Rep. Charles Rangel requested an ethics investigation of himself.   Now, he's hired outside help, in the form of an accounting firm, to figure out the financial situation that precipitated some of his problems:

New York Rep. Charles Rangel has hired an accountant to pore over his personal finances as he faces an ethics committee investigation.

Rangel, a powerful Democrat who heads the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee, has been under fire for months over issues surrounding his personal finances.

He failed to report $75,000 in rental income for a beach house in the Dominican Republic over the past two decades, used three rent-stabilized apartments in his home district of Harlem and used his congressional stationery to solicit private donations to a college center named after him.

Rangel also says he didn't know he received a no-interest mortgage from the resort's developers for at least a decade.

The congressman's office said Thursday the firm Watkins, Meegan, Drury & Co. will review his finances and issue a report to the House ethics committee. When the review of the congressman's finances is complete, the report will be released publicly along with 20 years of Rangel's tax returns, his lawyer has said.

The HIll reported today that Rep. Doc Hastings (R-WA) who is the ranking member on the House Ethics Committee "took the unusual step Thursday of publicly complaining that the panel has been dragging its feet in its investigation into Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel’s (D-N.Y.) ethics controversy."  In response, CREW's Melanie Sloan issued this statement:

The outrage expressed by Rep. Hastings (R-WA) on the delay of the investigation into Rep. Charlie Rangel’s activities is all but laughable from a member whose own unethical dealings, and those of a number of his colleagues, have never been probed.

If Rep. Hastings wants action, there is a long list congressmen whose activities certainly deserve scrutiny by the House Ethics Committee. For starters, there are 11 members currently under state and federal investigation: Reps. Ken Calvert (R-CA), John Doolittle (R-CA), Tom Feeney (R-FL), Vito Fossella (R-NY), William Jefferson (D-LA), Jerry Lewis (R-CA), Alan Mollohan (D-WV), Gary Miller (R-CA), Tim Murphy (R-PA), Rick Renzi (R-AZ), and Don Young (R-AK).

Meanwhile, neither Rep. Hastings nor Rep. Heather Wilson (R-NM) have been investigated for their roles in the U.S. attorneys firing scandal. The conflict-of-interest issue created by Rep. Hastings’ position on the committee that should have been charged with investigating his activities was completely ignored as well.

Still, more questions remain: Why would Rep. Hastings call for an outside special counsel on this particular case, while he has declined to investigate other, far more egregious cases? What then, is the actual purpose of the newly created Office of Congressional Ethics? Why has this new independent ethics office done the sum total of nothing since it opened for business in July? Why did the House even bother creating it?

On the bright side, our hope is now that Rep. Hastings has decided to articulate his indignation on the inaction of his committee, he will get to work addressing all of his colleagues’ ethics violations, who thus far have evaded his strong commitment to accountability of House ethics standards.

The Speaker of the House met with the embattled chair of the House Ways and Means Committee, Rep. Charles Rangel, yesterday.   He is under scrutiny for several ethics related issues.  Last week, CREW designated Rangel as one of the 20 most corrupt members of Congress. The question of the day was whether Rangel would hold onto his chairmanship.  For now, he has:

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said the question about whether Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) should hold on to his committee chairmanship while the ethics panel investigates mounting ethics charges is up in the air.

“I don’t think that decision has been made,” she told CNBC’s John Harwood in an interview Monday night. “We have a lot of confidence in Mr. Rangel and when we have news on that we will let you know what it is, but that decision has not been made.”

The Hill reports on this latest development:

Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) on Wednesday followed through on his promise to file an ethics complaint against himself, but he also offered a vigorous defense of his effort to solicit support for a New York City educational center bearing his name.

The powerful Ways and Means Committee chairman acknowledged in a letter to the House ethics committee that he sent out more than 100 letters, using congressional letterhead, that asked leaders of charitable foundations, companies and business leaders to support the City College of New York (CCNY).

A top Rangel aide hand-delivered a four-page letter with a five-page addendum to the ethics panel late Wednesday morning. In it, the lawmaker asked the panel to determine whether he had “inadvertently failed to comply with the House Ethics Rules regarding the use of congressional letterhead.”

Obviously, the House Ethics Committee should grant Rep. Rangel's request for an investigation of his fundraising practices.  CREW's Melanie Sloan sees a violation of the rules:

"I will be calling for it to be expedited so that I can get on with my work," said Rangel, who has scheduled a 10 a.m. news conference today to address the controversy.

Rangel has written letters on congressional stationery and has sought meetings to ask for corporate and foundation contributions for the Charles B. Rangel Center for Public Service at City College of New York. Some of those he has approached have business interests before his committee, which has broad jurisdiction over tax and trade matters.

House ethics rules allow lawmakers to solicit money for certain kinds of nonprofit groups but bar the use of official resources, such as office equipment and supplies. They specifically ban the implied endorsement that accompanies use of congressional letterhead.

John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) and the nonpartisan watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington separately called this week for the ethics committee to look into Rangel's fundraising.

"It totally violates the rule," Melanie Sloan, executive director of the watchdog group, said this week.

Rep. Rangel announced that his campaign is moving from an apartment in his building.  Controversy has arisen because the apartment is rent-stabilized and under NY law should be available as primary housing, not business:

Representative Charles B. Rangel has decided to move his campaign office out of one of four rent-stabilized apartments he leases in Harlem, his spokesman said on Monday.

Mr. Rangel has faced intense scrutiny since The New York Times reported last week that a developer had allowed him to lease rent-stabilized apartments in the Lenox Terrace luxury apartment complex at a time when some tenants are being evicted from such apartments around the city.

One of the units — a one-bedroom apartment that he paid for with money from his re-election fund and from a political action committee — had been used as a campaign office, despite city and state guidelines that require rent-stabilized apartments to be used solely as a primary residence. Because that apartment is rent-stabilized, Mr. Rangel paid $630 per month, while similar market-rate units in the building rent for $1,700 a month and higher.

In a fiery news conference on Friday, Mr. Rangel said he saw nothing improper with having three rent-stabilized apartments — all adjacent on the 16th floor — for his family’s residence, but said he would review the propriety of using the fourth apartment as an office.

Mr. Rangel’s spokesman said the congressman would not discuss details of his decision.

“Mr. Rangel has indicated that he is not willing to say any more,” the spokesman, Emile Milne, said.