The subject line of the e-mail said, "Heard anything about Rangel?" And the text of the message delivered: "Rumor is that he steps down as w&m chair tonight. It's been floating around K St today."That one came from a lobbyist at a prominent Washington firm -- about a week before a Republican financial lobbyist called POLITICO to report that Charlie Rangel was "toast" as House Ways and Means Committee chairman, to be replaced at any minute by a more junior Democrat on the panel.
A month later, Rangel still has his gavel, and Democratic insiders say that the lobbyist's rumors -- and a new Republican resolution aimed at ousting the chairman -- will remain wishful thinking until House Speaker Nancy Pelosi decides that it's time for Rangel to lose his chairmanship.
And that's not going to happen, they say, unless the House ethics committee, which has been investigating Rangel for more than a year, comes down hard against him.
In the meantime, the 79-year-old Harlem Democrat, in his 20th term, is as visible as ever in the Capitol's power corridors. According to a source familiar with his schedule, Rangel has participated in at least 21 meetings with House Democratic leaders in the past month. And insiders say his role -- and his demeanor -- in those meetings are pretty much the same as they have ever been.
"He weighs in," says a Democratic leadership aide who asked not be identified discussing private meetings. "He speaks for the little guy."
Democratic Rep. Eliot Engel, who represents a New York district that borders Rangel's, said he's not surprised to see Rangel active despite an ethics committee investigation hanging over his head.
"He's got a role to play," said Engel, a member of the Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health. "Charlie is not one to not get into the fray."
And Pelosi is not one to keep him out.
The speaker and the chairman are longtime friends, but she has plenty of other reasons to protect him. There's been no legal or ethical judgment against him; dislodging him would touch off a contentious scramble for his gavel. And Pelosi has to worry about her standing with the Congressional Black Caucus, a group Rangel helped found.