Oh hurt me
For those of you that follow politics, you may have heard that Representative Charles Rangel was convicted of ethics violations as a Representative. His punishment? He was censured by the House of Representatives. This is the most serious punishment they could have given out short of expulsion from the House.
Since I really wasn't sure what censure was, I looked it up. Do you know what this "serious" punishment is? First, he would lose any committee chair positions he might have held. Well, I believe he was the chair of the Ways and Means committee, but he'd have lost that position come January anyway when the Republicans took over. The rest of this "serious" punishment?
He was forced to stand there in the House of Representatives while someone read the "official" censure out loud to him. Basically, he was publicly "embarassed" in front of his peers. That was it. No loss of pay, no getting kicked out, no nothing. So, basically, if you're really unethical as a Representative, the worst thing they're going to do is yell at you in public and say "Bad boy!"
I wish all punishments for being unethical were that harsh. The sad thing is the guy spent 2 years and a couple of million dollars to avoid Nancy Pelosi from shaking her finger at him.
Since I really wasn't sure what censure was, I looked it up. Do you know what this "serious" punishment is? First, he would lose any committee chair positions he might have held. Well, I believe he was the chair of the Ways and Means committee, but he'd have lost that position come January anyway when the Republicans took over. The rest of this "serious" punishment?
He was forced to stand there in the House of Representatives while someone read the "official" censure out loud to him. Basically, he was publicly "embarassed" in front of his peers. That was it. No loss of pay, no getting kicked out, no nothing. So, basically, if you're really unethical as a Representative, the worst thing they're going to do is yell at you in public and say "Bad boy!"
I wish all punishments for being unethical were that harsh. The sad thing is the guy spent 2 years and a couple of million dollars to avoid Nancy Pelosi from shaking her finger at him.
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