Charles Rangel — Congressional shakedown artist par excellence, part II

Fresh off getting a New York Times spanking for his plethora of rent-controlled apartments in Harlem, House Ways and Means Chairman Rangel is now the focus of a Washington Post piece about his apparent shakedown of corporations doing business before his committee — and on official letterhead, no less.

Plus, $30 mil ain’t a low-dollar shakedown, and the additional hubris factor of having the place named after yourself makes it more stinky yet. Yes, per one person in the story, he’s crossed a line. But, as the rent control story makes clear, he crossed that line years ago.

You know, it’s kind of hard to campaign against GOP corruption of the likes of Ted Stevens, at the national level, when you have a poster-boy fox guarding the henhouse like Rangel.