THEY'RE BAACK - AT 9:37 A.M. ET:  The Adam Clayton Powells, I mean.  Some "mature" readers may recall Adam Clayton Powell as the Harlem-based congressman of the 1960s, an effective committee chairman, thrown out of the House for ethical violations, reinstated by the Supreme Court, then defeated for reelection by Charlie Rangel, who still serves, almost 40 years later.  From The Politico: 

Oft-troubled New York State Assemblyman Adam Clayton Powell IV -- the son of the same-named legendary Harlem congressman who was ousted by Charlie Rangel in 1970 -- is creating an exploratory committee for a possible Rangel challenge.

“A lot of people have been talking to me for a few weeks,” Powell told City Hall. “It’s no secret that I’ve always been interested.”

If he takes the plunge, he'll join Vincent Morgan, a former Rangel associate who has said he's interested in challenging the ethics-embattled dean of the New York delegation.

Powell -- who tried and failed to avenge his father's defeat in '94 -- has quite a bit of baggage all his own.

Just last year ACP-IV was charged with DWI and earlier this year, he was was cited for the misuse of nearly $30,000 in campaign funds -- including a trip to Ireland he said was intended to familiarize himself with his district's Irish-American residents. In 2004, he was cleared of any wrongdoing following a Manhattan DA's probe into a charge that he had sexually assaulted a 38-year-old woman.

COMMENT:  Rangel should probably step down on his own, considering the ethics charges against him.  They seem to be accurate.

It's sad, though, that another ethics-challenged guy might replace Rangel.  I was having an e-mail discussion earlier this morning with a respected reader who has an extended, multicultural family, and we agreed that the African-American community deserves better role models.  But one of the tragedies of that community is that its politics is heavily influenced by the hard left, where top-down leadership is all the rage.

Rudy Giuliani, when he was mayor of New York, was responsible for saving more black lives than any other mayor before him, and maybe all combined, through his imaginative anti-crime program.  He never got a word of thanks because he refused to genuflect before the self-serving black "leadership," which then instructed "the community" to oppose the mayor. 

I hope Rangel is succeeded by a saint, not a sinner.

October 16,  2009