Second Scandal Is The Charm

Republicans are going back after local lawmakers for their connections to Charlie Rangel.

Back in July, the NRCC targeted Democrats who had received money from Charlie Rangel after the story broke regarding his four rent stabilized apartments. Chris Hackett attempted to highlight the scandel further by issuing a press release using Chris Carney's hypocracy against him (i.e. Carney's 2006 call for Sherwood to return money he received from Tom Delay).

Now, a new Charlie Rangel scandal is brewing due to his tax trouble and failure to disclose rental income coming from a Dominican Republic villa he owns.

The NRCC is back hammering the Rangel connections to Carney and Kanjorski.

Carney has received more $21,000 from Rangel's political PACs since 2006 while Kanjorski has received $14,000 this election cycle.

Ken Spain (Press Secretary for the NRCC) said, "When it comes to standing by corrupt politicians, it appears that Paul Kanjorski and Chris Carney have a lot in common. Even the liberal New York Times has called for Charlie Rangel to step down, but neither Kanjorski nor Carney is willing to give up the tens of thousands of dollars in cash that they have pocketed."

However, the Carney campaign responded by saying it will wait until it has more information. Vince Rongione (Carney campaign spokesman) stated, "We will not take any action, except to say that elected officials should be held to a higher standard and it is up to the voters in his district to decide."

The Kanjorski camp took a more offensive approach by citing Barletta's own dirty money from Ted Stevens, which it has previously drawn attention to.