Rangel Asks Supporters to Make a Call on His Behalf

(New York Times) — With the hour of his reckoning drawing near, RepresentativeCharles B. Rangel on Wednesday morning asked thousands of his supporters to call the Capitol switchboard and ask their congressmen to vote against a measure that would censure him for an assortment of ethical violations.  The last-minute appeal, e-mailed to 25,000 people on the congressman’s campaign mailing list, includes an apology for his transgressions, but asserts that “censure is excessive and that my lapses do not rise to the level of transgressions of those censured in the past.” Invoking his decorated service in the Korean War and half a century as a prosecutor and elected official, Mr. Rangel, a Democrat from Harlem, said he hoped his supporters would show similar resolve toward him during this dark moment.

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