SALON

Tuesday, Aug 10, 2010 7:11 PM UTC

Defiant Rangel: “Fire your best shot”

In a defiant speech on the House floor, the embattled New York Democrat insists he won't resign

By

Topics: Charlie Rangel, D-N.Y., War Room,

Defiant Rangel: This video image provided by House Television shows Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y. speaking on the floor of the House on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Aug. 10, 2010. (AP Photo/House Television)(Credit: AP)

Despite warnings from friends not to speak out, embattled Rep. Charlie Rangel took to the House floor early this afternoon and insisted that he won’t resign — and dared his colleagues to kick him out.

“Fire your best shot and get rid of me through expulsion,” the 80-year-old declared.

Rangel, who “temporarily” stepped down as chairman of the Ways and Means Committee in March, has been charged by the ethics committee with 13 counts of wrongdoing; he spent about 20 minutes calling for the proceedings against him to be expedited.

“Hey, if I was you, I might want me to go away, too,” he said to his colleagues, many of whom have called for his departure. “I am not going away. I am here.”

Currently, an ethics trial is scheduled to start Sept. 13, a day before Rangel will face his district’s Democratic primary voters. The trial could last weeks, or even months. He said he won’t even entertain the idea of resigning until the proceedings conclude.

Rangel did plead guilty “to not being sensitive” to running a congressional office out of his residence. He said he doesn’t take the situation personally and that — in digging in his heels — he’s actually looking out for his colleagues.

“The president wants dignity,” Rangel said. “Let’s have dignity in this House where the ethics commitee means something and that none of you, if the newspapers say anything, will have to wait two years before you can say ‘no comment.’”

He ended by saying, “I don’t expect answers today. But at the end of the day, somebody, somebody has to do more than wish I go away.”

More Anika Anand.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 9 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: So long, Sookie Stackhouse

Recommendations