Curmudgeon's Corner
cur-mud-geon: anyone who hates hypocrisy and pretense and has the temerity to say so; anyone with the habit of pointing out unpleasant facts in an engaging and humorous manner
Term Limit Poster Child?
Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-NY) walked out of his ethics hearing this morning since he didn’t have counsel. He has, of course, had ample time to engage another attorney but chose not to do so; probably thinking his buddies on the Adjudicatory Committee would give him a “Get Out of Jail Free” card. That didn’t happen, even after he reminded them that he represented fifty years of congressional leadership.
This is an example of the disrespect some of our elected officials have for us mere citizens. Rep. Rangel has been thumbing his nose at his constituents for years. He has helped to write the tax code that he is accused of having violated. He knows better…or should know better. If he isn’t intelligent enough to understand his obligations as a taxpayer, then he certainly isn’t qualified to be a congressman.
Rangel could easily become the poster child for limited terms. Every time we talk about term limits, there are those old timers who tell us we’d lose the ‘institutional memory’ if we retired elected officials after two or three or even four terms. I think we might wish to lose the institutional memory represented by Rangel and those like him.
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