The exclusive picture below is via a source in the House. It seems that just as his colleagues appear prepared to censure disgraced Rep. Charles Rangel, he has decided to capitalize upon the deaths of NYC residents who gave their lives in military service to their country from 2006 through 2009, most likely as something of a distraction from his own misdeeds.

And, yet, once, again, Rangel is violating House Rules for his own benefit.

In a rare ritual of public humiliation, House lawmakers Thursday will begin considering censure of Rep. Charles Rangel, a legendary New York politician found to have broken 11 different ethics rules.

The 80-year-old Harlem Democrat was found to have misused congressional perks, failed to pay taxes on some income for 17 years, failed to report assets properly for a decade, and misused a rent-stabilized apartment as a campaign office.

It isn’t that it’s somehow wrong to honor our fallen American heroes, despite a rule clearly prohibiting it, it’s that on the one day his offices are likely to see a larger than ever press presence, Rangel would so brazenly interject them into the news on the very day when the focus of his office should be on Rangel’s own shameful conduct and abuse.

3.4.1 Furnishings of any kind, including but not limited to furniture items (including sign-in/registration tables, pedestals, easels, carpets, rugs and mats); shades, drapes and screens; artwork, exhibits or posters; and trees, flowers and other plans may not be placed in a hallway or exit access.

The source has also informed me that Rangel’s staff appears to have developed the habit of only putting up the display on days when his office is assumed to be coming underseige by the press and it is taken down as soon as the cameras go away. No doubt many patriotic members of the House would like to honor their own home state, or town’s fallen in such a manner, were it not prohibited by House rules.

Clearly the disgraced Rangel has not learned the lesson of playing by the rules, when ignoring them might offer him some potential benefit. Have you no sense of decency, Charlie Rangel, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency at all? Evidently the poster only makes an appearance on bad news days for Rangel, perhaps otherwise being left in some closet somewhere to collect dust.

From the Associated Press:

Rep. Charles Rangel, once one of the most influential House members, was convicted Tuesday on 11 counts of breaking ethics rules and now faces punishment. The veteran New York lawmaker immediately denounced the verdict as unfair.

An ethics panel of eight House peers deliberated over two days before delivering a jarring blow to the 20-term New York Democrat’s career. Rangel was charged with 13 counts of financial and fundraising misconduct.

The conviction also was another setback for Democrats who lost control of the House to the GOP in the midterm elections.

Rangel, a founding member of the Congressional Black Caucus, is not expected to resign. He is 80 years old and remains a dominant political figure in New York’s famed Harlem neighborhood.

He was forced to step down last March as Ways and Means chairman when the House ethics committee, in a separate case, admonished him for taking two Caribbean trips paid for by corporations.

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The ethics trial of recently reelected Rep. Charlie Rangel begins this morning. Rep. Rangel will represent himself. The Sunlight Foundation has live coverage of the trial.

From the Associated Press:

Highly visible ethics trials for two prominent Democrats will almost certainly be put off until after the November election, denying Republicans a televised spectacle that could influence voters near the end of campaigns dominated by economic issues.

The House ethics committee failed this past week to set a trial date for either Reps. Charles Rangel of New York or Maxine Waters of California.

Lawmakers plan to recess by Sept. 30 or soon afterward—not enough time to complete a trial. The House ethics committee is unlikely to start proceedings and then interrupt them. The committee has not announced its intentions.

Neither Rangel nor Waters had an immediate comment on the delay.

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From CBS News:

New York Congressman Charles Rangel has reportedly cut a deal to admit to ethical wrongdoing and avoid a potentially humiliating public trial.

Harlem friends of Rangel tell CBS 2 they have been told that the details could be unveiled when the House Ethics Committee meets Thursday afternoon.

“Sixty years ago I survived a Chinese attack in North Korea and as a result I wrote a book saying that I hadn’t had a bad day since,” Rangel said. “Today I have to reassess that statement.” In a sense, Thursday is Charlie Rangel’s war. He is battling to preserve his legacy of 40 years of congressional service in the face of ethics charges that, at the very least, will subject him to a humiliating process of having to admit ethical wrong doing.

Just what he will admit to and how he will do it remains to be seen. The punishment remains to be seen as well, but sources tell CBS 2 that at the end of the day, Rangel is not expected to be thrown out of Congress and that he is expected to run for reelection to a 21st term.

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