News

Charles Rangel, one of the longest-continually-serving congressmen in American history and a Purple Heart Veteran, died on Memorial Day, May 26, at age 94.

“A towering figure in American politics and a champion for justice, equity, and opportunity, Congressman Rangel dedicated over four decades of his life to public service,” his family said in a statement Monday. “Throughout his career, Congressman Rangel fought tirelessly for affordable housing, urban revitalization, fair tax policies, and equal opportunities for all Americans.”

As a representative of New York’s 13th district, which included Rangel’s birthplace of Harlem,...

The House on Wednesday voted to censure Rep. Paul Gosar (R-az) and to remove him from his committee assignments over his Twitter post featured an altered anime video in which he is shown killing Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-ny) and threatening President Joe Biden with swords.

The vote was 223-207, with two Republicans, Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-il) and Rep. Liz Cheney (R-wy) voting with all Democrats in favor of the resolution. Rep. David Joyce (R-oh) voted present.

Gosar then appeared on the House floor as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi delivered the official censure from the dais.

Gosar has taken down the post but did not publicly apologized for it. Instead, on the House floor, he described the post as an attack on Biden administration policies. “There is no threat in the cartoon other than the threat that immigration poises to this country,” he said.

But Pelosi said before the vote, “This...

After earning Emmys for his works examining the murder of Emmett Till, the Black Panthers, and the Civil Rights movement, Stanley Nelson is turning his incisive lens toward another piece of Black history: the devastation caused by the crack epidemic and the war on drugs.

Below see a trailer for “Crack: Cocaine, Corruption & Conspiracy,” which will get a Netflix release on January 11, 2021. The trailer teases a documentary that examines the trajectory of cocaine from party drug of the rich to a devastating force in poor communities, as well a previously untold look at the role played by local, state, and federal governments in the war on drugs.

President Barack Obama bestowed Nelson with the National Humanities Medal in 2013. He earned a MacArthur Fellowship, also known as a genius grant, in 2002 for “synthesizing biography, history, and culture in signature portrayals of the African American experience.” Among his most notable work is...

In today’s TV news roundup, TNT announced “Snowpiercer’s” second season premiere date, and Epix set the premiere date for docuseries “By Whatever Means Necessary: The Times of Godfather of Harlem.”

Casting

Natalie Zea will join the cast of “The Unicorn” alongside Walton Goggins, with whom she appeared on “Justified,” for an extended run, CBS announced. The series follows a widower (Goggins) who finds he is completely unprepared to singlehandedly raise his two daughters and reenter the dating world as he tries to move on from tragedy. Aided by his friends, he awkwardly navigates his love life as a total package “unicorn.” The series also stars Rob Corddry, Omar Benson Miller, Maya Lynne Robinson and Michaela Watkins.

Golden Globe-winning actor Joanne Froggatt (“Downton Abbey”) will star in ITV and Spectrum Originals’ psychological thriller “Angela Black.” The six-episode drama, produced by Two Brothers Pictures in association with All3Media International, is...

At 8 a.m. on a frigid January morning, Maya Rockeymoore Cummings, 49-year-old widow of the late Congressman Elijah Cummings, was standing on a busy street corner in Baltimore, enthusiastically waving at passing cars next to a campaign sign with her name on it. She’d been doing this every morning and evening at rush hour — rain, snow, or shine — before and after a full day of knocking on doors and talking to voters. There were no fewer than 32 people in the special election to succeed her legendary husband in Congress,...

Over the weekend, actor George Clooney held a fundraiser for Hillary Clinton at his home, and Bernie Sanders supporters expressed their opinion by throwing dollar bills at Hillary's motorcade as it drove up to the party. On CNN's New Day Monday morning, co-anchor Brooke Baldwin called out the rather unmistakable imagery, asking Clinton surrogate Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-ny) if he read anything more into the scene.

