In a rich irony, the Republican congressman leading the fight to have Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-N.Y.) ousted as chair of the House's top tax-writing body turns out to have ethics problems of his own.

Rep. John Carter (R-TX) had nearly $300,000 in unreported profits from oil stock sales in 2006 and 2007, Roll Call reported yesterday.

It was Carter who earlier this month introduced the failed resolution to have Rangel removed from his chairmanship of the House Ways and Means committee. Carter told Fox News that Rangel had been getting "special treatment from the IRS," and that his problems were "embarrassing to the Congress."

But in 2006, Carter made $199,000 in profits through the sale of Exxon stock. He made another $97,000 the following year. And in neither case did he list the profit on his financial disclosure form. In mid 2008, Carter did amend the 2007 form to include "capital gains", but he say how much he earned through the stock sale.

Carter did, however, pay taxes on those profits, according to his tax forms for those years. So the misstep appears to have been of a reporting nature, rather than a tax-paying nature. That contrasts favorably with Rangel, who is being investigated by the House Ethics committee for a range of financial irregularities, including failing to report
rental income on a vacation home in the Dominican Republic, which led to him paying nearly $10,000 in back taxes last year.

And of course, whatever Carter's situation, Rangel's case needs to be considered on its own terms.

Still, the GOP should probably find another standard-bearer for its anti-Rangel campaign.