joining me now, joe johns and melanie sloan, currently executive director for citizens of responsibilitynd ethics in washington. next year she'll go into private practice with lanny davis. melanie, is congressman rangel corrupt? he says it's not corruption because he wasn't personally benefiting financially but is there an argument to be made? >> i think there is. i think if you ask most americans, they'd think that if you're getting a bunch of apartment that's other people couldn't have access to, that if you're trading on your influence in congress in order to raise money for basically a big monument to me, people would have problems with those kind of things, as well as a tax violations, for example, failing to disclose income, those are things that directly benefited mr. rangel. >> you were at the house today, what was his mood like? >> humiliated, no. contrite, no. apologetic, yes. admitting that he did something wrong and needed to be punished, yes, but bottom line was he thought it was too much punishment and the interesting thing was watching the dynamics in the house, he was sur

that's from someone who has been critical of me, melanie sloan, quoted in "talking points memo." another quote, rarely has the ethics process looked worse. >> the house is not in order. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman is correct. the gentlewoman deserves the consideration of the house. may we remove conversations from the floor. ms. waters: rarely has the ethics process lookeds were. unfortunately, if a resolution like the one i noticed pass, its authority would expire at the end of this congress. which could come as early as next week. the investigation and report called for by the resolution would have to be completed immediately which apparently is not feasible now given the calendar. many colleagues who share the concerns i have raised about the disciplinary action of the committee are also concerned that a task force established now would have insufficient time to finish its work. i share that concern and have been working with my colleagues over the last few days to find an alternative that would allow for the exploration of this important topic without further und