Rangel Rankled

There's been quite a bit in the news recently about New York representative Rangel's rent controlled apartments. (The key there being, of course, that nasty little plural.) People are pretty annoyed at the fact that he's getting four apartments for about $3,200 a month (several of which are combined to make one big apartment, and another is used as a campaign office, which is probably the biggest no-no, and he's given that up), well below the market price.

I find the story to be a little bit lame, and I expect that it has only been front line news through a combination of Rangel's colorful responses (favorite excerpt: “Paying the legal rent is not a gift. Are you doing this deliberately, or are you just stupid?”) and the current mortgage/housing crisis (is a link necessary?). My lack of excitement is based in the fact that it seems likely to me that Rangel wasn't going out of his way to secure this, yes, probably illegal, deal. He claims to have never even met his landlord. This combined with the fact that I don't really have a problem with paying congressmen/"public servents" fairly well- and a deal or two doesn't hurt - pretty well stifles my interest. Especially if they're fairly active and clearly working hard to further their policies. (If their policies happen to be similar to what I agree with, all the better).

Anyhow, what I do find really fun about the story is how it has played out in the halls of congress, where people are pointing fingers all over the place. This ends up playing out as political posturing about who lives where, in what neighborhood, for how much. And what is so fascinating about all this is how (I'm at a loss for the right word) inbred (?) the whole system is. For example, take this npr story, where we find out that Minnesota senator Norm Coleman lives in the basement of a political operative, and Chuck Schumer and Dick Durbin share a room with each other in the house of Representative (of california) George Miller.

I don't know why I find these living arrangements so interesting, but I'd guess it's a combination of a desire to live in an environment surrounded by smart people who are working on similar things, and horror at the fact that it sounds a lot like a college dorm. hrm

ps. Those who are similarly interested in this stuff should read long time reporter Meg Greenfield's book, Washington, whose central thesis is that Washington is basically exactly like High school (I think college is also like high school for her, then again she went to Smith...).