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Jan Schakowsky: Charles Rangel is “my leader”
July 30, 2010
NILES, IL- A newly discovered YouTube video reveals the close ties between Jan Schakowsky and Charles Rangel, chair of the House Ways & Means Committee, who is currently facing serious ethics charges.
The video was uploaded by the National Black Leadership Commission on AIDS (NLBCA) on March 20, 2010 (Clip:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qiv6mam60oE Original source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJCinVtyGVc).
It contains footage of a speech Schakowsky gave at an NBLCA event on Capitol Hill on March 17, 2010--two weeks after Rangel was forced to take a “leave of absence” as chair of his committee on March 3.
In her speech, Schakowsky honored “my leader, Charlie Rangel” and said: “People may look to see how I vote, but that’s ‘cause I look first at how Charlie’s voting.”
Schakowsky’s support for Rangel dates back several years. Long before Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats took over the House of Representatives, Schakowsky began pushing for Rangel to be appointed to chair his committee when power changed hands.
In an article she published in The American Prospect in October 2005, Schakowsky wrote*:
“Think about what it would mean for progressives if Nancy Pelosi were House speaker and congressional committees were chaired by people like George Miller, John Conyers, Charlie Rangel, and Henry Waxman.”
Later, when Rangel’s tax evasions were first revealed, Schakowsky voted to retain him in his position as chair of the committee that writes the tax laws.
She voted “yes” on House Vote 759 on October 7, 2009, which defeated a Republican effort to remove Rangel from the chair of the Ways & Means Committee. (Source: http://politics.nytimes.com/congress/votes/111/house/1/759)
On Wednesday, July 28, Schakowsky told the Don Wade & Roma show on WLS-AM that Rangel’s fate was “a tragic situation,” and suggested that the voters, not Congress, should be the ones to take action against him.
Schakowsky failed to come clean about her past support for Rangel, and her refusal to do anything about his ethics violations.
“Jan Schakowsky has made clear that she votes as Charles Rangel votes,” said Joel Pollak, who is challenging Schakowsky in the 9th congressional district of Illinois in the upcoming November election.
“The people of the 9th district do not want another Charles Rangel in Congress,” Pollak added. “We need a representative who will fight corruption instead of promoting it. We need a fresh start.”
*(The 2005 article was likely ghostwritten by Schakowsky’s husband, convicted felon Robert Creamer. In the article, Schakowsky writes: “As my mother used to tell me, ‘Stand up straight.’” In 2006, Creamer wrote a political manual in prison entitled “Listen To Your Mother: Stand Up Straight! How Progressives Can Win,” which he claimed was inspired by his own mother, to whom he attributed the quote and dedicated the book.)
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