CREW is calling for Charlie Rangel’s resignation now that the Ethics Committee has found him guilty on 11 of the 13 charges against him for violating House ethics rules. But the guy was just reelected overwhelmingly two weeks ago today, and no new facts about the alleged violations have emerged since then. Thwarting the will of the voters in his district would be appropriate in truly egregious situations where the Member is utterly unfit to serve and his presence interferes with the conduct of the people’s business. Rangel’s violations don’t fall in that category.

But here’s where it gets tricky: What should Rangel’s punishment be? Read More

Michele Bachmann hates earmarks but says there should be a ‘redefinition’ of what counts as an earmark when it comes to her own district.

I doubt she will be the last.

Jon Stewart on John McCain’s DADT waffling: “It’s the maverick way — spend a year studying whether soldiers deserve full civil rights, and a half an hour deciding who will be your presidential running mate.” Watch.

With Republicans controlling the House, what’s the way forward for the next two years on building a clean energy agenda? The Coalition for Green Capital has a plan.

So Jim DeMint has gotten Mitch McConnell to cave on earmarks. Barack Obama, who’s been on the anti-earmark train since he was in the Senate, diggingly thanked McConnell for “joining” him in opposing earmarks. And now we even have Michele Bachmann, scourge of earmarkers, saying that when it comes to building a bridge in her district, well, that’s not an earmark.

Everyone is playing the anti-earmark game. But let’s not forget, Republicans or Democrats, that the whole earmarks story, as anything that has any real effect on the national fisc, is basically a crock. Read More

RNC political director, the aptly named Gentry Collins, quits his post and releases a scathing four page letter attacking RNC Chair Michael Steele.

You don’t often get to see the inner workings of a political hit, but we had a hunch that when Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) lowered the boom on an art gallery director at a public university in his district it might leave a paper trail. So we filed a public records request with the university. What we found was illuminating.

Fellow New Yorker Rep. Elliot Engel (D) says Charlie Rangel can’t “just excuse away” his ethics violations. Watch.

The Politico lead this morning with a piece on how incoming freshman Republicans were “vow[ing] not to repeat 1994.” But the funny thing is that for anyone who remembers 1994, the quotes from the newly elected folks sounds pretty much exactly like the crew from 1994. The message they’ve absorbed is 1) don’t request earmarks, 2) don’t get indicted and 3) don’t get caught having an affair. What they are pledging to do is not go native, not compromise and push for big changes fast. Read More

Last night I noted Glenn Thrush’s scoop in Politico about how incoming Rep. Andy Harris (R-MD) got all bent out of shape at that freshman orientation when he found out that he’d have to wait a month after being sworn into office to get his government run/subsidized health care. “This is the only employer I’ve ever worked for where you don’t get coverage the first day you are employed,” said Harris.

My sense when I found out about the story was that that kind of wait isn’t at all out of the ordinary if you’re not an affluent professional. Harris is an anesthesiologist. And sure enough, this recent study says the average amount of time a new employee has to wait to get on the company health care plan is just over 2 months. And about a third of people have to wait three months or more.