The Hill’s Chris Good reports that the House will move forward with an investigation of Democrat Rep. Charlie Rangel’s personal finances. Hmmm:

The House ethics committee will likely investigate Rep. Charles Rangel’s (D-N.Y.) personal finances, as committee chairman Rep. Gene Green (D-Texas) today announced he would advise the panel to do so, honoring Rangel’s own request for a review.

“It is my intent to recommend to Ranking Member Hastings and the Committee that we honor Chairman Rangel’s request. We have a Standards Committee meeting posted for Wednesday, September 24,” Rep. Gene Green (D-Texas) said in a statement today.

Rangel plans to hire a forensic accountant to examine his personal finances, the New York Democrat announced this week as he faced mounting criticism over several financial scandals that have dogged him this summer. The accountant will turn findings over to the committee for investigation, Rangel said.

Sure looks like a fox and henhouse set-up to me.

Meantime, he’s also up to his eyeballs in probes over his “failure to pay taxes on rental income from a Dominican Republic villa, earmarks for a community college center bearing his name, and his four rent-controlled apartments in New York City.”

Lawhawk notes that the House voted today to cover Rangel’s backside and table a motion forcing him to step down. (Roll call vote here.)

Guess his House colleagues agree with his assessment: “I personally feel I have done nothing morally wrong.”

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House Republican Whip Roy Blunt (Mo.) issued the following statement today after Republican Leader John Boehner (Ohio) brought forth a resolution to establish a subcommittee to investigate the numerous charges against House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charlie Rangel (D–N.Y.), and remove him as Chairman pending completion of the investigation:

“The serious and increasingly numerous charges surrounding Chairman Rangel threaten to compromise the ability of his committee to provide the oversight and direction our country desperately needs and our constituents rightfully deserve. Democrats convened this Congress with a pledge to ‘lead the most ethical Congress in history.’ If there was ever a time and occasion to make good on that pledge, it would be now. Based on today’s vote, the question is will that time ever come.”

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