Rangel steps aside as ethics questions swirl

Rangel said he was leaving the post to prevent Republicans from forcing his fellow Democrats to vote on ousting him from the position after he was admonished by the House ethics committee last week for accepting corporate-sponsored trips to the Caribbean.

The ethics panel is still investigating more serious accusations regarding Rangel’s fund-raising, his failure to pay federal taxes on rental income from a villa he owns in the Dominican Republic, and his use of four rent-stabilized apartments provided by a Manhattan real estate developer.

“In order to avoid my colleagues having to defend me during their elections, I have this morning sent a letter to Speaker [Nancy] Pelosi asking her to grant me a leave of absence until such time as the ethics committee completes its work,’’ Rangel said.

He will remain a member of Congress and a member of the Ways and Means Committee. But in giving up the chairman’s gavel little more than three years after attaining it, he is leaving one of the most prominent positions in Congress, a post with great influence over tax, health care, and other legislation and with the ability to command the attention - and campaign donations - of American business leaders.

The trappings are elaborate, with an ornate hearing room and stately offices. The stature of the post has occasionally overwhelmed those who hold it; two previous Democratic chairmen, Dan Rostenkowski of Illinois and Wilbur Mills of Arkansas, left in disgrace.

Rangel’s departure sent Democrats looking for a successor at a critical time in the debate over Democratic plans for a health care overhaul. Some of the central elements of the health plan fall squarely under the purview of the tax-writing committee.

Representative Pete Stark, 78, a liberal California Democrat and longtime health policy specialist, is next in line by seniority. Democratic members of the committee also were weighing the possibility of handing the gavel to another senior member, possibly Representative Sander Levin of Michigan. In the meantime, Stark became the interim chairman.

Rangel’s ethics troubles presented a delicate political issue for Democrats as they head into a difficult midterm election cycle. They campaigned hard against what they labeled the Republican “culture of corruption’’ in their 2006 takeover of the House, and Pelosi promised to root out wrongdoing, providing an opening to Republicans who accused her of protecting Rangel.

“It’s disappointing that Speaker Pelosi and Democratic leaders let this situation go on this long - especially after promising to preside over the most honest, open, and ethical Congress in history,’’ Representative John Boehner of Ohio, the Republican leader, said in a statement.

The House ethics committee last week admonished Rangel for violating congressional gift rules by accepting corporate-sponsored trips to the Caribbean in 2007 and 2008. Seizing on that finding, Republicans planned yesterday to force a vote on removing him from the chairmanship.

Rangel had weathered such votes in the past year, but the ethics committee’s finding seriously undermined his Democratic support and it appeared that he could lose the showdown. The prospect sent Pelosi and her leadership team searching for a way to spare lawmakers a potentially bruising fight over the chairman. Though he declared on Tuesday night that he would not step aside, Rangel arrived at the Capitol yesterday morning and did just that.