It May Not Work in Politics: Congressional Ethics, Democratic Rep. Charlie Rangel

It may not work in politics
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Part 1: Congressional Ethics
The Congressional Ethics Committee was established in 2008 as a body mandated to impartially review and refer grievances against congressmen to the House Ethics Committee. Currently, it has reviewed nine cases so far this year, according to its second quarter. The identities of congressmen and congresswomen who have been suspected of an offense and the sources of the complaints were not released. Seven cases were referred to the House Ethics Committee for review and two cases remain under review. Members of the public willing to complain against a member of Congress can call the office or send an email to report suspected ethics violations, nevertheless many complaints originate from political rivals or charity watchdogs. After the review of the cases is done, the findings are finally submitted to the House Ethic Committee for final adjudication and review.
Democratic Rep. Charlie Rangel
A House ethics committee affirmed that Democratic Party representative of New York, Charlie Rangel was guilty of eleven out of the thirteen charges of moral abuses facing him. The panel, which was made of four Democrats and four Republicans, emerged after a private discussion to give out their findings. The panel admitted that the case was a tough assignment and added that they had tried to act with fairness, and this was led primarily by the facts and the law (Condon 2010). The findings were then submitted by the subpanel to the full ethics committee, which did plan for a public hearing to decide the suitable sanctions to take against the longtime New York representative. The action arrived at during the sanctions hearing was then be presented to the full House of Representatives. It is possible for the committee to could go so far as to recommend firing Rangel, but that would be unlikely. The other probable sanctions include a House vote censuring Rangel's behavior, a fine or a denial of some privileges (Condon 2010).
The subpanel's resolution emanates after a two-year long enquiry into charges facing Rangel that relate to his fundraising efforts for a new center at New York City College and his private finances. This shows that the panel is slow in doing its investigations and releasing its findings. For instance, in the two decades since the House's ethics procedures were adopted, only former Rep. James Traficant (D-Ohio) was faced with the same kind of a trial. However, he was barred from Congress after being found guilty of ten felony charges (Condon 2010).
Part 2: Third Party Candidates
It has always been a challenge for any third party candidate to secure a victory. Those challenges include the overwhelming organizational advantages and voter loyalty enjoyed by the two major parties that is, Democrat and Republican. The other obstacle is the winner-take-all nature of the Electoral College process and the lack of true centrists. The third party failure is also caused by the voters’ psychology whereby the voters have a har...