Ted Cruz is not in Wisconsin anymore. Fresh off his Tuesday victory in the Midwestern state, the Gop hopeful held a campaign event in the Bronx on Wednesday, where he got the cold shoulder from voters still sore over his mocking of "New York values" in a January attack ad about rival Donald Trump. "Residents and leaders derided him for insulting the city and the borough, only to come crawling back for votes," The Daily News reports. Adds The Washington Post, Bronx voters still "haven't gotten over" Cruz's criticism of the borough during a 2014 lecture on immigration: "I understand Manhattan...

If there's anyone who knows what it takes to bounce back after being humiliated on a national scale, it's NY Congressman Charlie Rangel ... who has some advice for A-Rod on how to weather the storm.  TMZ Sports spoke with Rangel out in D.C. -- and asked how Alex Rodriguez could get back into the good graces of Yankees fans ... following his second Ped scandal.  Rangel knows a thing or two about image rehab --...

While introducing Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-ny) on Thursday, MSNBC anchor Thomas Roberts opened up with some of his thoughts no how Republicans should comport themselves during the course of the debate over the Affordable Care Act’s botched roll-out. He wondered if the Republican can be constructive and “fact-based” or will they revel in their vindication like “pigs in slop?”...

CNN anchor Ashleigh Banfield ripped into and laughed at Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-ny) in an interview on Tuesday morning after he responded to a House proposal to open the government and raise the debt ceiling in exchange for changes to the Affordable Care Act by linking the Gop in Congress to the Confederacy. Rangel added that Republicans are overtly attempting to overthrow the government of the United States of America.

Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-ny) told MSNBC’s Martin Bashir on Monday that the outcome of the trial of George Zimmerman would have been different had the defendant been black and not Hispanic. If that were the case, Rangel said, the question would be whether the arresting officers would have “beat him to death” before putting him in handcuffs on the spot.

At face value, there shouldn't be anything wrong with a Democratic member of Congress admonishing recently departed IRS acting commissioner Steven Miller for allowing agents to target conservative groups under his watch. But when that congressman is Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-ny), who was found guilty of 11 ethics violations, including neglecting to pay taxes on his Dominican Republic vacation villa in 2010, things gets a little more tricky.

Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-ny) took a swipe at American capitalism on Tuesday amid a discussion with MSNBC anchor Thomas Roberts about the Catholic Church’s ongoing conclave to determine who will be the next Pope. Rangel declared that the church needs a new pontiff in order to continue their global charitable works and that Americans support that charity because American’s do not value “capitalism by itself.”...

Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-ny) joined MSNBC anchor Thomas Roberts on Wednesday to applaud strict new gun laws passed by the New York State legislature and signed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo this week. He said that he was glad that the legislature, and the federal government, were doing something in the wake of the murder of children and teachers in Newtown, Connecticut.

Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-ny) savaged President Barack Obama on MSNBC on Thursday over the lack of diversity among his inner circle of advisors. He said that the Democratic Party was “very hard” on a former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney over his “binders full of women” comment because it suggested that the Gop cannot promote from a pool of qualified minorities and women to promote without assistance.

Rep. Charlie Rangel sat down Sean Hannity on Tuesday night to chat about President Obama's record thus far — and how that bodes for his re-election campaign. Rangel agreed we need to cut spending, but argued that raising revenue is also part of the solution. This triggered Hannity's breakdown of how much he pays in taxes, concluding that it's certainly not less than his "fair share."...

Today was Bill O'Reilly's return to manning the fort at the Factor, and he came back to some unfinished business between his substitute host Laura Ingraham and Rep. Charlie Rangel, who dismissed her (and then apologized) as "just a pretty girl." Discussing the issue with Bernie Goldberg, however, O'Reilly found him somewhat sympathetic to Rep. Rangel, arguing that Ingraham was "lucky" that's the most he said, given that she was constantly interrupting.

As far as hyper-partisan members of Congress go, Rep. Charlie Rangel is one of the most accessible to programs where he'd be ideologically outnumbered, and tonight he visited The O'Reilly Factor as he has many times before. But tonight he was up against Laura Ingraham, who he repeatedly accused of giving him time to answer and, exasperatedly, quipped, "Bill O'Reilly told me he had a secret weapon-- I didn't know it was just a pretty girl."...

