Academic

Censure as punishment

By Tung Yin

The House ethics committee, having convicted Rep. Charles Rangel of 11 ethics charges, has now recommended censure as his punishment.  Maybe I'm meaner than I think I am, but censure actually sounds like a pretty effective and satisfying sanction:

Under a censure resolution, Rangel will have to stand alone in the well of the House while receiving a verbal rebuke from Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on behalf of her colleagues.

Ouch!  Well, at least it's not like every member gets to join in the verbal tongue-lashing . . . .

Does it make it worse that it's Nancy Pelosi (as opposed to John Boehner) who's going to deliver the rebuke?  Anyway, the only thing that would make it even better would be if Congress did what the Klingons did to Worf (skip to 7:20 into the video):

Full post as published by The Yin Blog on November 18, 2010 (boomark / email).