The New York Times is recommending that New York Congressman Charlie Rangel (D-Cheating and Lying) should resign from his position as chairman of the Ways and Means Committee while his “ethical problems” are investigated.

Charlie, when your own hard-left hometown rag thinks you’re an embarrassment and a crook — well, you probably are. Hell, the NY Times actually had to struggle with this recommendation:

This recommendation does not come easily, considering the New York Democrat’s four decades of service in Congress.

Charlie’s latest “ethical lapse”?

His latest admission is that as chief of Congress’s tax-writing committee, he was “irresponsible” in failing to disclose $75,000 in rental income and pay federal and state taxes on a villa in the Dominican Republic.

His temporary yielding of the gavel is an urgent necessity for a Democratic Congress elected two years ago on promises of an ethical housecleaning. The villa dealings only add momentum to the investigations of two earlier controversies — Mr. Rangel’s favored treatment in occupying four rent-stabilized apartments in Manhattan, and his improper use of official letterheads to solicit support from charities and corporations for an academic center to memorialize his career in public service.

Oh. That’s right. I vaguely remember Ms. Nancy Pelosi promising to “empty the swamp” of corruption in Congress.

Maybe the reason for Congress’ unprecedented single digit (dis)approval rating might have something to do with that swamp actually getting deeper. And now the Democratically controlled Congress appears to be building waterfront villas and vacation homes on that swamp, too.

But there’s even more corruption from Uncle Charlie:

The powerful congressman has enjoyed his rent-stabilized apartments in Harlem — improperly using one as a campaign office — at about half market value. This is a $30,000-a-year boon, and the ethics committee must decide whether it amounts to a gift from a politically savvy landlord that would violate House rules. The panel must also weigh how badly Mr. Rangel violated official letterhead restrictions.

As chairman of the powerful Ways and Means committee, Charlie was supposed to know better. Perhaps he did, and that’s why he thought he could get away with it.

A Blog For All doesn’t think the NY Times goes far enough in simply calling for Rangel’s resignation:

The tax issues are significant enough, in toto, to require federal and state investigations into whether this was not merely negligence, but willful fraud. We’re talking about a pattern of tax avoidance that has gone on for more than a decade.