Remembering Charlie Rangel through Pergram’s personal encounters on Capitol Hill

I didn’t recognize “917” New York the number that called me.

But there was no question who had telephoned after they left the message.

The caller of the speech mail was extremely unmistakable.

They didn’t say their name.

They didn’t have to.

“Chad, you’re the only one I missed,” he covered his voice.

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She wore a smooth stone crusher who worked over the Bazalt in the Western Virginia quarry.

The voicemail was from the late Ambassador Charlie Rangel, Dn.y. And he basically called to convince me that he was not dead.

After all, obviously I was the only member of the Congress Corps of Corps who noticed that the New York Democrat did not vote or was nowhere near American capitol in a few weeks.

There was no article in Roll Call. Nothing to politics. There is no statement from his office.

Rangel was just not around.

That’s what I called and finished talking to his Hannah Kim Communications Director and the Chief of Staff of George Henry.

I asked if Rangel was fine. They assured me that it was. But they didn’t really give me the whole story. That was for Rangel to do it.

And then Rangel himself called -Zhi of his sick bed-well I could hear his signature Jackhammer-Chopping-the-the-asphalt-O-Manhattan voice to prove to this reporter that he was still among the living.

“I wanted you to hear that from me,” Rangel said.

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It was 2012. Rangel was released due to a back and viral infection injury, which made it difficult for him to stand for a long period of time. From 2008 to the end of 2010, I passed Rangel every day through the Hall of Congress, while the veteran congressman caught an ethical scandal. The Ethics case culminated in the homes of Cencusing Rangela, permanently smearing its record as a war hero, the founder of the Congress MP and the Chairman of the Committee on Ways and Funds.

First elected to the house in 1970, Rangel’s star tired after a scandal with ethics. But in 2012 any information about the elderly, legendary congressmen As Rangel was news. So, as a journalist at Capitol Hill Beat, I appreciated a phone call as he described the painful pain that prevailed him.

It is possible that the investigation and censorship of the Ethics Committee by the house were more painful for Rangel than back problems. Rangel was so convinced that he did not break home rules that he had headed to the Ethics Committee.

Rangel began to feel the ethical warmth in 2008. He used his position as chairman of the Committee on Ways and Funds to seek the school in his name at the City College of New York. Did not report hundreds of thousands of dollars of taxes or revenue from renting a villa that owned in Dominican Republic.

The apartment under the control of the Harlem rents doubled as the Campaign Office. He was incorrectly parked his broken, silver Mercedes-Benz of 1972 at the Rayburn House office building. The house forbids the legislators to use a storage garage. Benz was missing the plates, not registered and obviously not guided in about four years. Falls Church, Virginia, a towing company pulled a car from the garage on September 19, 2008.

A video from a truck truck that pulled Mercedes-Benz from Rayburn would make a juicy story the next morning on TV. But Rangel caught a break.

Type.

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Then the speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., Called the then secretary of Hank Paulson’s cash register at Capitol Hill that evening. The American economy broke out on the verge of an epic financial collapse. By night, it was clear how bad the state’s economy was. Everyone temporarily forgot about Rangel. In fact, the non -operative Benz may have been in a better condition at that moment than some American cars.

But the Ethics Committee of the Home explored Rangel. The investigation began in 2009 and culminated in her censorship upstairs in 2010. The house voted 333-79 for the discipline of Rangel. The gloomy X -ray presented herself at the House house well, folded in front of him as if she would soon receive communion. Pelosi threw out his repair from the daisies and slightly smashed the plug.

“He broke the public confidence,” said the then chairman of the Zoe Lofgren Committee, D-Calif.

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

Years later, I jokingly told Rangel that he could blame me for my problems with the Ethical Committee.

As stated earlier, Rangel believed that his actions were out of reproach. So he sent himself before the Ethics Commission to inspect his behavior.

I entered the capitol one morning 2008 and discovered his longtime assistant, Emile Milna, wandering the basement. I asked Milna what he was looking for. I was left with an overblown envelope.

“The Ethics Committee,” Milne said.

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It was a real “self -reger” to the Ethics Committee. And Milne was a courier of the file to use Rangel to defend.

I knew exactly where the Ethics Committee was in those days in the capitals catacombs. So I accompanied the Milna to the door.

As I said, I told Rangel that he could blame all my problems for me.

Between 2008 and 2010, I threw out Rangel somewhere on the capitol almost every day. The day Pelosi invited him to his office. The day Pelos removed him as chairman of the Committee and Funds. The day he spoke for a long time on the floor of the house to defend himself against the allegations after the ethical board formalized his investigation.

One night, a lean journalist caught Rangela in the hallway from the floor of the house and hit him in a crowd of questions. Rangel answered briefly. Then rejected. He then decided that it was enough for him as the scribes fired questions at the speed of gatling.

Rangel sighed, annoyed what to do.

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

It is unclear whether other journalists have understood what just happened. But I did.

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Rangel served in the army during the Korean War. He was wounded in his back with a shrapnel and eventually took a dozen men from the fire and safe. More soldiers died and others were trapped. Rangel received a purple and bronze star with courage.

Rangel survived that day. But at Capitol Hill, the news cycle effectively took the Rangela prisoner. Therefore, he fulfilled the conditions of the Geneva Convention. The prisoner of war is only forced to provide their name, rank and serial number to the enemy abductors. And after absorbing a strong fire from the printing house, Rangel had only one option.

Significant is that someone with Rangel military record and the army service passed away on the day of memory.

In August 2008, Rangel published his autobiography entitled “And I haven’t had a bad day since then.” The book chronizes how high school joined the army and was wounded on the battlefield. Rangel decided to continue – in the end he ended up in Congress as one of the most important legislators in the last 50 years. But Rangel then faced one of the sharpest punishments that Congress could have thrown out. It cost him his chairman and compensated for his reputation.

But Rangel was often philosophically about his destiny and transgressions in Congress. He claimed that, despite the trouble, he still had no bad day from that fateful battle at Kuna-Ri, Korea at the end of 1950.

Back in 2012, maybe I was the only one who noticed that Rangel was absent when he suffered from back problems and viral infections.

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But today I will certainly not be the only one.