Remembering Rep. Charlie Rangel — and a voicemail I'll never forget

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I didn’t recognize the "917" New York number that called me.

But there was no question about who phoned after they left a message.

The caller on the voicemail was utterly unmistakable.

They didn’t say their name.

They didn’t have to.

"Chad, you’re the only one who missed me," croaked the voice.

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It carried the sleekness of a stone crusher working over basalt in a West Virginia quarry.

The voicemail was from the late Rep. Charlie Rangel, D-N.Y. And he was essentially calling to assure me that he wasn’t dead.

After all, I was apparently the only member of the congressional press corps who noticed that the New York Democrat hadn’t voted nor been anywhere near the U.S. Capitol in several weeks.

There was no article in Roll Call. Nothing in Politico. No statement from his office.

Rangel just wasn’t around.

Former Rep. Charlie Rangel, D-N.Y. — a man whose tenure on Capitol Hill I have many fond memories of — died Monday. He was 94. (Andrew Burton/Getty Images)

So I called and wound up speaking to his communications director Hannah Kim and chief of staff George Henry.

I inquired if Rangel was all right. They assured me he was. But they didn’t quite give me the full story. That was for Rangel to do.

And then Rangel himself called — from his sickbed — so I could hear his signature jackhammer-chopping-through-the-asphalt-of-Manhattan voice to prove to this reporter he was still among the living.

"I wanted you to hear it from me," said Rangel.

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It was 2012. Rangel was out because of a back injury and a viral infection, which made it difficult for him to stand for long periods of time. From 2008 through late 2010, I dogged Rangel through the halls of Congress on a daily basis as the veteran congressman grappled with an ethics scandal. The ethics case culminated in the House censuring Rangel, permanently smudging his record as a war hero, a founding member of the Congressional Black Caucus and chairman of the Ways and Means Committee.

First elected to the House in 1970, Rangel’s star had dimmed after the ethics scandal. But in 2012, any information about an elderly, legendary congressman like Rangel was newsworthy. So, as a reporter on the Capitol Hill beat, I appreciated the phone call as he described the excruciating pain that beset him.

It’s possible the Ethics Committee investigation and censure by the House were more agonizing for Rangel than the back problem. Rangel was so confident that he didn’t violate House rules that he referred himself to the Ethics Committee.

Rangel's woes with the Ethics Committee might as well have been more painful for him than his back problems. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Rangel started to feel the ethics heat in 2008. He used his position as chairman of the Ways and Means Committee to solicit funds for a school in his name at City College of New York. He failed to report hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxes or rental income on a villa he owned in the Dominican Republic. 

A rent-controlled apartment in Harlem doubled as a campaign office. He improperly parked his broken-down, 1972 silver Mercedes-Benz in the garage of the Rayburn House Office Building. The House prohibits lawmakers from using the garage for storage. The Benz lacked plates, wasn’t registered and apparently hadn’t been driven in about four years. A Falls Church, Virginia, towing company lugged the car out of the garage on Sept. 19, 2008.

Video of the tow-truck hauling away the Mercedes-Benz from Rayburn would have made a juicy story the next morning on TV. But Rangel caught a break.

Sort of.

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Then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., summoned then-Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson to Capitol Hill that night. The U.S. economy teetered on the verge of an epic financial collapse. By nightfall, it was clear just how bad the nation’s economy was. Everyone temporarily forgot about Rangel. In fact, the inoperable Benz may have been in better shape than some American car companies at that moment.

But the House Ethics Committee was investigating Rangel. An inquiry started in 2009 and culminated in his censure on the House floor in 2010. The House voted 333-79 to discipline Rangel. A somber Rangel presented himself in the well of the House chamber, hands folded in front of him as though he were about to receive Communion. Pelosi doled out her admonition from the dais and lightly rapped the gavel.

"He violated the public trust," said then-Ethics Committee Chairwoman Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif.

It was the first censure of a House member in 27 years.

Years after the fact, I half-jokingly suggested that Rangel could blame his Ethics Committee problems on me. (Andrew Burton/Getty Images)

Years later, I half-jokingly told Rangel that he could blame me for his problems with the Ethics Committee.

As stated earlier, it was Rangel who believed his actions were beyond reproach. So he sent himself before the Ethics Committee to review his conduct.

I entered the Capitol one morning in 2008 and discovered his longtime aide, Emile Milne, wandering the basement. I asked Milne what he was looking for. He waived an overstuffed envelope at me.

"The Ethics Committee," said Milne.

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This was the actual "self-referral" to the Ethics Committee. And Milne was the courier of a dossier Rangel would use to defend himself.

I knew exactly where the Ethics Committee was located in those days in the Capitol catacombs. So I escorted Milne to the door.

As I said, I told Rangel he could blame all of his problems on me.

I recall one instance in which Rangel, hounded by the press, fired back at them with his name, rank and serial number — the only things a prisoner of war is obliged to provide. (Brendan Smialowski/Getty Images)

Between 2008 and 2010, I staked out Rangel somewhere at the Capitol nearly every day. The day Pelosi summoned him to her office. The day Pelosi removed him as Ways and Means Committee chairman. The day he spoke at length on the House floor to defend himself against the allegations after the ethics panel formalized its inquiry.

One night, a scrum of reporters caught Rangel in the hallway off the House floor and pelted him with a barrage of questions. Rangel briefly answered. Then deflected. He then decided he had enough as scribes fired questions at him with the speed of a Gatling gun.

Rangel sighed, exasperated at what to do.

"Sergeant Charles B. Rangel. 85718162!" hollered Rangel. "And that’s all I’m going to say about it!"

It’s unclear if the other reporters understood what just happened. But I did.

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Rangel served in the Army during the Korean War. He was wounded in the back by shrapnel and eventually led dozens of men out of a firefight and to safety. Multiple soldiers died, and others were taken prisoner. Rangel received the Purple Heart and Bronze Star with valor.

Rangel survived that day. But back on Capitol Hill, the news cycle had effectively taken Rangel prisoner. So he complied with the terms of the Geneva Convention. A prisoner of war is only compelled to provide enemy captors their name, rank and serial number. And after absorbing heavy fire from the press corps, Rangel had only one option.

It’s notable that someone with Rangel’s military record and Army service passed away on Memorial Day.

Rangel, a decorated veteran, died on Memorial Day. (Seth Wenig-Pool/Getty Images)

In August 2008, Rangel published his autobiography entitled "And I Haven’t Had a Bad Day Since." The book chronicles how a high school dropout joined the Army and was wounded on the battlefield. Rangel chose to continue — eventually winding up in Congress as one of the most important lawmakers of the last 50 years. But Rangel then faced one of the harshest punishments Congress could dole out. It cost him his chairmanship and upended his reputation.

But Rangel was often philosophical about his fate and transgressions in Congress. He argued that despite the trouble, he still hadn’t had a bad day since that fateful battle in Kunu-ri, Korea in late 1950.

Back in 2012, I may have been the only one who noticed that Rangel was absent when he was suffering from a back issue and viral infection.

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But I certainly won’t be the only one today.