Most ethical Congress -- ever !!!

House Ways and Means Committee chairman Charlie Rangel previously "forgot" about rental income on a villa in the Dominican Republic and last week "discovered" that his income was almost twice what he declared on his financial disclosure forms.

Now this would appear to be scandalous as he is entrusted with chairing the committee that writes the nation's tax laws. Speaker Pelosi has not called for his resignation nor made any overt attempts to strip him of his chairmanship. The fig leaf for this inactivity has been the House's ethics investigation.

Rangel doesn't seem troubled by the investigation and here may be why:

Congressman Rangel has been arrogant in refusing to discuss how, as the man who writes this country's tax laws, he failed to report over $1 million in outside income and $3 million in business transactions as required by the House, lapses under investigation by the House Ethics Committee.

"I recognize that all of you have an obligation to ask questions knowing that there's none of you smart enough to frame it in such a way that I'm going to respond," Rangel said.

There may be a reason for Rangel's arrogance. CBS 2 HD has discovered that since ethics probes began last year the 79-year-old congressman has given campaign donations to 119 members of Congress, including three of the five Democrats on the House Ethics Committee who are charged with investigating him.

Charlie's "angels" on the committee include Congressmen Ben Chandler of Kentucky, G.K. Butterfield of North Carolina and Peter Welch of Vermont. All have received donations from Rangel.

Sadly, this is not surprising.