Princeton, August 3, 2010 – Calling incumbent Congressman Rush Holt’s continued silence on the serious ethical scandal swirling around Congressman Charlie Rangel (D-NY) “deafening,” Republican challenger Scott Sipprelle today challenged Holt to speak publicly about Rangel and join a growing bipartisan chorus calling for his resignation from the United States House of Representatives.
Sipprelle pointed out that even President Obama has called the charges against Rangel “very troubling,” and clearly implied Rangel should resign his seat during an interview with Katie Couric of CBS News.
“A major thrust of my campaign against Congressman Holt is that he tries to pass himself off as a moderate at home, while in reality he has become a hyper-partisan rubber stamp for his party bosses in Washington,” said Sipprelle, referring to a National Journal report that ranks Holt as having the most extreme liberal voting record in all of Congress.
“Sadly, in the wake of his continued silence on the ethics scandal surrounding Congressman Rangel, it appears his partisan streak even extends to looking the other way when a member of his own party has clearly violated the public trust. This extraordinary lack of leadership is indicative of why the American people have lost faith in our government and their elected officials in Washington,” said Sipprelle. “Today, I challenge Mr. Holt to speak publicly on this matter and join a growing bipartisan chorus calling for Mr. Rangel’s resignation immediately.”
House investigators accused Rangel of 13 violations of congressional ethics standards, including allegations of failure to report rental income from vacation property in the Dominican Republic, hundreds of thousands of dollars in additional income and assets on his financial disclosure statements, questionable use of congressional staff and stationery to raise money for a college center in New York named after him, accepting favors and benefits from the donors that may have influenced his congressional actions, use of a subsidized New York apartment as a campaign office instead of a residence, and misuse of the congressional free mail privilege.
“It is time for Mr. Holt to put service to his constituents ahead of his partisan loyalties,” said Sipprelle, who questioned whether Holt’s hesitancy to speak out on the issue was due to Rangel’s strong financial support - $24,000 in campaign contributions – during Holt’s congressional career. “His failure to call on Mr. Rangel’s resignation speaks volumes about how out-of-touch Mr. Holt has become in recent years.” (Source: http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2009/10/charles-rangels-support-wanes.html)
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Holt probably doesn't want to criticize Rangel (or Waters, for that matter), or call for him to step down, because he doesn't think Rangel did anything wrong. He probably sees this sort of behavior as a legitimate perk of power. That would explain Holt doing nothing for twelve years except following the voting directives of his party bosses, all the while living off the toil of the people who put him there.
Even if Holt thinks Rangel did something wrong, he's unlikely to criticize him absent enormous pressure to do so, because he always puts party loyalty above doing what is right.
Has anyone asked the Congressman what he thinks? Or is this just partisan political grandstanding.
Who knows what Holt thinks. He can't be asked because he's basically in hiding. Won't hold public town halls, won't debate...
We have to cut him a break, it's
very time-consuming trying to find
a NEW JOB in this terrible economy
he helped create!!
anon: 3:52 "Economy he helped create?
Are you kidding me? Rush Holt no more created this economy than Obama.
What a stupid statement.
The economy has improved since Obama took office. Employment will still be the lagging indicator as many economist have predicted. We've got a long way to go, but we're heading in the right direction.
Facts are facts whether you want to believe it or not. Just remember where we were a year ago.
"just remember where we were a year ago."
I have a better idea. Just remember where we were TWO years ago, BEFORE Obama was destroying the country at the beckoning of NoClue Nancy.
Two years ago employment was only 6%. The Dow Jones was higher. Unemployment was 6%, not 9.5% as it is now. We hadn't gone two trillion dollars into debt for programs that didn't work. The country hadn't nationalized General Motors robbing shareholders of all their equity - unprecedented in this country and likely unconstitutional. Racism was not the number one topic in Washington. No one accused anyone of racism every time someone was caught with their hand in the cookie jar. When Bush's poll numbers went down, it was called racism. What a poor loser's excuse for failure.
Citigroup was stronger. housing prices were higher. There were fewer foreclosures, which, although pretty bad at the time, have escalated dramatically in the last two years. We didn't have a government stand by doing absolutely nothing but point fingers for three months while the gulf was filling with oil. If you remember, Democratic apologists complained that it took Bush four days to do something about Katrina. Imagine if he did nothing for three months. Imagine if he played golf seven times during that period like Obama did.
Congress was not polarized, voting on every bill strictly along party lines within maybe two or three senators going one way or the other.
Consumer spending was higher. Public optimism was higher. Jobless claims were smaller. It goes on and on. Let's face it, the Obama administration has been the biggest presidential disaster in American history. He may well prove to be a worse president than Jimmy Carter -- something long thought to be unattainable.
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