Democratic Congressman Charlie Rangel appeared with Judge Andrew Napolitano last night on Fox Business to explain some of his recent comments where he wondered "what would Jesus do" about the current debt crisis? Rangel explained that clergy of all faith should weigh in on the moral question, and predicted that all would say "do the right thing" and raise the debt ceiling.

With the national debt taking up most of Congress's summer efforts, Rep. Charlie Rangel made a special plea to his colleagues that, in voting on whether to raise the debt ceiling, they consider how Jesus would vote: "What would Jesus do this weekend?" On this morning's Fox & Friends, former Arkansas governor (and pastor) Mike Huckabee did the research, and concluded that the first thing Jesus would do (and Rep. Rangel would not) is to pay his taxes.

President Obama just made a bold statement about Congressman Anthony Weiner 's predicament ... "I can tell you that if it were me, I'd resign." Obama, who made his statement to "Today" anchor Ann Curry for broadcast Tuesday, said "Well, obviously what he did was highly inappropriate.  I think he's embarrassed himself, he's acknowledged that, he's embarrassed his wife and his family." Obama continued, "And when you get to the point where, because of various personal distractions,...

Rapidly running out of goodwill among his Democratic peers as more X-rated details emerge, Rep. Anthony Weiner faces an ethics investigation led by a committee stacked with Southern conservatives and liberal Democrats fighting for women's rights. Patricia Murphy reports. Plus, Democrats abandon Weiner and more news updates.

If Rep. Anthony Weiner is hoping a get sympathetic hearing from his peers by "welcoming" a House Ethics Committee investigation into his bizarre email escapades with women, he will probably be sorely disappointed with the results-if he hangs on that long.

Related story on The Daily Beast: The Media's Selective Sex Scandal Savagery

The panel that would investigate Weiner's sexually charged online relationships is stacked with Southern, swift-justice Christian conservatives unlikely to relate to a sexting, swearing New Yorker, and liberal Democrats who have dedicated their careers to protecting the rights of women, both in the workplace and online. If Weiner wants to save his hide,...

People assume that New York City is uniformly Democratic. But as Michael Tomasky points out, Anthony Weiner's district is now in danger of tipping toward the Republicans.

Just as conventional wisdom was starting to conclude that the Democrats might have a serious chance of winning back the House in 2012, Nancy Pelosi gets hit with the Anthony Weiner revelations. She immediately called for an ethics investigation because she had to-she was staring at days of stories in which she'd be asked why she hadn't made such a demand (an experience she lived through with regard to Charlie Rangel). But Pelosi has another potential problem that no one has yet focused on: holding on to Weiner's district.

Related story on The Daily Beast: The Media's Selective Sex Scandal Savagery

That's right. Everyone hears "New York City congressional district" and thinks automatically that it has to be solidly Democratic. Most of them are.

Democratic Congressman Charlie Rangel appeared with Judge Andrew Napolitano last night and they respectfully disagreed with one another on the issue of whether the government should be able to tax and spend more money. Yet surprisingly, they found common ground on a different issue, as they both agreed that the President, no matter their political affiliation, should not be able to send troops overseas without first obtaining a declaration of war from Congress.

Freedom Watch, Judge Andrew Napolitano's libertarian haven over on Fox Business, usually entertains guests of the small government persuasion on anything from bringing the troops home to eliminating the income tax. So when notoriously liberal Rep. Charlie Rangel stepped up to propose an end to the Bush Tax Cuts and raising the debt ceiling, he came into it a fish out of water, to put it mildly.

With the government on the verge of shutting down, many are wondering how the nation will run if Congress refuses to compromise on the budget. For Bill O'Reilly, the bigger issue appeared why the budget is an issue now anyway, given the typical budget determinations at the end of the year. Asking Rep. Charlie Rangel, O'Reilly got an admission that the budget was a "hot potato" and a lengthy condemnation of Congressmen who think they can "slash and burn" through the national budget.

