By: Connie Hair

Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-N.Y.) took a leave of absence -- but pointedly didn’t resign --from the chairmanship of the House Ways & Means Committee today amid ethics violations rulings and continuing investigations into his finances.  After late-night meetings with longtime ally House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Rangel said this morning he was stepping aside temporarily until the remainder of the investigations was completed.

Rep. John Carter (R-Tex.) was set  to introduce a privileged resolution today to force a vote by the full House on Rangel’s removal from the post should he tarry with his resignation.  

“I have this morning sent a letter to Speaker Pelosi asking for a leave of absence until such time as the Ethics Committee has completed its work,” Rangel said.

He then refused to take questions.

Carter spokesman John Stone told HUMAN EVENTS last night, “We have heard conflicting reports from members of the media saying he’s told them he’s stepped down and others saying he’s told them he hasn’t.  So we’re planning to proceed with the resolution, until we get some sort of clarification of his status.”

Rangel’s fortunes began to unravel when the bi-partisan House Ethics Committee ruled last week that he violated ethics rules in accepting corporate-sponsored trips to the Caribbean.

“The fact that the first count has been returned with the equivalent of a guilty verdict, while a score more are still pending after a year-and-a-half, is very serious,” Carter told HUMAN EVENTS.  “But the fact that Chairman Rangel refuses to make public his tax returns for the years in question is a smoking gun that indicates more serious wrongdoing.”

“However, the real issue is fundamental fairness,” Carter continued.  “Will America allow the Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee that oversees taxation to evade income tax without penalty, while an average taxpayer would face massive penalties and interest for the same offense? It is ironic that the Chairman is supporting new federal prison sentences for working Americans for not making their health insurance premiums, while himself walking free from a decade of evading income taxes on his Caribbean resort rental property.”

Carter, a former judge, became secretary of the House Republican Caucus last year, transforming the office into an ethics watchdog post.  He’s been a relentless in his pursuit of equal application of the law, introducing legislation entitled the Rangel Rule last year that would allow everyday Americans to get the same treatment by the IRS that Rangel received when he avoided paying interest and penalty payments for delinquent taxes.

Carter also won his House primary election challenge last night so, all in all, it was a big day for the former judge.

HUMAN EVENTS reported yesterday on behind the scenes jockeying and ruffled feathers in the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) over Rangel’s impending removal from the chair.  As the first CBC member ever to hold the chair of the powerful tax-writing committee, the CBC wants another member from their caucus to replace him.  Pelosi would have to reach down to number five in committee seniority to accomplish that feat.

A report in Politico now says one of five committee members would get the post if vacated.

“Political oddsmakers from the Capitol to K Street say that it could be any of the top five Democrats on the committee behind Rangel: Rep. Pete Stark (D-Calif.), Rep. Sander Levin (D-Mich.), Rep. Jim McDermott (D-Wash.), Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) or Rep. Richard Neal (D-Mass.).”

Originally posted on HumanEvents.com.