The centuries old axiom, Latin for, "Ignorance of the law does not excuse," has been used to lock up people all over the world. No matter how complicated the legal code, how absurd the rules, or how discreetly published the laws are, little or no leniency is ever seen. That is, unless, you are the law. In that case, anything goes. Charles Rangel, "chief thief" aka writer of the US tax code, is apparently ignorant of the very laws that he himself writes. And that is completely permissible to him, only because it was the errors of his staff.

This is not an isolated incident, either. He evaded paying taxes on a cozy villa in the Dominican Republic (that was probably paid for by taxpayer money), used Congressional letterhead to "promote a $30 million academic center at the City College of New York... which will house his papers," and evaded paying taxes on properties of his in New Jersey. This list, with enough tax violations to send the average Joe to prison for years, is far from complete. His infidelity to the tax code that, again, he himself writes provides more than ample evidence to kick him out of the House Ways and Means Committee and Congress.