The Audacity of Charlie Rangel

He’s setting records, but not the good kind:

He is now the subject of at least 32 simultaneous ethics issues or investigations. The Sunlight Foundation announced that it discovered 28 mysterious asset transfers by Rangel that come on top of a number of other ongoing investigations.

• The Sunlight Foundation found 28 instances since 1978 in which Rangel hid (or “failed to report”) asset transfers of values between $239,026 and $831,000 as House rules required.

• Rangel failed to disclose $75,000 in income a vacation property he owned in the Dominican Republic. After the tax “mistake” was discovered, he first blamed his wife, then his accountant and finally the fact that he didn’t speak Spanish.

• In violation of New York City statutes, he secured four rent-controlled apartments, three to serve as luxury living quarters at bargain-basement prices.

• He abandoned his Mercedes in the House parking garage.

• He had his campaign committee “funnel $80,000 to his son for performing little or no work on a Web site.”

• He killed a tax increase that would have hurt one of his major donors.

As of yesterday Rangel believed that his ethics troubles were drawing to a close.

He gloated, “I think that next Tuesday you will see a break in this and as soon as the Ethics Committee organizes they ought to be able to dismiss this.”