CREW has been highly critical of ethical lapses by Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY), but we also recognize there is plenty of hypocrisy among some who have attacked Rangel. As Salon's Joe Conason notes:

... as the Republicans and their media epigones celebrate Rangel’s downfall, the contrast with their own typical tolerance of corruption in their own ranks is instructive.

... Five years ago, when (former Republican Congressman Tom) DeLay came under intense pressure from prosecutors, the press and watchdog groups, the National Review urged conservatives to rally around him in an editorial, noting dismissively that "many of the offenses DeLay is being accused of -— taking foreign trips funded by outside groups, attending events with lobbyists -— are committed by every congressman on Capitol Hill."

Of course taking a foreign trip funded by an outside group (with corporate support) is precisely the transgression for which the ethics committee admonished Rangel.

But the same National Review editorial suggested that official rebukes by the ethics committee are unimportant anyway, at least when directed at a Republican leader: "The [ethics] committee did warn DeLay to be more careful, the ‘admonishment’ that has played in the media as an official sanction, which it wasn't." In short, they didn’t believe an admonishment by the ethics committee was enough to get rid of DeLay, but it is reason enough to throw out Rangel ...

It would be nice to see members of both political parties treat ethics as something more than just a weapon they brandish during election years to beat up on the other party.

The fact that this is an election year had more than just a little to do with Rep. Charles Rangel's (D-NY) decision to step down as chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee. CREW's Melanie Sloan told the Washington Independent that the Rangel decision "didn’t happen in a vacuum." As she explained:

"Midterm elections are only eight months away and voters have made it abundantly clear that they care about ethics, even if members of Congress only pretend to.

"By forcing Rep. Rangel out, Democrats undercut Republican efforts to portray them as soft on ethics, the very strategy that returned Democrats to the majority in the 2006 elections."

It will be interesting to see what the fallout is from the House ethics committee's recent report admonishing Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY). In admonishing Rep. Rangel, who chairs the House Ways and Means Committee, the ethics panel held him responsible for something the panel said one of his staffers knew about the details of a trip.

Will other members be held accountable for things they don't know about? Rob Walker, an attorney and ex-staffer for the ethics committee told Roll Call:

"I think the (ethics) committee needs to clarify what the standard is for holding Members responsible for the actions of their staff.

"I don’t think the principles enunciated in the subcommittee report are crystal clear enough to give Members sufficient guidance as to when they would be held accountable and when they would not be."

CREW Executive Director Melanie Sloan told Roll Call she doesn't believe the committee meant to establish a new standard because doing so, she said:

"... would have to mean that the ethics committee would have to start investigating Members for staff misconduct."

Not likely.

The House ethics committee formally admonished Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY) late yesterday for trips he made to the Caribbean. Rangel chairs the powerful Ways and means Committee. According to Bloomberg News:

The committee determined [Rangel] violated House gift rules when he accepted the trips to conferences in 2007 and 2008 sponsored by the Carib News Foundation. The foundation received contributions from corporations specifically to fund the conferences, the panel said in a statement.

Yet the ethics committee did not admonish the other House members who traveled with Rangel -- a fact that was criticized in a statement by CREW Executive Director Melanie Sloan:

"The Ethics Committee’s decision makes no sense. There is simply no reason for Rep. Rangel alone to be held accountable for taking this trip when a number of other members were also present.

"The notion that Rep. Rangel alone was aware the trip was sponsored by corporate donors defies logic. There were banners identifying specific corporate donors, and Rep. Donald Payne (D-NJ) publicly thanked corporate sponsors. The fact is, each and every member of Congress present was equally as culpable as Rep. Rangel and all should be held to the same standard."

As 2009 draws to a close, CREW is looking back at what quickly became a busy year for ethical lapses in our federal government. Today, CREW released its list of the Top Ten Ethics Scandals of 2009 – a roundup of the year’s most outrageous government scandals.

The unranked list includes:

Believe us – we had a plethora of scandals to choose from.

Melanie Sloan, CREW’s executive director, explained CREW’s hopes for the new year:

It would be nice if 2010 proved to be the year politicians put Americans’ interests above their own, but I won’t hold my breath.

Click here (PDF) to read CREW’s Top Ten Ethics Scandals of 2009.

Over the past few years, we heard a lot of talk about Congress cracking down on ethics violators with new systems and new laws designed to clean up corruption. But is it happening? NPR asked a key question about ethics and Congress:

So, is the new ethics process working?

