Another Democrat abandoned Rep. Charles Rangel yesterday.
Rep. Walt Minnick became the second Democratic lawmaker to call on fading Harlem power broker Charles Rangel to quit over a series of embarrassing ethics lapses.
“Now that the investigation is complete, and provided the facts are as alleged, I think it’s clear that he should resign from Congress,” Minnick, a freshman from Idaho, said in an interview with the Idaho Reporter.
His call for Rangel to step down comes on the heels of a fellow Democrat, Rep. Betty Sutton of Ohio, who also urged the embattled 80-year-old to quit.
“This is about preserving the public trust,” said Sutton.
She put her money where her mouth was and promptly gave to charity $7,000 that Rangel donated to her campaign.
Other Dems are also giving back bundles of cash that Rangel — a prolific fund-raiser famous for spreading his largesse throughout the party — had donated to them.
With one of the Democrats’ marquee names in a do-or-die battle for his political future, Republicans have come out swinging in hopes of taking Rangel out for good.
The National Republican Congressional Committee sent out a mass e-mail targeting vulnerable Dems who have taken campaign funds from Rangel. About $574,000 in contributions from Rangel to Democrats have been returned, the NRCC said.
Staten Island Rep. Mike McMahon — who has gotten about $70,000 from Rangel over the years — gave $1,000 of it to charity. He has resisted the NRCC’s calls to hand over all the money because he got it before the scandal broke.
