Thursday's public ethics committee hearing that laid bare the 13 charges against Rep. Charles Rangel was a highly unusual event -- but not because congressional lawmakers rarely break the rules.
The House and Senate have for years steered clear of filing charges against their own, and are even more reluctant to mete out punishment when someone is found guilty of a violation.
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Rep. Charlie Rangel, the flamboyant Harlem Democrat, was working frantically Wednesday to strike a deal with House colleagues that will spare him the kind of open ethics trial that has not occurred there since 2002.
But to escape that fate Rangel would have to admit guilt and accept punishment for charges ranging from failure to pay taxes on rent from a Dominican Republic villa to using his influence as chairman of the powerful Ways & Means Committee to secure donations for a namesake school in his district.
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Every person accused of a crime or an ethics violation deserves a competent defense. Charlie Rangel's legal defense, fittingly, comes from K Street.
Two of the three firms providing legal counsel to Rep. Charlie Rangel, D-N.Y., in his pending ethics cases are lobbying firms. In fact, one firm, Oldaker, Belair & Wittie, conducts much of Rangel's political fundraising, while operating four different lobby shops.
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By Susan Ferrechio Chief Congressional Correspondent
The scaled-down version of energy legislation Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid introduced Tuesday is far from the comprehensive overhaul many Democrats had been hoping for.
So some lawmakers are setting their sights on the "lame duck" session in Congress following the November election as an opportunity to add provisions to the bill aimed at curbing greenhouse gas emissions and reducing the nation's energy consumption.
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Senate Democrats on Tuesday will hold a critical test vote on a bill to curb a Supreme Court campaign finance ruling opposed by the Obama administration, but they appear to be one vote short of the 60 needed to pass the measure.
Despite what appeared to be a looming defeat, President Obama on Monday pushed for the bill's passage in a Rose Garden speech, saying a vote to oppose it "is nothing less than a vote to allow corporate and special interest takeovers of our elections."
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With the Bush tax cuts set to expire in five months, congressional Democrats are at odds over whether to allow the increase with the economy still struggling.
Democratic lawmakers in both the House and Senate are advocating at least a temporary extension of the cuts for lower- and middle-income earners, who stand to see tax rates spike by up to 50 percent.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner have both made clear they want tax cuts for the top income bracket to expire.
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New York's embattled Rep. Charlie Rangel will face a public trial this month before eight lawmakers who accuse him of violating the rules of the House.
The Committee on Standards of Official Conduct announced it has issued a "statement of alleged violation" against the 20-term Democrat.
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Lacking the requisite 60 votes, Senate Democrats shelved plans to take up an aggressive energy and global warming bill before the August recess and will instead settle on a much smaller bill that deals with the Gulf oil spill and some smaller "green" initiatives.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., broke the news to the Democratic caucus on Thursday that the bill he plans to write will not include a cap on carbon emissions, nor will it set a renewable energy standard.
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Three months away from an election that could give Republicans many more seats in the Senate and a takeover of the House, the party has yet to produce the agenda they would follow if voters give them the chance to run Congress again.
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Top Republicans are forecasting big wins in November and could even take over the majority in the House, but still struggle to say how they would run the government.
Rep. Pete Sessions, R-Texas, who runs the House GOP campaign committee, predicted Republicans would take more than the 39 seats they need to outnumber the Democrats.
"I think we are going to be slightly over 40," Sessions said on NBC's "Meet the Press."
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