rangel and David Dinkins and David Patterson and Sheila Jackson-Lee (Texas, 18th District) and former South Carolina state Representative Lucille Whipper, and also a few white friends! She brought them on the stage, President Clinton provided a brief introduction, and then Hillary was given the space, all to herself, for a speech.  read more »