The House Ethics Committee will recommend that Charlie Rangel be censured for the 11 violations of which he was convicted. As Ed Morrissey points out, this was their only real choice. They wouldn't kick him out in a million years, and a "reprimand" would have been even more of a joke: The House ethics committee has recommended censure for Representative Charles B. Rangel for ethics violations. The vote was 9 to 1.The committee's decision marked a stunning rebuke to the 20-term congressman, diminishing his stature even as, in his final statement to the committee, he pleaded that it make clear in its final decision that he had not done anything to disgrace Congress or enrich himself, and had not been corrupt.It was the committee's counsel, R. Blake Chisam, who acted as prosecutor in the case, who recommended that Mr. Rangel be censured, a stronger punishment than a reprimand but well short of expulsion. Shortly before the committee of five Democrats and five Republicans began...(Read Full Post)