Saturday, 5 September 2009

Corrupting Influence Of DC

Ben Chandler made his mark as Attorney General when he took on members of his own party over corruption charges. It allowed him to make his mark as a not only a moderate Democrat but as an ethical one. While he came up short on his run for Governor, he was able to win the 6th Congressional District seat and headed up to DC as a Kentucky Representative.

Enter Rep Charlie Rangel into the story. Charlie Rangel is chairman of the powerful Ways and Means Committee. Rep Rangel represents all that is wrong with politicians in DC. He has a long list of scummy ethically challenged behavior. The most recent transgression from Rep Rangel is his inability to properly reporting his yearly income. He has apparently been under reporting income for years. A move that is highly illegal and should get him severly punished by the ethics committee.

Remember Chandler? The guy who made a name for himself as a ethical player who was willing to take on his own party. Turns out Rep Chandler's time has changed him and not for the better. Chandler's name shows up on a list of "angels" Rangel has on the ethics committee.

The reigning member of Congress' top tax committee is apparently "wrangling" other politicos to get him out of his own financial and tax troubles.

Here's a look at Charlie's so-called "angels" involved in his ethics investigation.

Congressman Rangel has been arrogant in refusing to discuss how, as the man who writes this country's tax laws, he failed to report over $1 million in outside income and $3 million in business transactions as required by the House, lapses under investigation by the House Ethics Committee.

"I recognize that all of you have an obligation to ask questions knowing that there's none of you smart enough to frame it in such a way that I'm going to respond," Rangel said.

There may be a reason for Rangel's arrogance. CBS 2 HD has discovered that since ethics probes began last year the 79-year-old congressman has given campaign donations to 119 members of Congress, including three of the five Democrats on the House Ethics Committee who are charged with investigating him.

Charlie's "angels" on the committee include Congressmen Ben Chandler of Kentucky, G.K. Butterfield of North Carolina and Peter Welch of Vermont. All have received donations from Rangel. (emphasis added)

I would have to say that is a remarkable change for the Kentucky Representative. He went from being an ethical politician to being a political shill for one of the most corrupt politicians in DC. I think it is time that the people from the 6th district retire Chandler so he can come back to live in Kentucky and regain his senses.

Posted by brians at 5:40 PM in Kentucky Politics

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Another KY US Sentate Poll

The DailyKos has a new poll on the KY US Senate race. What has changed since the last public poll? Nothing. The two sets of numbers are very similar to each other. In fact they are so close, they probably represent an accurate representation of the race at this point. So what does that tell us? This far from the election it only provides us with where each candidate is starting the race. Mongiardo has a slight lead over Conway and Grayson is the favored to win the seat next November. Grayson leads in both the Republican primary and the general matchups between either Mongiardo or Conway.

So the stage is set. Can Conway come from behind and overtake Mongiardo? Can Rand close the gap between him and Grayson? Can either Mongiardo or Conway beat Grayson in the fall? Don't expect answers to these questions anytime soon. Until the primary battles start heating up next year, I doubt we will see much movement in the polls.