Rangel's Tax Mess Continues

Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY), and the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee still hasn't found a forensic accountant to figure out what the heck Rangel did for all the tax years in question after he admitted to underpaying taxes for years. The problem? Many of the firms considered have business before the Committee and it would be a conflict of interests.

Rangel in September said he would hire a "forensic accountant" (think: "CSI: Charlie") to untangle a 20-year morass of tax returns and to determine just how much money he's made and how much in unpaid taxes he may still owe.

(Reminder: Rangel's committee writes the nation's tax laws.)

But as The Post's Isabel Vincent reported, two months later Rangel's lawyers claim they can't locate a single qualified firm that hasn't contributed to Rangel's campaigns or has no pending business before Ways & Means.

The same lawyers, incidentally, have already been paid more than $121,000 from Rangel's campaign committee.

Generally, that's a no-no. And though Rangel's staff insists he got a required advance OK from the Federal Elections Commission, the FEC says otherwise: An agency spokeswoman insists that neither Rangel nor anyone representing him even asked for a determination.

Thus does the stench grow stronger.

The kicker? The law firm handling Rangel's mess is getting paid out of his campaign fund, which is a violation of federal law.

Paging Nancy Pelosi. You said you'd drain the swamp of Congress of the corruption and graft, and here you are two years later and it's as bad as ever, and you're busy looking askance at those who are engaging in corrupt or shady or illegal activities.