Joe Spector of Gannett has has another blog post on Charlie Rangel. This one includes a "advertisement" by the NRCC, and an accounting of New York Congressional candidates who took Rangel money or got money from Rangel fundraisers.
The ad is over one minute long, so it won't air on TV. It's strictly to drive press coverage.
I view money as the necessary evil of politics, so I'm not easily shocked about who Massa or Kuhl solicit for funds. A competitive race requires far more money than is available from donors in the 29th district, so the usual suspects for each party will be throwing money at this race. Some of them have unsavory backgrounds. So it always has been, so it probably ever will be.
Since I have a pretty jaded view of the role of money in politics, I'm probably the wrong person to evaluate the NRCC and Kuhl campaign strategy of flogging the Rangel story. That said, I don't see a win here for Kuhl. Most of what Rangel has done is venial, not cardinal. Kuhl has taken donations from a cast of characters at least as corrupt that Charlie, probably more (e.g., Tom Delay). Unless Charlie has pocketed a significant haul, I don't think this issue will linger until election day.
Comments
Charlie isn't helping Eric out much - guess he called Palin "disabled". He backtracked later, but it still hurt him. Rangel doesn't play especially well in the southern tier anyway, so maybe Eric does need to return his money.
I think he meant "differently abled".