Rangel: No Purpose Served By Stepping Down

House Ways and Means Chairman Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) said Monday he has no intention of abandoning his high-powered post, despite calls by some to abandon the position amidst investigations into Rangel’s ethics.

Rangel said after a meeting that he does not see why he would step down, and cast aspersions against a recent report that Rangel funneled an inordinately high sum of money to his son to design a campaign web site.

“I don’t see what purpose that would serve,” Rangel said of calls for him to abandon his chairmanship, reported by CNN.

House Republican leaders have called on Rangel to step aside from his role as leader of Ways and Means, the committee charged with writing tax laws. Those calls were recently joined by an editorial in the Washington Post encouraging Rangel to vacate his position.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has said that she does not forsee Rangel losing his chairmanship, but Democratic aides have cautioned that Rangel “went too far” in saying Pelosi told him he will be chairman of Ways and Means for as long as he wants.

“They should investigate everything that’s been said,” Rangel said, adding a jab toward the recent report about his son. “I think the reporter should crawl from under his rock and apologize to my son.”