Put yourself in Pelosi?s shoes and you can see that there?s no win-win choice she can make in replacing Rangel. Anything she does will make many House Democrats mad, and some of the possible replacements could prove embarrassing at election time 2010. From her point of view, it?s better to hope that the ethics committee investigation of Rangel can take up most of the time between now and November 2010, and that Rangel might make things easier on everyone by announcing he?s not seeking reelection after 40 years of service in the House. (He first won the seat in 1970 by defeating Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. in the 1970 Democratic primary; the Harlem seat, first created for the 1944 election, has been represented by only two men over 65 years.) Politico reports that some Upstate New York House Democrats are getting antsy about Rangel?s problems and that House Republicans sense that they have a winning issue in Rangel whatever happens. I think it?s unfortunate that Rangel made such astonishing omissions on his disclosure forms, and at a time when Senator Ted Stevens was being prosecuted (unjustly, as it turned out) for allegedly making incomplete disclosure of gifts. Like Stevens, who was a pilot in World War II, Rangel served his country heroically in wartime and can claim to have served his constituents faithfully for four decades, and I wish that their political careers could have ended on a valedictory note.