Just because Wisconsin has become the epicenter of the war between unions and cost-cutting Republicans doesn't mean the rest of the country is standing on the sidelines. In fact, some of those most passionate about the subject are far from having a stake in that state. Take, for example, the two Democratic Congressmen Bill O'Reilly invited on the program to explain the protesters' plight: Reps. Luis Gutierrez of Illinois and Charlie Rangel of New York, who see the unions as indispensable.

Conservatives won big in the midterms by focusing on government, not social issues. But they seem to be going back to their old ways. Eleanor Clift reports from Cpac.

Conservatives won big in the midterm elections by focusing on big government and soaring deficits-setting aside, for the moment, the usual menu of divisive social issues.

Related story on The Daily Beast: February 21: 7 Best Moments from Sunday Talk

But the activists gathered this week in Washington for the annual Conservative Political Action Committee conference must not have gotten the memo about honing their strategy, or more likely, they can't help themselves now that they're back in power in the House. Cutting spending is hard, especially when the defense budget and Social Security and Medicare are deemed off-limits, because that's where the real money is. It's so much easier to rail against gay marriage and liberal elites wanting to take guns...

Trailers are an under-appreciated art form insofar that many times they’re seen as vehicles for showing footage, explaining films away, or showing their hand about what moviegoers can expect. Foreign, domestic, independent, big budget: I celebrate all levels of trailers and hopefully this column will satisfactorily give you a baseline of what beta wave I’m operating on, because what better way to hone your skills as a thoughtful moviegoer than by deconstructing these little pieces of advertising? Some of the best authors will tell you that writing a short story is a lot harder than writing a long one, that you have to weigh every sentence. What better medium to see how this theory plays itself out beyond that than with movie trailers? Carancho Trailer Ricardo Darin gets a pass from me simply because of The Secret in Their Eyes. A taut thriller that didn’t relent, that...

There's been buzz about President Obama facing a potential challenger--or two--for the Democratic nomination in 2012. But Rep. Charlie Rangel (who knows a bit about losing friends and political influence) says the triple play of successes in the lame duck session of Congress mean you can forget Dems taking on one of their own. "This is a different president after the lame duck," Rangel told MSNBC's Chris Matthews. "He's much stronger than we thought he was."...

From the tears of John Boehner and the resurrection of Harry Reid; Virginia Thomas' voicemail and Eric Massa's tickling, 2010 was a long, strange trip.

The main political event of 2010 took place in November when Republicans seized Congress, grabbed gobs of statehouses, and put the kibosh on Barack Obama's designs for America. Off stage, there were tears and tickles. Awesome pranks and telephone cranks. In honor of the year's great and not-so-great moments, The Daily Beast presents the year's awards in politics.

Related story on The Daily Beast: Rush Limbaugh's TV Nemesis

The Muskie Award

Given to the person whose tears flowed like melting snow.

Winner: John Boehner

The future Republican speaker was given a run for his money by fellow Gop panjandrum Mitch McConnell, Kentucky's senior senator, who got misty-eyed when saying farewell to his departing colleague, Judd Gregg. When it comes to the waterworks, Boehner is a national treasure,...

It was a packed night for Bill O'Reilly on The O'Reilly Factor: first he welcomed Rep. Charles Rangel, fresh off several ethics convictions, on the program (more on that later), and later spoke to Barbara Walters, promoting her "10 Most Fascinating people of 2010" special. Chief among the topics of discussion: Walters' recent interview with Oprah Winfrey; specifically, Oprah's emotional discussion of her own sexual orientation.

