'The Fact is What Mr. Rangel Has Been Admonished for is Not Good'

So says the reigning Queen of the most ethical Congress ever.

Rep. Charles Rangel was made aware that organizers of the Caribbean junkets he attended were grubbing for freebie plane tickets from corporate sponsors, according to a report from the House Ethics Committee.

In a letter dated April 23, 2007, and carbon-copied to Rangel, the head of the Carib News Foundation solicited American Airlines to donate 90 round-trip first-class and coach tickets to cover flights to its conference that year in Antigua and Barbuda. Rangel attended that junket and one in 2008.

The letter and an interview with Karl Rodney, CEO of the Carib News Foundation, were included in the House Ethics Committee report, which concluded that the Harlem congressman broke congressional rules by accepting junkets bankrolled by corporate sponsors.

Despite the admonishment, Rangel, 79, told The Post on Saturday that he wasn't giving up his seat.

"I'm going to run for re-election," he said.

Meanwhile, Rangel got a mild scolding yesterday from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who said his ethics lapse was "not good" but left wiggle room as to whether her longtime ally would retain the chair of Congress' tax-writing committee.

Rangel could face a vote as soon as this week to boot him from his perch atop the Ways and Means Committee.

Pelosi (D-Calif.) said that breaking House gift-ban rules by taking corporate-sponsored junkets to Caribbean hot spots was not as bad as other violations still under review by ethics investigators and that decisions about Rangel's fate should wait.

"The fact is what Mr. Rangel has been admonished for is not good. It was a violation of the rules of the House. It was not something that jeopardized our country in any way," Pelosi said on ABC's "This Week."

I'm so happy to see now that ethical and possible criminal transgressions now must rise to the level of jeopardizing the nation before anyone is removed from office. File that one away for fututre reference.

If Pelosi is dumb enough not to boot Rangel from his chairmanship then I eagerly await her cries of racism when he's made the poster boy for what has now become perhaps the Most Corrupt Congress Ever.

Savor the wisdom from the almost-lifelike Pelosi.