The culture of corruption continues in Washington today, where House Democrats voted to protect the chairmanship of the corrupt Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-NY).

Rangel, chairman of the tax law writing committee, has already admitted to keeping large amounts of income secret from the required reporting process. It’s also been discovered that he violated House rules by using his official letterhead to solicit donations.

Rangel initiated the ethics committee investigation when allegations first surfaced last summer that he failed to report $75,000 worth of rental income on a villa he owns in the Dominican Republic. Since then, other accusations have surfaced and the ethics panel has twice expanded its investigation.

Among other charges, the panel is looking into whether Rangel improperly used his congressional letterhead to solicit donations for an education center bearing his name, which would violate House rules, and whether he broke House rules against improper gifts by accepting an interest-free loan on the villa. During the August recess, Rangel amended his financial disclosure forms to show at least $600,000 in income previously unreported.

In response to these revelations, Republicans introduced legislation to remove Rangel from his chairmanship of the powerful Ways and Means Committee. But Democrats, who seem to have no issue with tax cheats writing tax law for everyone else, blocked the move.

Democrats promised to bring about a new era of transparency and ethics to Washington. Nancy Pelosi publicly promised the most ethical, open, and honest Congress “in history”. Instead, they’ve simply brought even more corruption to our nation’s capital. And we now have a tax cheat determining how much the rest of us have to fork over to Uncle Sam. Hope’N'Change, baby.