Late yesterday afternoon, Congress convened to decide the fate of Charlie Rangel, the octogenarian Democratic congressman from New York and above-average Plaza Hotel patron who was convicted of 11 ethics violations. The decision? Censure, a form of rebuke that came at the behest of the House Ethics Committee, which recommended against a mere reprimand for Rangel, a kinder outcome for which he had previously hoped. The New York Times reports: “Despite impassioned last-minute pleas for mercy from Mr. Rangel and a half-dozen of his colleagues, the House voted 333-79 for censure, the sternest punishment it can administer short of expulsion.” The censure itself came from outgoing Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, who condemned Rangel for his misdeeds. Rangel now ranks amongst the 22 other members of Congress to have survived a censure. (To wit, his name has already been added to Wikipedia’s list of the damned.) The number, however, is misleading,...

Some would have you believe that being censured by the House of Representatives for ethics violations is not a big deal. After watching the following video of Representative Charlie Rangel stand in the well of the House floor and receive formal admonishment from Speaker Nancy Pelosi, one can't help that the New York Democrat felt some embarrassment and shame. Rangel addressed the House after being censure, expressing some form of contrition after the formal vote that expressed the body's disapproval of a member's conduct.

William Shakespeare once famously wrote in The Tempest "misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows," which has later been bastardized to its more common elocution "politics makes for strange bedfellows." There is no more apt example of this notion than Rep. Peter King, the firebrand Republican from Long Island, NY, who just now gave a passionate and articulate defense of his fellow New Yorker and ideological foe Charlie Rangel.

Some Twitter-Wood citizens were shocked after the organization WikiLeaks decided to release U.S. diplomatic cables that they'd obtained over the weekend. Some responded with a total lack of surprise, such as Michael Ian Black, and at least one man just wanted to know if they were aware of where his keys might be.

A Tuesday earthquake in Japan, meanwhile, startled people as well. Olivia Wilde has a theory about why it occurred that you probably hadn't considered, while Tom Felton didn't appear to have experienced an interruption during his grocery shopping because of the quake. Find out what he was looking at in Tokyo after the jump, as well as what Rose McGowan thought of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1," as well as how "Weird" Al Yankovic sees himself.

I'm @brianwarmoth, and this is Twitter-Wood for November 30, 2010.

Twitter Pic of the Day:

@alyankovic I was asked...

• Yesterday in Tehran, Iran, a drive-by bombing killed one of the country’s most prominent nuclear scientists and injured another. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad blamed the “Zionist regime and Western governments.” [The New York Times] • WikiLeaks commander Julian Assange said that early next year, a large U.S. bank will be the subject of a “megaleak” that will include “tens or hundreds of thousands of documents, depending on how you define it.” [Forbes] • A fresh batch of leaked diplomatic cables from Assange’s aforementioned WikiLeaks reveals that China has had it up to here with North Korea, which, the Chinese vice-foreign minister claimed, was behaving like a “spoiled child.” [The Guardian] • South Korea delayed a scheduled military drill on Yeonpyeong island, the site of last week’s violent clash with North Korea. [CNN] • This week, the House of Representatives will vote on the most prudent slap on the wrist for Charlie Rangel, the New York Democrat who, last month,...

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Ja from Mnpp here. Perhaps you heard the news of a Buffy the Vampire Slayer reboot that was announced yesterday? Strangely it sounded just like a couple million geeks exploding. E! got a written statement from the man who made Buffy in the first place and has nothing to do with this reboot, Joss Whedon, and he made with the funny:

"Obviously I have strong, mixed emotions about something like this. My first reaction upon hearing who was writing it was, "Whit Stillman And Wes Anderson? This is gonna be the most sardonically adorable movie Ever." Apparently I was misinformed."

He's referring to the new writer name-checked in the news, one Whit Anderson, whose IMDb page no doubt jumped about a billion percent in the span of a couple of hours. She's apparently a fan of the original series who came up with a "fresh" "funky" "fun" take. "This is not your high-school Buffy,...

Filed under: TV News

This week's 'Saturday Night Live' (Saturday, 11:30 Pm Et on NBC) cold-opened with a spoof of the 'Rachel Maddow Show,' in which Nancy Pelosi, played by Kristen Wiig, John Boehner, played by Bill Hader, and Charlie Rangel, played by Kenan Thompson, were guests.

