Rangel could possibly be censured by House

Charlie Rangel has been found guilty of committing ethics violations by the House Ethics Committee. Censure, the sternest warning possible, has been recommended Censures are rare, and carry extreme stigma.

Making sure a censure happens for Rangel

Charlie Rangel (D-NY) supposedly commit ethics violations by failing to pay taxes and improperly soliciting some donations and favors which put him on trial . Campaign contributions came in through improper channels for him. He also had income and property that he didn't pay taxes on. Rangel ran out of the trial because he didn't have a lawyer on Monday. CBS reports that it didn't stop him from getting convicted though. The committee decided that he had enough time to secure counsel. That had been what they based upon the decision off of. The House Ethics committee found Congressman Rangel guilty of 11 of the 13 counts against him . "Fairness and a drop of mercy" is what Rangel asked for. This was when punishment options were being looked at. Rangel though that Blake Chisam, the chief counsel for the House ethics committee, had been being too excessive when saying Rangel should be censured .

The next worse thing to expulsion as punishment

A member can get expelled while the second to worse thing handed down by congress is a Congressional censure . It is like a "scarlet letter" to get a censure. It is much worse than a reprimand. Hardly anyone is ever actually censured making anybody who’s famous . Wikipedia reports that Gerry Studds and Daniel B. Crane were the last Representatives that were censured . Because of a 1983 sex scandal involving congressional pages, they were censured . The House's last expulsion had been James Traficant (D-OH) in 2002. He got out of prison in 2009.

Democrats face the blow

The Democrats are already seen quite bad after the 2010 election results when Charlie Rangel is one of the longest serving Democrats in the House . This isn't doing anything good for him. He might only be Congressman for a little bit longer. It is true that Rangel might not be censured. Of course, he can be reprimanded in some way still.

Articles cited

CBS News

cbsnews.com/stories/2010/11/18/politics/main7067266.shtml

Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Censure_in_the_United_States#Representative_censures