miring his own ethics problem and guess who is running against him in harlem? adam clayton powell jr. son. i don t think he can beat charles rangel, but i share bill s feelings. so sad. rangel is a good guy in washington. bret: didn t take taxes on his vacation home and a long list of things, including some rent control issues in new york. if that all pans out, charles. if all that is true, but if he gets a bill and juan on the jury he will be acquitted. the democrats are very afraid of this trial in september. remember, the administration began with the mean that democrat lay taxes but don t pay them. geithner, tom daschle, et cetera, and this would remind people of that theme which sort of gone away about democrats. he was, of course, head of the charles rangel head of the tax writing committee. bret: so you are say agriculture of corruption
speaker nancy pelosi in september of 2008 said these charges and all the investigation will be finished by the end of this congress. that was 2008. she was talking about january of 2009. we re july 2010. back with the panel. bill? i have a soft spot for charles rangel. he is a little corrupt but he doesn t do as much damage for other big-spending democrats that wasted money. bret: you had them at the tea party thing. i think you lost them there. he is a revered member of congress. he has been around 40 years. he came in office replacing adam clayton powell, saying that adam clayton powell with ethics problems needed to be thrown out and he was a reformer. 40 years later. here is charles rangel now, miring his own ethics problem and guess who is running against him in harlem?
reporter: in announcing his candidacy, powell see s wrangle s ethics problem as an opening. he s no longer chairman of ways an means. reporter: rangel stepped down temporarily as the chairman in charge of taxes as an investigation continues into his failure to pay taxes on a home in the dominican republic and other issues. through his office, he declined requests for an interview. his campaign spokesman doesn t see him as vulnerable. nothing is ever a lock. you still have to make your case to the voters, tell them about what you ve done. you ve got to remind them of all the things you ve accomplished. reporter: powell has his own baggage and was originally acquitted of driving while intoxicated but convict ld of a lesser charge. there s rangel s popularity in new york which runs deep. i think for a lot of people looking from the outside, this may look like an incumbent who is on the ropes. from inside new york, it doesn t
did they? members of congress don t have to release their tax returns this group of pastors would like the irs to find out. if c street is indeed charging a below market rate, in effect subsidizing the rent for the members of congress who live there and the residents are not including the value in taxable income the members may have significant unreported income tax liabilities. and there s more. now, if it were you or i, if i was in this situation, anybody who is not a member of congress, we might have a tax problem on our hands with this. and, you know, that is what al capone went to prison for. because these are members of congress they have something else to worry about. they may have a congressional ethics problem on their hands. members of congress have to declare any gift to them valued over $50. if this subsidized rent was a gift or donation, they are required to declare it as such. every year members of congress fill ute these financial
the devil s spawn, he would sell his own mother to get a vote. absurd on its face, especially. what do we make of all of this, this guy who had his own ethics problem, who had to resign in the face of the ethics investigation, now trying to put it back on the white house. i think it s a problem for both sides, both parties, andrea. to chuck s point, conservatives and republicans are playing a dang dangerous game by sort of embracing massa even to the extent they have. we don t know that the whole full story has come out here. and i would suspect that the whole story has not, in fact, come out here. he does seem erratic in terms of his explanations, what happened, when and why. for democrats, another distraction. a distraction that they don t need. they need to get health care done. they need to get to the jobs bill and don t want to be answering questions, steny hoyer and others, about eric massa and allegati allegations he s making. okay. chris cillizza, thank you very much. chuck