It wasn't one of SNL stronger political skits, as most of the humor veered toward the cheap and obvious:

"Hello, young man," was how Rangel greeted Maddow. "Orange you glad I didn't mention the color of your face?" Maddow asked Boehner.

 

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It was an average episode last night, and average is as good as it's been all season. It reached such heights thanks almost entirely to Anne Hathaway (with an assist from the now reliable Jay Pharoah). It's hard to think that Hathaway could've been the best host of the year so far, with Jon Hamm, Emma Stone, Jane Lynch, and Bryan Cranston having hosted. But, for once, the cast and writers gave the host much more to do, and credit to Hathaway for making the most of it with some really solid impersonations, especially her Katie Holmes.

Here are the mediocre highlights.

Rachel Maddow Cold Open

Ha! A Rachel Maddow hair joke! How original! Until you can beat the Jack Donaghy joke, folks, leave Maddow's hair alone. Otherwise, a decent political skit, and Kenan Thompson (as Charlie Rangel) had a brief moment in his career where he was actually almost amusing.

It's Anne Hathway's second time hosting "Saturday Night Live," and honestly, after checking out "Love & Other Drugs" and that hot, hot, hot EW cover... we'd forgotten what she looks like with clothes on. Hathaway worked her recent penchant for nakedness into her opening monologue.

Clothes or not, it's almost impossible not to love Hathaway. She's been in a lot of dramas lately, but tonight she reminded us that it was comedy that launched her to the A-list -- and for good reason. "Saturday Night Live" has been lackluster lately, but tonight certainly had more highlights than lowlights. Check it:

Late-night Tsa Ad

You know those phone sex ads that come on TV really late at night - like when you've just got the TV on to stay awake while you chug water and pray for the hangover gods to spare you in the morning? Tonight the cast members - sans...

SNL's Rachel Maddow welcomed the shapeshifting new House of Representatives by moderating a three-way conversation with presumptive Speaker John Boehner, outgoing Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and loud speaker Charlie Rangel. A decidedly boyish Abby Elliott played the MSNBC host and discussed a range of topics with the guests, from Republican tax policies, Rangel's ethics violations, and who stole Pelosi's necklace. Guess which Representative it was!

• As punishment for his ethics violations, Representative Charlie Rangel will be censured. Yesterday’s hearing was . tense. “I don’t know how much longer I have to live,” Rangel told the House ethics committee. [The New York Times] • Sweden issued a warrant for the arrest of Julian Assnage, the shadowy founder of Wikileaks who is suspected of rape, molestation, and illegal use of force. [CNN] • One thing is for certain: When Fox News commentators Judith Miller and Liz Trotta made fun of Sarah Palin’s Alaska, they did not realize their mics were live and the camera was rolling. [Gawker] • The Dutch justice minister is hoping to prohibit tourists from visiting the country’s cannabis and coffee cafés. This news does not portend well for America’s study-abroad programs. [The Guardian] • Harry Potter’s opening weekend gross may reach $150 million, slightly less than double Avatar’s opening weekend take. [Deadline Hollywood]...

Poor Steven Rattner was sued by New York the same day his pet project, Gm, went public. From General McCrystal to Mel Gibson, these are the worst career crashes of the year.

Professional flare-ups can be good for business. Conan O'Brien may have gotten unceremoniously booted from the throne of late night on NBC, but what he lost in airtime he won back in press coverage and severance ($33 million), not to mention his fast return to TV with Conan on TBS. Juan Williams came out on top after another flap in which the employer ended up looking the fool. NPR fired him for statements he made on The O'Reilly Factor that it deemed to be "inconsistent with [its] editorial standards," allowing Fox news to promptly snap him up and the peanut gallery to rail against NPR for being irrational and hypocritical.

Related story on The Daily Beast: Rangel's Symbolic Shaming

Another winner: Mark Hurd.

