Ways & Means

Rangel also worked with Republican lawmaker Jack Kemp to create federal "empowerment zones." The legislation provided tax incentives and federal business development opportunities to distressed inner-city areas.

"Like Adam, Charlie is a son of the community," says H. Patrick Swygert, president of Howard University and Rangel's first administrative assistant on Capitol Hill. "He didn't parachute in. There's no one in central Harlem who can challenge Charles's street bona fides. In Harlem, Charles has got, as the kids say, 'street cred.' "

His liberal record -- the ACLU gives him a 92 percent lifetime rating -- does worry many conservatives.

"I don't like Charlie Rangel's view of the world," says Daniel Mitchell, a tax economist and senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank. "His economic outlook could lead to a French-style welfare state. We'd end up with high unemployment, less competitiveness and slower economic growth. The kind of stagnation like we see in Europe."

But Kemp says that Republicans shouldn't dread the coming of Rangel. "Look, Charlie wants for this country what Republicans want: reduced tax burden, reform of the alternative minimum tax and a cleaning up of the cumbersome tax code of America. I don't think Republicans should fear Charlie Rangel. But you do have to be prepared for the Charlie Rangel one-two punch."

Not long after the election, Rangel started rumbling again about wanting a military draft, believing too many poor kids go overseas to fight. Few believe a draft will become a reality. "But Charlie made everyone aware, for at least a moment, of the inequities of service," says former West Virginia congressman Bob Wise, who has known Rangel for two decades. "It was consummate Charlie: He's forced everyone to look at it."

Not long after the election -- call it the tail end of the one-two punch -- Rangel told the New York Times: "Mississippi gets more than their fair share back in federal money, but who the hell wants to live in Mississippi?"

It led to a firestorm of newspaper headlines and jokey radio musings.

"I was trying to explain why the federal government gives more to a different state," Rangel says. "You have more poor folks in Mississippi than in New York. But I put my foot in my mouth. That was dumb. Everybody likes to live in their home town. I'm going to visit Mississippi. The love is in the making up, as someone once said."

Making the Rounds

It wasn't exactly a victory lap, but there were trips to make after the election. A lot of folks touched him in the airports, stepped in front of him as he emerged from office buildings. They just wanted to talk a minute. Some just nodded. Old black men. Bellhops.

" Got damn!" he says, remembering all those faces. "I feel so good. Just so good."

The poor kid from Harlem -- who became the gentleman from Harlem -- cometh.

He says he doesn't forget where he came from.

"I was in South Carolina in the days before we won," Rangel says. "This elderly guy introduced me to his grandson. The grandfather said to his grandson, 'If the Democrats win, this man gonna be head of the Ways and Means Committee.' The grandson said, 'What is Ways and Means?' And the old man said, 'I don't really know. All I know is, it's awesome!' "