sanity fair Hero Worship
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sk Dan Maffei about the trouble his friend Charlie Rangel finds himself in and you can see his jaw tighten.
The usually loquacious congressman appears pained to have to address what he calls an “unfortunate” circumstance that has become a “political football.”
Maffei worked for Rangel early in Maffei’s
Washington career. He has decided not to dis- tance himself from Rangel, even as the Wash- ington legend heads toward a rare House trial on ethical matters. Specifically, Maffei has declined to return the donations Rangel helped raise for his campaign. He can’t even say he wouldn’t take money if it were offered today, calling such a possibility “too theoretical.” When asked about his relationship with
Rangel, Maffei replies that Rangel is his friend, and he is not about to turn his back on a friend. “You deplore the sin, but love the sinner,” says Maffei. But Rangel (D-New York) has not con-
fessed to any sins, and seems determined to bluster his way through the charges by blam- ing the media and his political opponents for his downfall. Rangel has come to symbolize what many people see as what is wrong with Washington, and for good reason. His are
BY ED GRIFFIN-NOLAN
Dan Maff ei: Finds himself in a precarious position with his friendship with the ethically challenged Charlie Rangel.
Dan Maffei’s blind allegiance to Charlie Rangel creates a conflict of interest.
not the worst offenses Washington has seen in recent years, not by a long shot. But his actions and attitudes awaken the fear in many of us that those we send to Washington end up with lifestyles that remove them from under- standing how the rest of us live. Rangel has made matters worse for himself
by refusing to negotiate a settlement of the charges. Instead, he took the Roger Clemens position and painted himself into a corner with his blanket denials of wrongdoing, even as the contradictions in his statements mounted. Rangel’s distinguished career culminated in
2007 with his election as chair of the House Ways and Means Committee, a pinnacle of power in the House, and a throne from which other notable lawmakers, like Wilbur Mills, have tumbled in disgrace. Rangel resigned the post earlier this year when the Ethics Com- mittee was about to release its report accus- ing him of, among other things, conflict of interest, misuse of staff time, failure to report income, using a rent-controlled apartment as a campaign office, and trading his vote on an important tax issue for a contribution to a col- lege think tank being named in his honor (yet another good example of why public entities should never be named for living beings).
Maffei, in defending his decision to hang
on to Rangel-tainted money, says the House found that none of Rangel’s offenses were related to his fund-raising, and therefore he is not going to return the money, as Rep. Michael Arcuri (D-Utica) has promised to do. That is splitting hairs and missing the point. Charlie Rangel is the poster child for
everything that the public, fairly or unfairly, perceives as being wrong with Congress. And Maffei doesn’t get it. His judgment clouded by his friendship with someone he once great- ly admired, he now seems to blame the media and the ethics committee, lamenting that some have chosen to “Make politics of a very sad situation.” Let’s hold the sympathy. Rangel is not a
victim caught in a sad situation; he is a poli- tician who has clearly betrayed the public trust. Cancer is a sad situation; corruption is a different matter altogether. I think I will save my sympathy for the poor families in his district who might have made good use of the rent-controlled apartments he kept out of their hands. Those who rightly pointed out the good done by Rangel in his long career (Maffei made sure to mention the Bronze Star Rangel received in the Korean War) shouldn’t let that excuse his current excesses. Maffei shrugs and says of Rangel “he’s from a previous generation.” That would be the Jimmy Carter generation, no? It’s obvious to anyone with any distance
from the party that the congenial Rangel suf- fers from a nasty mix of arrogance and senior- ity that made him feel both entitled and above
the law. Maffei acknowledges that his friend is guilty of “at least arrogance and blatant over- sight.” That doesn’t make him unique. It does make him a liability and a disgrace. Decorated and venerated in the past, there is no other way to describe his current status. Maffei sounds pained, as if he is asking
for sympathy for his predicament. “No one is more disappointed than I am,” he told me. One wonders if Maffei would use the same language to refer to say, Tom DeLay. Although Maffei agrees that the Ethics
Committee procedure should go forward, he doesn’t say that Rangel should be censured. He doesn’t join the president in suggesting that Rangel quietly retire. He doesn’t feel that he needs to return any of the thousands of dol- lars Rangel has helped him raise. He doesn’t see what is clearly visible to the rest of us— that Rangel has decided he is invincible and that the rules don’t apply to him. “People say ‘well, you should have nothing
to do with Charlie Rangel’ but he’s a friend of mine,” says Maffei. “Clearly he did some- thing wrong. I don’t condone that, but I’m his friend. You can’t stop being someone’s friend. I can’t change my resume. That’s not how I’m made.” It’s easy to point out wrongdoing when
the wrong is being done by your adversaries. What takes courage is to speak up when the one violating your principles is your friend. The people of the 25th District need to remind our first-term congressman that we didn’t send him to Washington to act as Charlie Rangel’s friend, but rather as our representative. o
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