That Republican resolution demanding that Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY) give up his committee chairmanship was referred to the ethics committee in a 246-153 vote this afternoon.
The roll call of the largely party-line vote is here. Six Republicans voted yes, and two Democrats voted no. The ethics committee is already probing Rangel. The vote today represents the failure of the GOP effort to formally demand he step down from his chairmanship.
Introducing the resolution, Rep. John Carter (R-TX) drawled on at some length about Rangel’s alleged misdeeds. Of bank accounts Rangel neglected to include on his disclosure forms, Carter quipped: “Somebody oughtta check the lighting in his office.”
Rangel himself sat in the front row of the chamber as the resolution was read, the New York Times reports. “I have been waiting patiently for the ethics committee to make a judgment,” he said. “That is where it belongs. It does not belong on the floor.”
So you can get a taste, we clipped a two-minute section of Carter’s remarks: