Who's the Powerhouse of Harlem? Charlie Rangel, and He's Having Some Bad Days

Let's get straight with something before descending in the murk and mire of Charlie Rangel's latest tribulation.

Congressman Rangel [photo, left] is likely one of the brightest, most courageous and thoughtful politicians to have graced the stage of public service over the past half century, not just in New York but in the country.

But, and here an alas would perhaps fit, we also have to say that he surely is among the slickest to strut that stage.

And while for a hustler or three-card monte player that last designation might be a compliment, it does not generally draw applause when applied to elected officials.

That's because even the most cynical will say, certainly when the microphones are on, that politics is meant to serve the hoi polloi, "the people," as they struggle and strive, facing here in New York City monthly housing costs that would cause apoplexy elsewhere.

Which is why the charge now being leveled against Rangel are making so many New Yorkers angry with him.

Rangel,  the most powerful member of New York Congressional delegation -- he's the chair of the House Ways and Means Committee -- is said to have effectively pocketed as much as $30,000 a year in rent he did not have to pay for his units in Harlem's Lenox Terrace apartment complex [photo, right].

Lenox Terrace is the sprawling development in Central Harlem that has long been home to Rangel and other powerful Harlem politicians.

Another politician who has a rent regulated apartment there -- and who like Rangel is paying about half the market rent of several thousand a month -- is Gov. David Paterson.

Critics are saying that New York's rent regulation laws were not meant to allow powerful politicians to amass several units at bargain rents. There is also the question of whether the reduced rents may have violated restrictions on gifts to members of Congress.

It'll be interesting to watch this drama unfold. Rangel normally takes criticism in stride, deflecting it with the smoothness of a champion boxer; but he does seem somewhat awkwardly as he deals with these recent blows, showing an anxious bitterness toward The New York Times for having printed the story headlined, "For Rangel, Four Rent-Stabilized Apartments."

The grey eminence of Harlem had been surviving, or so it seemed, resentments over his steadfast backing of Hillary Clinton for President, even as so many black New Yorkers and other Americans saw Barack Obama as a beacon of hope. There are clearly many, especially blacks, who lost much respect for Rangel because of that, especially given the race-baiting strategy pursued by Hillary Clinton and her husband Bill.

But this latest affair regarding Lenox Terrace may prove to be a much bigger headache for the man who once said that he hasn't had a bad day since his heroic service in the army during the Korean conflict.

From his testiness with The New York Times, it does seem he is indeed having some bad days of late.

Comments

[jerry]

rep carles Rangel sshould be impeacheed or drop out of congress