Melanie Sloan provides the answer:

"No, the ethics process remains as broken as ever," says congressional watchdog Melanie Sloan, "and I think the main evidence you have for that is that no one has been disciplined by the House ethics committee, even since the new Office of Congressional Ethics was formed."

There are all kinds of ethical problems just hanging out there, says Sloan, who runs the nonpartisan group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. Pennsylvania Democrat John Murtha is under federal investigation for allegedly trading government earmarks for campaign contributions. California Republican Jerry Lewis has had similar allegations against him for years — he and Murtha are both top members of the powerful appropriations committee. Democrat Maxine Waters of California is under investigation for pushing government bailout money to a bank her husband had a stake in.

Sloan says another good example of the dysfunctional ethics system is the investigation of New York Rep. Charles Rangel, which has dragged on for more than a year even as new problems are uncovered: He didn't pay taxes on some of his income; he didn't report all his assets on financial disclosure forms.

Hoyer says all this shows the new ethics system is working.

"In the Rangel case, they've just issued additional subpoenas for individuals and documents, I think they're doing a very thorough investigation of that," he says. "These take time."

The House Ethics Committee recently expanded its on-going investigation of Rep. Charles Rangel.  It's costing him.  And, It's staring to look like Rep. Rangel needs to raise campaign money to pay his legal bills:

Embattled Democratic Rep. Charlie Rangel (N.Y.), the focus of a year-long investigation by the House ethics committee, continues to spend heavily on legal help, shelling out more than a quarter of a million dollars this summer.

Rangel’s latest report with the Federal Election Commission shows the New York Democrat paid $254,886 to three law firms during the July 1-Sept. 30 period, with $236,159 of that total going to the firm Zuckerman Spaeder on July 6.

During the last quarter, Rangel raised more than $807,000, according to his FEC report.

But $371,000 of that total was transferred to his campaign from the Rangel Victory Fund, a joint fundraising committee that Rangel created last year, and which recently hosted a fundraiser at New York’s famous Tavern on the Green with entertainment by legendary crooner Tony Bennett.

Rangel’s prowess as a fundraiser has been damaged by the current scandal, which in turn has made him less of a money conduit for fellow Democrats.

The ethics probe has also cost Rangel heavily. He has paid out well over $1 million to his legal team from his campaign account, though he still has more than $1.1 million in the bank. Lawmakers are allowed to use campaign funds to pay legal bills for investigations tied to official actions.

More info. on the House Ethics Committee decision to delve deeper in the investigation of Rep. Charles Rangel.  And, it already sounds like the Committee has done some extensive work. From "Under the Influence":

The Committee on Standards of Official Conduct unanimously voted this afternoon to expand the jurisdiction of its investigation of House Ways and Means Committee chairman Charles Rangel, D-N.Y.

In a statement, the committee said it is looking into whether Rangel "violated the Code of Official Conduct, or any law, regulation or other standard of conduct applicable to his conduct in the performance of his duties or the discharge of his responsibilities with respect to all financial disclosure statements and amendments filed in calendar year 2009."

The committee also said that it has issued close to 150 subpoenas, interviewed about 34 witnesses, resulting in 2,100 pages in transcripts, reviewed and analyzed 12,000 pages of documents and held over 30 investigative subcommittee meetings.

CNN just announced the "breaking news" that the House Ethics Committee is expanding its investigation of Rep. Charles Rangel to include his financial disclosure forms. In August, Rangel update his disclosure forms to include "hundreds of thousands in previously unreported assets." That is apparently the focus of this expanded House Ethics Committee investigation.

Last month, CREW named Rep. Charles Rangel one of the most corrupt members of Congress. House Republicans are making an issue out of Rangel's ethical woes. Today, they'll bring renewed attention to the issue by pursuing a vote to strip Rangel of his chairmanship of the powerful Ways and Means Committee: 

No matter how much [Rangel] may want to avoid discussing the issue-- from his alleged failure to report taxes and assets, including a home in the Dominican Republic, to his questionable use of a rent-controlled N.Y. apartment as a campaign office -- the Rangel ethics problems won't go away. On Wednesday, congressional Republicans will introduce a resolution calling for him to surrender his chairmanship.

No one expects the measure to pass in a Democratic-majority Congress, especially against the legendary Rangel, who has been on Capitol Hill since 1971, is a founder of the Congressional Black Caucus and wields his power with the unapologetic glee of a lawmaker who has spent years fighting for it. But the move signals that the GOP will try to make Rangel a liability for fellow Democrats in the 2010 midterm elections, characterizing any votes supporting him keeping his committee akin to supporting congressional corruption. Democrats in close races could also face demands that they return campaign funds from Rangel.