Rep. John Carter, Republican of Texas, offered a resolution this morning to remove Rep. Charlie Rangel from his Ways and Means Committee Chairmanship. The resolution, stemming from Rangel's myriad tax discrepancies and copious creative crookery, first reported by the New York Times, is being debated on the floor right now (excerpt below):
WHEREAS, the gentleman from New York, Charles B. Rangel, the fourth most senior Member of the House of Representatives, serves as chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, a position of considerable power and influence within the House of Representatives; and, WHEREAS, clause one of Rule XXXIII of the Rules of the House of Representatives provides, "A Member, Delegate, Resident Commission, officer, or employee of the House shall conduct himself at all times in a manner that shall reflect creditably on the House; [...] WHEREAS, on May 24, 2006, then Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi cited "high ethical standards" in a letter to Representative William Jefferson asking that he resign his seat on the Committee on Ways and Means in light of ongoing investigations into alleged financial impropriety by Representative Jefferson, WHEREAS, by the conduct giving rise to this resolution, Representative Charles B. Rangel has dishonored himself and brought discredit to the House; and, Therefore, be it RESOLVED, upon adoption of this resolution and pending completion of the investigation into his affairs by the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct, Representative Rangel is hereby removed as chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means.
Carter had offered a similar resolution in February, but it was blocked. Just now, Democrats unsuccessfully tried to block the public reading of the resolution, including all the allegations against Rangel. Here is the full text of the resolution. Watch the debate, live, here, and Carter's Twitter feed, here. Update: Maxine Waters indulges in a defense only an incumbent representative would proffer:
"Many members" of Congress suffer from the same disclosure issues as Rep. Charles Rangel (D.N.Y.), one of his allies said Wednesday. Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) downplayed the seriousness of allegations against Rangel that he failed to disclose sources of income and pay taxes on some properties, saying that many lawmakers suffer from innocent lapses in judgment when filing mandatory financial disclosure forms. "I want to tell you, there are many members who, if you go back over all of their records, over all of the years, you're going to find that there were disclosures that were not made," Waters said during an appearance on MSNBC Wednesday morning.
Update: Democrats want to table the resolution, and refer it to the ethics committee. They've succeeded in tabling it, with 243 votes, and are now doing a five-minute vote to refer it to the ethics committee. Punt-tastic! Update: The roll call on the motion to table is, here. Republicans King (N.Y.), Rohrabacher (Calif.), and Young (Alaska) voted with the Democrats. Via Michelle Malkin, a flashback of Rangel taking these allegations very seriously, when confronted with them (Warning: rough language from Rangel):