Top Tax Writer Rangel Not So Good With Numbers

From The Wall Street Journal:

When normal people happen to “find” their own money, it might mean a twenty left in a winter coat, or discovering change beneath the sofa cushions. But if you’re Charlie Rangel, it means doubling your net worth.

Earlier this month the Chairman of the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee “amended” his 2007 financial disclosure form—to the tune of more than a half-million dollars in previously unreported assets and income. That number may be as high as $780,000, because Congress’s ethics rules only require the Members to report their finances within broad ranges.

This voyage of personal financial discovery brings Mr. Rangel’s net worth for 2007 to somewhere between $1.028 million and $2.495 million, while his previous statement came in at $516,015 and $1.316 million.

Mr. Rangel is the top tax writer in the land, yet there doesn’t seem to be an appetite among the main stream media for the story of his repeated tax and financial transgressions.

You won’t see Lesley Stahl of 60 minutes do an investigative piece on Rangel. You won’t see MSNBC give more than a passing mention of his several transgressions. And your lucky if you hear more than a word about them on the nightly news shows of the major networks, ABC, NBC and CBS.

What do you think?

Does the main stream media treat Democrat wrongdoers different than it does Republican transgressors, or is that just a vast right-wing conspiracy theory?

Before you answer that, imagine for a moment that the story was about a Republican chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee who had done the following:

• Failed to report $75,000 of rental income on his federal income tax returns
• Improperly used rent-stabilized apartments in New York
• Improperly solicited donations for the Charles Rangel Center for Public Service at City College of New York, which was funded by a $1.9 million earmark.

Call me crazy, but I have a feeling Charlie Gibson, Brian Williams and Katie Couric would have foamed at the bit to lead with it.

(Hat Tip: Kerry Kerstetter, The Tax Guru)

Related Posts:

• Did House Ways and Means Chairman Charlie Rangel Pull a Blagojevich?
• Representative Charlie Rangel Hires Forensic Accounting Firm to Examine his Tax Returns
• Give Me that Tax Return Charlie Rangel Before You Hurt Yourself
• No Hablas Español, Señor Rangel?