Tailored suits, chauffeured cars. Fine hotels and big cigars. Up for grabs, all for a price! –Money Talks –AC/DC

We’ve all by now probably heard of the problems that House Ways and Means Committee Chairman, Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.), is having. There is now an ethics investigation going on regarding his problems with, of all things, taxes.

So much for the promise by the Democrats to clean up things in Washington.

Back in early 2007, I commented about Rangel and Montana’s own Max Baucus, from the Senate Committee on Finance, starting their own Political Action Committee (PAC) to raise money.

Interestingly, they abruptly ended their PAC in late July 2007 after raising around $150,000.

Maybe Rangel and Baucus already knew there were going to be rough waters ahead for Rangel. Each have 30+ years back there. They can read the tea leaves well.

On another, more current, issue involving Rangel and Baucus which deals with the failure of some investment firms, CQ Politics reports today that:

Congress is likely to feel the loss as well of securities firms Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch, as well as the downward spiral American Insurance Group (AIG), particularly in their campaign coffers.

The three financial institutions and their employees have given about $4.7 million this election cycle to members of Congress, presidential candidates and parties; particularly to those who oversee economic and monetary policy.

And guess who received some of that money?

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus , D-Mont., and House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles B. Rangel , D-N.Y., also cashed in from the three PACs. Baucus accepted $15,750 and Rangel, $14,000.

Maybe they should give it back?