Why bother having one when you can do what Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) did and file an official ethics grievance against himself.
That's right...against himself!
Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) on Wednesday will formally ask the House ethics committee to investigate allegations that he misused his congressional office.
Aides to the powerful chairman of the Ways and Means Committee were putting finishing touches on the letter Tuesday night, according to Rangel spokesman Emile Milne.
“We’re crossing the T’s and dotting the I’s,” Milne said. “We expect to have it signed this evening [by Rangel] and ready for delivery tomorrow morning.”
[...]
House rules require the ethics committee to initiate an investigation if a sitting House member files a formal complaint with the panel. Fearing political retribution, members rarely file complaints against each other, and ethics experts say they have never heard of a lawmaker filing a complaint against himself.
In an angry press conference last week, Rangel said he had asked staff how to write the complaint. He also attacked a Washington Post story about Rangel’s efforts to raise money for a New York City college center in Harlem bearing his name. The article alleged that Rangel had broken House ethics rules barring the use of congressional letterhead for financial solicitations.
Rangel said he didn’t believe he had violated any ethics rules and thought the ethics committee would agree with him. Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) last week said she supported his request for a probe.
Rangel to file complaint against self — first official grievance since 2004
Wow! Pretty cool, huh?
That would be like Alderman Sohns filing a complaint against himself for parading select Franklin bloggers' property tax records in front of the Common Council at a public meeting.
There was nothing illegal about it...but it was a pretty (I'll be kind) not very nice thing to do.
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