Congressman Charlie Rangel's congressional career began 40 years ago as a battle against corruption. It seems as if his life has come full-circle, or, a commentary on two distinguished political careers; both brought down by a combination of personal hubris and institutionalized congressional corruption.

Congressman Charles Rangel (D-NY; 15) was first elected to political office in 1971. He is a founding member of the Congressional Black Caucus and reached the height of his career in 2007 when he assumed the chairmanship of the powerful House Ways & Means Committee.

In order to place Charles Rangel in perspective, one must go all the way back to 1944 and review the career of his predecessor Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Powell was first elected to Congress in 1945 and was the first African American elected to Congress from the State of New York and the first from any state other than Illinois, post-reconstruction.

One of Congressman Powell's most notable actions was when he broke with his party's ranks in 1956 and supported Dwight, Eisenhower for reelection saying that the Democratic Party's civil rights platform was too weak. Powell was also a Baptist minister and in 1960 he forced the resignation of civil right activist Bayard Rustin from the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, which he had co-founded

In 1961, now a 15 year veteran of Washington DC, Powell was awarded the chairmanship of the House Education & Labor Committee. During his tenure he presided over federal programs for minimum wage increases, Medicaid, expanding the minimum wage to include retail workers, equal pay for women, education and training for the deaf, nursing education, vocational training and standards for wages and work hours, as well as aid to elementary and secondary education. He was also instrumental in the passage of President Lyndon Johnson's Great Society programs and War on Poverty legislation.

However, by the mid-1960s Powell was being increasingly criticized for mismanagement of the committee's budget, for taking trips abroad at public expense (including travel to his retreat on the Bahamian isle of Bimini), and missing meetings of the committee he chaired. He was also under attack in his district, where his refusal to pay a slander judgment made him subject to arrest. It was later proved he was carrying a Ms. Yvette Diago on his congressional payroll for six years (1961 to 1967) even though Ms. Diago had moved back to her home in Puerto Rico in 1961. He was also accused of other charges including evading a subpoena in New York and failing to appear on a post judgment hearing involving the slander case he had lost. In January 1967 the House Democratic Caucus stripped Powell of his committee chairmanship; and the full House refused to seat him until completion of an investigation by the Judiciary Committee.

In June 1970 Powell was defeated in the Democratic primary by a former Army Staff Sergeant and Korean Purple Heart winner named Charles B. Rangel. Congressman Rangel rose rapidly through the Democratic Congressional ranks through a combination of his solid liberal views and his pragmatic approach to getting things done. He served as chairman of the House Select Committee on Narcotics, assisted in the passing of the Empowerment Zone Act. An outspoken opponent of the Bush Administration and the Iraq War, Representative Rangel was awarded the chairmanship of the House Ways & Means Committee in 2007. In 2008 a series of allegations of ethics violations and failures to follow tax rules surfaced. In early 2010 the House Ethics Committee concluded that Charlie Rangel violated House rules by accepting payments from corporations for reimbursement for travel to two conferences in the Caribbean. Rangel denied he knew of the corporate sponsorship even though the corporation's name and logo were literally plastered over every vertical surface at the conference. The Ethics Committee forced Rangel to repay those expenses.

In early March of 2010 House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, appearing on ABC's This Week, said she wouldn't take action on allegations concerning Rangel's real estate deals and corporate-sponsored Caribbean trips until she had a full result of an ethics investigation. She also stated that Rangel's alleged misdeeds had not jeopardized the country in any way. A far cry from her 2006 vow, upon assuming the Speakership to "Drain the swamp." Note to Nancy: When you're up to your ass in alligators it's hard to remember that your original intention was merely to drain the swamp!
Later in March Congressman Rangel was forced to step down from his chairmanship of Ways and Means and in July of this year was formerly charged with thirteen specific counts of violating House rules and federal laws; the most egregious of which are Rangel's use of congressional staff and stationery to raise money for a college center in New York named after him and accepting favors and benefits from donors that may have influenced his congressional actions. These allegations, if proven, amount to nothing less than corruption in office.

I find it noteworthy that Congressman Rangel campaigned almost forty years ago against Congressman Powell using allegations of malfeasance in office against his opponent. Now he stands accused of committing the same things. I also find it noteworthy that Rangel is facing a Democratic Primary of A commentary on two distinguished political careers; both brought down by a combination of personal hubris and institutionalized congressional corruption.his own in New York's 15th Congressional District this September while his trial before the Ethic Committee will be playing out. The irony here is that one of his opponents in this primary is none other than Adam Clayton Powell IV. Ah karma!