Yet according to one, sources say the Democrats do not have the votes to save him, while Nancy Pelosi declares "‘I guess he is still chair of Ways and Means’ " and the contradicting headlines continue.
The House ethics committee last week admonished Mr. Rangel, an ally of Speaker Nancy Pelosi, for violating Congressional gift rules by accepting corporate-sponsored trips to the Caribbean in 2007 and 2008.
The ethics panel is still investigating more serious accusations regarding Mr. Rangel’s fund-raising, his failure to pay federal taxes on rental income from a villa he owns in the Dominican Republic and his use of four rent-stabilized apartments provided by a Manhattan real estate developer.
And with Republicans preparing to force a vote Wednesday seeking to oust Mr. Rangel from his chairmanship, support among his fellow Democrats appeared to be crumbling. He huddled in a meeting with senior party leaders, including Ms. Pelosi, and officials said Democrats were urging him to step down, at least temporarily.
As he left his crisis meeting with party leaders around 8 p.m., Mr. Rangel insisted that he was not stepping down. Asked if he was going to remain as chairman, he said, “You bet your life.”
Pushed on whether he would step aside temporarily, he replied, “No.”
He said he was headed back to his office to work on jobs legislation, and when a reporter asked if he would still be the committee chairman on Wednesday, Mr. Rangel said, “Yes, and I don’t lie to the press.”
A growing number of rank-and-file Democrats said they could not envision standing behind the embattled chairman given the likelihood that he would soon face further reprimands by the ethics committee, and Republican challengers would criticize such a vote in the fall elections.
Is Rangel going to step aside? Is Pelosi's refusal to force him to, after claiming she would run the most ethical House ever going to finally make people see that she lied about cleaning that swamp? Is this a way to postpone a vote that would force him out?
Time will tell on all those questions but one thing is sure.
Nancy Pelosi cannot be trusted to clean her own house.
.
