Remembering the representative Charlie Rangel, and a voice message I will never forget

I did not recognize the New York number “917” that called me.

But there was no question about who called after leaving a message.

The person calling in voicemail was absolutely unmistakable.

They did not say their name.

They did not have to do it.

“Chad, you are the only one who missed me,” Croakar la voices.

Ex -NY Democrat representing Charlie Rangel, died at 94

It had the feeling of stone crushing that worked on a basalt on a west virginia quarry.

The voice message was from the late representative Charlie Rangel, Dn.y. And it was essentially to ensure that he was not dead.

After all, I was apparently the only member of the Congressional Corps of Congress, who realized that the New York Democrat had not voted or near the United States Capitol in several weeks.

There was no article in Roll Call. Nothing to politico. No statement from his office.

Rangel wasn’t around.

So I called and ended up talking to its communications director, Hannah Kim and Chief of Cabinet George Henry.

I asked if Rangel was fine. I was assured that it was. But they didn’t give me the full story. This was to make Rangel.

And Rangel himself called, from his sick bed, so that I could hear his signature from Jackhammer-Chopping-Thlow-The-ASFALT-OF-Manhattan to show this journalist who was still among the living.

“I wanted you to listen to me,” Rangel said.

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It was in 2012. Rangel came out due to an injury to the back and a viral infection, which made it difficult for him to stay for long periods of time. From 2008 to the end of 2010, I set aside Rangel through the Halls of Congress daily, while the veteran congresswoman took an ethical scandal. The ethics case culminated in the house that censured Rangel, who made a permanent register as a war hero, a founding member of the Caucus Black Congress and chairman of the Maners and Media Committee.

For the first time elected in the house in 1970, the star of Rangel had been attenuated after the ethics scandal. But in 2012, any information on a large and legendary congressman like Rangel was worthy of news. So, as a reporter for the Hill Beat chapter, I appreciated the phone call while describing the excrucent pain that besieged him.

It is possible that the research and censorship of the Ethics Committee by the House be more agonizing for Rangel than the subsequent problem. Rangel was so confident that he did not violate the rules of the house referring to the Ethics Committee.

Rangel began to feel the ethical heat in 2008. He used his position as chairman of the roads and means to apply for a school for a school name at the City College in New York. He did not report hundreds of thousands of dollars in rental taxes or income in a town owned by the Dominican Republic.

An apartment controlled for rent in Harlem doubled as a campaign office. He inadequately parked his Mercedes-Benz de Plata Desglossat, 1972, in the garage of the office building of the Rayburn house. The House prohibits legislators using the garage to store. Benz had no plates, it was not recorded and it had not been led in about four years. In Falls Church, Virgínia, the trailer company pulled off the car out of the garage on September 19, 2008.

The Tow-Truck video that Rayburn’s Mercedes-Benz brought would have made a juicy story the following morning on TV. But Rangel took a break.

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Then the spokeswoman for the house, Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. The north -American economy was about to be an epic financial collapse. At night, it was clear how bad the economy of the nation was. Everyone forgot -temporarily from Rangel. In fact, inoperable benz may have been better than some North -American car companies at that time.

But the Chamber’s Ethics Committee was investigating Rangel. An investigation began in 2009 and culminated in its censorship on the house of the house in 2010. The house voted 333-79 by disciplinary Rangel. A Rangel Somber appeared in the house of the House Chamber, his hands folded in front of him as if he were about to receive communion. Pelosi eliminated his warning of the daisies and slightly removed the woodpecker.

“Public confidence raped,” said Ethics Committee President Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif.

It was the first censorship of a chamber member in 27 years.

Years later, I told Rangel that I could blame me that I could blame for his problems with the Ethics Committee.

As said before, it was Rangel who believed that his actions were out of reproach. So he was sent to the Ethics Committee to review his behavior.

I went to the chapter one morning in 2008 and discovered his long time, Emile Milne, walking around the basement. I asked Milne what I was looking for. He gave up an over -over envelope.

“The Ethics Committee,” Milne said.

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This was the real “self-reference” of the Ethics Committee. And Milne was the messaging of a range dossier would be used to defend.

He knew exactly where the Ethics Committee was in those days in the catacombs of the chapter. So I escorted a milne to the door.

As I said, I told Rangel that I could blame all his problems.

Between 2008 and 2010, I went out to Rangel somewhere in the chapter almost every day. The day Pelosis called him to his office. The day Pelosi eliminated him as chairman of the ways and means. The day he spoke on the house plant to defend the allegations after the ethics group formal his research.

One night, a journalist’s outburst trapped in the hallway on the house floor and struck him with a question barrier. Rangel responded briefly. Then it was diverted. He then decided that he had enough while the scribes fired questions with the speed of a gun.

Rangel sighed, exasperated what to do.

“Sargent Charles B. Rangel. 85718162!” Hollered Rangel. “And that’s all I will say about it!”

It is unclear if the other journalists understood what had just happened. But I did it.

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Rangel served in the army during the Korea War. He was injured on his back by shrapnel and finally brought dozens of men out of a fire and safety. Several soldiers died and others were taken. Rangel courageously received purple heart and bronze.

Rangel survived that day. But again at Capitol Hill, the news cycle had made a prisoner of Rangel. So he fulfilled the terms of the Geneva Convention. A prisoner of war is only forced to provide enemy captors their name, rank and serial number. And after absorbing a strong fire body fire, Rangel had only one option.

It is noteworthy that someone with the military record and the service of the Rangel army died on the day of the Memorial.

In August 2008, Rangel published his autobiography entitled “and I have not had a bad day since then”. The book narrates as a high school abandonment joined the army and was injured on the battlefield. Rangel chose to continue, finally ended in Congress as one of the most important legislators of the last 50 years. But Rangel faced one of the toughest punishments that Congress could leave. It cost him his presidency and increased his reputation.

But Rangel was often philosophical about his fate and transgressions in Congress. He argued that, despite the problems, he had not yet had a bad day since the fateful battle in Kunu-ri, Korea at the end of 1950.

In 2012, it may have been the only one who realized that Rangel was absent when he suffered a back problem and a viral infection.

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But no doubt I will not be the only one today.