From a NY Times article on the cars that House members lease on the taxpayer dime:

Charles B. Rangel, the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, is not so caught up in the question of gas mileage. He leases a 2004 Cadillac DeVille for $777.54 a month. The car is 17 feet long with a 300-horsepower engine and seats five comfortably.

“It’s one of the bigger Cadillacs,” Mr. Rangel, of Harlem, said cheerfully this week. “I’ve got a desk in it. It’s like an airplane.”

[...]

Mr. Rangel said he frequently offers rides to constituents so they can discuss their concerns in the luxurious confines of his DeVille.

“I want them to feel that they are somebody and their congressman is somebody,” Mr. Rangel explained. “And when they say, ‘This is nice,’ it feels good.”

The article mentioned several different members of Congress and their varying reasons/excuses for leasing the cars they did, but Rangel was the most hilarious simply because he doesn’t even bother trying to make his choice sound reasonable.  He just wants his constituents to think their Congressman “is somebody.”

Also, because Charlie Rangel made Conservative Amazon news last November for sponsoring an earmark for the City College of New York, which would allow them to build a Center for Public Service named after none other than Charlie Rangel himself.

I’m not sure how wise it is to name a center for public service after a man whose idea of public service seems largely tied up in having nice things and getting buildings named after him.  Maybe they could call it the Charles Rangel Center for Self-Aggrandizement at the Taxpayer Expense?