By Bob Parks ——Bio and Archives--September 11, 2008
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Representative Charles B. Rangel said on Wednesday that “cultural and language barriers” had hindered him from understanding the finances of his Dominican Republic beach house, and vowed to repay several thousand dollars in federal taxes he owes after failing to report $75,000 in rental income from the villa. “Every time I thought I was getting somewhere, they’d start speaking Spanish,” Mr. Rangel said.Can you imagine being grilled during a hearing chaired by Congressman Rangel and using an excuse like that? Do you think he'd let that lame excuse fly? This is one of the things that disgust me about politicians. They constantly write and pass laws that we have to obey under penalty of imprisonment, yet when they get caught blowing off a law, they expect us to buy their excuses. Excuses we'd be laughed at for even attempting.
At a Capitol Hill news conference, during which he was by turns remorseful and combative, the congressman said that he had not been aware of the income and unpaid taxes in part because he had trouble getting detailed financial statements from the resort’s managers in the Dominican Republic. The explanation was greeted with skepticism and surprise by some people in his district, where Spanish is the primary language in nearly half the households and even Mr. Rangel’s own Congressional Web site can be instantly translated to Spanish with just two clicks of a computer mouse.Of course as Democrats are in control, this will go nowhere. The press is reporting it, but wont push it. They have bigger barracudas to fry.
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Bob Parks is a is a member/writer of the National Advisory Council of Project 21. Bob’s websites are Black & Right and youtube.com/BlackAndRight