Episode Number: 6148 (November 17, 2010)

Guests: Ian Frazier

Segments: Charlie Rangel, You Got Mailed, Old People in Space, Chair Apparent,

Videos: Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Ugh, why did Stephen have to remind me that the construction of Dubya’s library has started? I’m so unhappy that he chose Smu as its location, literally a 5-minute ride from my loft. *groan* Considering the whoppers that Bush told in his memoirs (and the fact that he’s being accused of plagiarism), I can only imagine the whitewashing that’s going to happen in his library. But I digress.

How adorkable was that character break during the intro? It’s so funny when he cracks himself up. And the font nerd in me squeed a little when Stephen got all fonty about the congressional reprimand letters. It was so cool to hear the audience go “oooOooh” when Stephen bolded his Arial. It’s always a little...

Yesterday Rep. Charles Rangel (D-ny) was found guilty of eleven separate charges relating to personal finance and fundraising efforts by a House Ethics sub-committee. Earler, Rangel made the odd decision to remove himself from the proceedings, seeming to claim ignorance over both the facts and procedures of the case. Sound ripe for mockery? Enter Jon Stewart, who last night lampooned Rangel's odd defensive posture and can be summed up as: ignorance is no defense, son.

A bipartisan panel of a House ethics committee has found Representative Charlie Rangel (D-ny) guilty of 11 of the 13 ethics violations of which he had been accused, an 84 percent guilt-to-innocence rating. (By way of contrast, beloved lunatic Rod Blagojevich, deposed Illinois governor, was convicted of just 1 of 23 counts in his corruption trial earlier this year, a basically negligible 4.3 percent guilt rating.) “The sweeping verdict on Tuesday morning offered a powerful conclusion to a two-year ethics investigation that has tarnished the political legacy of Rangel, a Harlem giant who was stripped of his Ways and Means chairmanship while he was under investigation,” Politico reports. Among the congressman’s crimes: declining to pay taxes on a Caribbean villa, soliciting money from lobbyists, and keeping several illicit, rent-stabilized Harlem pieds-à-terre.

Rep. Charles Rangel was just found guilty of 11 of the 13 ethics violation charges by the House ethics committee. For over two years Rangel has denied charges these charges, and made some news yesterday by removing himself from the hearings. Rangel is alleged to have not paid taxes on his vacation villa in the Dominican Republic, among other charges, and its not yet clear what the next step is in these proceedings: reprimand or censure are reported to be the most likely scenario...

• The New Oxford American Dictionary has deemed Sarah Palin’s “refudiate” its word of the year. A win for Palin, and a win for the English language. [Politics Daily] • We knew it: Wills and Kate! [USA Today] • Clarence Thomas’s wife Ginni will allegedly abdicate her leadership of Liberty Central, a Tea Party–esque group she founded. Thomas is very partial to voicemail, should you want to call and wish her the best. [The New York Times] • Almost five million people endured last night’s debut episode of Sarah Palin’s Alaska, the largest audience for a Tlc premiere. [The Daily Beast] • Ann Wagner, chairperson of the Missouri G.O.P., may challenge beloved eccentric Michael Steele for the Republican National Committee’s top slot. [Politico] • Just as soon as it began, Congressman Charlie Rangel’s ethics trial has concluded. In a single day, the House ethics adjudicatory panel ruled that the allegations against the New York Democrat “were not in dispute,...

Politics and cinema collided today as Representative Charles B. Rangel, in protest, walked out on his House ethics hearing on Capitol Hill on Monday. His raspy arguments and stance hearkened the "Godfather 2" character, caporegime Frankie "Five Angels" Pentangeli, who also did a song and dance spiel in front of congress back in the 1970s classic film. Mr. Rangel, the House ethics committee on Monday said the facts presented by a prosecutor accusing Mr. Rangel of violating Congressional rules were not in dispute and that the congressman himself had not refuted the charges. Today, Mr. Rangel appeared at the inquiry alone, stunned the packed hearing room by walking out after complaining that he had no lawyer because he...