WASHINGTON (AP) — The House ethics committee's chief counsel recommended Thursday that Rep. Charles Rangel be censured in connection with the panel's finding that he engaged in improper financial and fundraising conduct.

Chief counsel Blake Chisman called for that punishment, despite the veteran New York Democrat's plea for "a drop of fairness and mercy."

If Mr. Chisam's recommendation is carried out, it would be the most serious punishment short of expulsion that could be meted out by the House. Mr. Chisam and Mr. Rangel argued their positions at a public hearing on sanctions, where the 80-year-old congressman acknowledged making mistakes in handling his finances and said he wasn't there to "retry this case"...

Rep. Charles Rangel was convicted on 11 counts of ethics violations by a panel of his peers, Tuesday, and will now face penalties.

The eight-member House ethics panel deliberated for two days before finding the 20-term New York Democrat guilty.

Rangel, 80, was originally charged with 13 counts of financial and fundraising misconduct. He called Tuesday's decision "unprecedented"...

Capitol Hill's most celebrated ethics trial in years continued Monday without the defendant after Rep. Charles B. Rangel, New York Democrat, walked out on the proceedings, claiming he was not given the time to prepare a defense and lacked the money to pay for an attorney to represent him.

The 80-year-old Mr. Rangel, a one-time chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee and one of the most powerful black lawmakers in Congress, stunned colleagues at the start of an adjudicatory hearing of the House Committee on the Standards of Official Conduct, announcing he would not offer a defense in the probe into charges he abused his office and violated House rules on financial reporting and fundraising...

New York Democrat Charles Rangel told his fellow lawmakers Tuesday in a rambling and defiant floor speech that he's not resigning, despite 13 charges of ethical wrongdoing.

"I am not going away," the former Ways and Means Committee chairman declared in a combative tone. "If I can't get my dignity back here, then fire your best shot in getting rid of me through expulsion."

Rangel, who is 80, spoke without notes in an extraordinary, often emotional 37-minute speech that defied his lawyers' advice to keep quiet about his case...

House investigators on Monday charged Rep. Maxine Waters with "improperly" exerting influence to help bail out a bank in which her husband held stock, handing more ammunition to Republicans eager to blast House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for overseeing a "House of scandal."

The House ethics panel said the office of the senior California Democrat violated conflict of interest rules by repeatedly lobbying the Treasury Department for bailout money on behalf of minority-owned OneUnited in which her husband held as much as $350,000 in stock. The bank received a $12 million slice of the taxpayer-funded Wall Street bailout.

Ms. Waters has fiercely proclaimed her innocence and asked the committee to make public the 10-page "statement of alleged violation" against her. Like Rep. Charles B. Rangel of New York, she has opted to let the matter play out in a public hearing before the bipartisan ethics committee, demanding that one be scheduled as soon as possible...

Democrats continue to face issues ranging from President Obama's declining popularity to Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich's public trail, but now the ongoing investigation into New York Representative Charles Rangel's ethics violations has the party embattled even more.

For the past two years, the House Ethics Committee has investigated Rangel for tax fraud and other allegations since the New York representative relinquished the coveted chairmanship of the House Ways and Means Committee after being pressured by Democrats to resign.

"To my family, friends and constituents who have been there for me throughout, I can only say without dispute that I won't let you down," the 20-term congressman stated in Harlem. "Thank God the report is complete, and...we will do like anything else when we discuss the findings"...

House Republicans will move again on Tuesday to strip Rep. Charlie Rangel of his chairmanship of the powerful Ways and Means Committee — and after last week’s admonishment of the veteran New York lawmaker by the House ethics committee, Republicans are confident that they will be pick up more Democratic votes.

Rep. John Carter (R-Texas) will introduce a privileged resolution Tuesday on Rangel, according to John Stone, his spokesman.

Carter is hoping for a vote on the measure by Wednesday, Stone said...

The powerful chairman of the tax-writing committee of the U.S. House is being urged to step down from his post for, among other things, failing to pay taxes.

The House Ethics Committee is continuing its 16-month investigation into House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charlie Rangel (D-New York), who is accused of failing to disclose more than $600,000 in previously unreported assets, and tens of thousands of dollars in unreported income. He also failed to pay taxes on $75,000 in rental income on his villa in the Dominican Republic. Those are just a few of the 14 allegations of tax or ethics violations by Rangel the committee is looking into.

All but two Democrats in the House (Gene Taylor and Travis Childers, both of Mississippi) recently voted against a resolution that called for Rangel to step down from his position on the Ways and Means Committee. read more »

(CNSNews.com) - House Ways and Means Chairman Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) suggested in an interview with CNSNews.com last week that the health care reform plan under consideration in Congress will save money by moving illegal aliens off the roles of “uninsured” people where the cost of the health care they do get is absorbed by people who are insured and where they benefit from federal expenditures.

Rangel’s spokesman later clarified to CNSNews.com, however, that illegal aliens are not covered under the House health care bill, which was drafted in part by the Ways and Means Committee that Rep. Rangel chairs...

First it was Gov. Paterson. Now the dean of New York's congressional delegation has played the race card -- and just as the governor did, he's using President Obama to do it, the New York Post reported.

Rep. Charles Rangel said Tuesday that "bias" and "prejudice" toward Obama are fueling opposition to health-care reform.

Those incendiary comments came on the heels of Paterson's controversial comments about race that also mentioned the nation's first black president.

"Some Americans have not gotten over the fact that Obama is president of the United States. They go to sleep wondering, 'How did this happen?' " Rangel (D-Manhattan) said Tuesday...