'Traumatized' Rangel Lashes Out

Hey, if you can't take the heat, maybe you shouldn't have four rent-controlled apartments and a long history of sleazy behavior.

A traumatized Rep. Charlie Rangel didn't stay sorry very long, lashing out Monday over questions about the ethics storm bearing down on him.

"Why don't you wait until you know what the facts are?" the Harlem Democrat snapped at one reporter, after calling his ongoing ethics probe "traumatic."

Only a lowlife liberal would call his own mess traumatic. Nothing like living in the real world.

He was especially grouchy over suggestions Democratic allies like Gov. Paterson, Attorney General Andrew Cuomo and Sen. Chuck Schumer are less than wholehearted in their support.

"I don't believe what you are saying to be true," Rangel, 80, said of reports Cuomo and the governor might skip his Aug. 11 birthday fund-raiser.

And Schumer, he insisted, is a prince, even though the senior senator has said little in support publicly.

"Schumer has been my buddy for many years and just because someone can think of a question doesn't mean I have to respond to it," Rangel grumped.

An opportunist like Schumer is always looking out for one thing and one thing only: himself. You think a guy up for re-election is going to be seen anywhere near someone as radioactive as Rangel.

The House ethics committee will lay out the case against Rangel Thursday. It's expected to include findings on his failure to disclose assets, pay taxes on rent from a Dominican villa, and using office letterhead stationery to raise money for a center named after him.

Rangel requested an ethics review of those allegations, but suggested he could also get hit with charges on related revelations in the press over the last two years.

Among them are claims he traded legislative favors for contributions to the Rangel Center being developed at City College.

"They finally investigate me, and guess what? They have more ethics violations," Rangel said at a Harlem scholarship awards breakfast.

Just imagine how much else would have been found if his own party weren't the ones investigating.