Baron's Tainted Rangel Campaign Cash

From The Hoosierpundit:

The NRCC hits Baron over his ties to the shady Charlie Rangel:

With the House Ethics Committee confirming that corrupt New York Democrat Charlie Rangel is guilty of breaking key ethics rules, Baron Hill has put himself squarely at odds with the bipartisan panel. Hill has already voted twice to sweep his party’s corruption problems under the rug by letting Rangel off the hook – and is it any wonder? According to the Federal Elections Commission, Hill has taken $26,000 from Rangel and his PAC in campaign donations. It’ll take more than a few donations for Rangel to buy his way out of hot water, but that hasn’t stopped him and Hill from trying.

Hill repeatedly sided with his corrupt colleague while the House Ethics Committee completed its investigation into Rangel’s endless history of dirty deeds:

“Rep. Charles B. Rangel broke congressional gift rules by accepting trips to Caribbean conferences that were financed by corporate interests, the House ethics committee said Thursday.”

“The committee said its report was intended to "serve as a public admonishment" of Rangel, and it ordered him to repay costs of the trips.”

“Beyond the trips, Rangel faces more troublesome allegations regarding his failure to pay taxes on a villa he owns in the Dominican Republic, the use of his congressional office to raise money for the wing of a New York college named in his honor, revised financial disclosure forms that show more than $500,000 in previously unreported wealth, and his use of a rent-controlled apartment for his political committees.” (Paul Kane, “Rep. Rangel’s trips broke congressional gift rules, panel says,” Washington Post, 2/26/2010)

“Baron Hill's decision to repeatedly sweep Rangel’s corruption under the rug and openly accept campaign donations in return proves that he is just another Democrat who is more concerned with partisan loyalty than serving the people he’s supposed to represent,” said NRCC Communications Director Ken Spain. “Speaker Pelosi once promised to ‘drain the swamp’ and lead ‘the most honest and open Congress in history,’ but Hill and his fellow Democrats are now standing knee-deep in corruption.”

Keeping tainted money is nothing new for Baron Hill.

He got campaign contributions from embattled businessman Tim Durham, and he still kept them.

And he had a chance to give Rangel's contributions back earlier, and he still kept them.