Charlie Rangel's dealing days are over. Whatever else happens to the embattled Democratic congressman from New York — who's facing 13 charges from the House Ethics Committee, involving everything from incomplete financial filings to improper fundraising for a center named in his honor at New York's City College — he won't have a settlement in his pocket allowing him to hang onto the congressional seat he's held for 39 years.

Such a deal appeared to be in place earlier this week, when the committee offered Rangel a settlement that would result in an official reprimand — a penalty far less severe than expulsion or censure. But the lawmaker declined, instead pushing forward with a public trial in the House.

The complete charges were released Thursday, and many political leaders and pundits have since called for his resignation. There are numerous reasons Democratic leaders would like Rangel to quietly step away — chief among them the effect a corruption trial would have on public opinion during an already difficult election year.

But Rangel said he wants the opportunity to defend himself and has no plans to step down from Congress.

So what's in it for Rangel to remain in office and suffer through this public trial? Here's a brief rundown:

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In a speech a few days ago hailing passage of financial regulatory reform, Securities and Exchange Commission chairwoman Mary Schapiro said the bill "brings greater public transparency and market accountability to the financial system." That's largely true, except for one little provision that could potentially exempt a huge portion of the SEC's paper trail from the Freedom of Information Act, the most important governmental tool for transparency we have.

As Fox Business' Dunstan Prial first reported on Wednesday, the Dodd-Frank bill, which is now law, contains a section declaring that the SEC "shall not be compelled to disclose records or information obtained" in pursuit of its "surveillance, risk assessments, or other regulatory and oversight activities." It goes on to specifically exempt those records from the Freedom of Information Act. There's considerable debate online right now over what that exemption  precisely means, but it could potentially have opened a bus-sized hole in the FOIA as far as the SEC is concerned. And would-be watchdogs of the financial sector's leading watchdog have only noticed the provision now, when Congress has already passed the law. Full Story »

Republican Senate candidates Clint Didier and Paul Akers don't want to see fellow Republican Dino Rossi win the Washington Senate race. But instead of doing the conventional campaign math and electing to throw in behind the stronger candidate, rivals Didier and Akers are choosing instead to gang up on Rossi, the frontrunner in the race who enjoys the backing of the state's GOP establishment.

"I said to Clint the other day, wouldn't it be incredible if the two of us did a joint commercial together saying, 'You know what? We're done with the establishment telling us who we have to vote for for U.S. senate,' " Akers, a businessman, said Thursday during a joint town hall with Didier, a former professional football player. (See audio below.) The two plan to release a spate of joint radio ads in which they blast Washington, D.C., Republicans for favoring Rossi in the race. Rossi was the 2004 and 2008 gubernatorial Republican nominee and retains high statewide name recognition.

But there's a reason that campaign rivals who share a common enemy don't do this sort of thing more often: It tends to work in the interest of said enemy.

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As debate continues to swirl around the constitutionality of Arizona's new immigration law,  there's at least one oasis of comparative calm: the family of Nevada GOP gubernatorial candidate Brian Sandoval, which is fortuitously above the fray.

Sandoval, a former federal judge,  told an interviewer with the Spanish-language network Univision that he wasn't concerned about the impact of provisions like those in the Arizona law empowering state officials to conduct visual spot checks on a person's  immigration status. Critics call such measures racial profiling, but Sandoval, who has been highlighting his Hispanic background, explained that it was no immediate concern for him, since "my children are not seen as Spanish."

The network hasn't yet released the Spanish-language interview tape, but Univision's news director cited it in a column — and that column, in turn, was picked up  by Jon Ralston of the Las Vegas Sun.

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Now that BP engineers have managed to place a cap on the company's bleeding well in the Gulf, the sprawling oil slicks seem to have retreated from the water's surface, claimed many media reports this week.

"Where is all the oil?" an AFP headline asked. Time magazine ran a piece suggesting that the environmental impact of the spill has been "exaggerated." The New York Times ran a story that said the "Gulf oil spill is vanishing fast." And this very news organization ran a story suggesting that oil-gobbling microbes are eating up a lot the oil.

These reports have angered many — particularly those close to the disaster who are still, well, seeing lots of oil.

"There was more oil at South Pass Tuesday than I've seen since this whole thing started; it was really discouraging," Louisiana charter boat captain Mike Frenette told the New Orleans Times-Picayune's Bob Marshall. "I don't know where everyone else is looking, but if they think there's no more oil out there, they should take a ride with me."

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The M. Star, a Japanese oil tanker, suffered ... something in the early-morning hours Wednesday as it passed through the Strait of Hormuz. Crew members heard a blast and saw a flash, windows were blasted out, ceiling panels in a dining room were shaken loose, and one crew member suffered minor injuries. And most significant, an enormous dent appeared on the tanker's starboard side, extending from the waterline more than halfway up the hull. But what caused it? the New York Times asks. Who knows?

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This may be the closest Joe Sestak comes to being photographed with President Obama before November. The Democratic U.S. representative told reporters earlier this week that although the president had offered to campaign on his behalf of his Pennsylvania Senate bid, he admitted he'd rather have First Lady Michelle Obama.

Why? The president's approval rating in the state has fallen 20 points since a year ago, and according to a Quinnipiac poll, 48 percent of Pennsylvania voters don't think he deserves re-election in 2012. It's not clear whether Obama would help or hurt Sestak, who is tied in polling with GOP opponent Pat Toomey.

Nationally, the first lady's 66 percent approval rating is nearly 20 points higher than her husband's, according to Gallup.

[See a slideshow of First Lady Michelle Obama]

Sam and Charles Wyly, a pair of Texas billionaire brothers (that's Sam pictured) who are among the Republican Party's most prolific donors, were charged by the Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday with a 13-year scheme to hide their stock transactions illegally via a tangled web of offshore trusts.

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New York Democratic Rep. Anthony Weiner is plainly fired up and ready to go. In a losing battle to secure passage of a bill to fund health care and compensation for ill 9/11 rescue workers, he unleashed a tirade against what he called unprincipled GOP opponents of the measure. Watch his outburst, which concluded in him smashing down the House rostrum microphone:

The House voted down the bill, which would have provided $3.2 billion over the next 10 years to fund free health care for 9/11 rescue and recovery workers who have fallen ill from toxic smoke and debris they breathed  at the World Trade Center site. The bill would have also provided $4.2 billion in compensation over that same span. The legislation proposed to pay for the benefits by closing a tax loophole on foreign subsidiaries that do business in the United States.

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Freshman Democratic Rep. Mike McMahon fired one of his aides Thursday to stanch a press uproar over a memo she wrote that stressed the "Jewish money" a rival candidate had accrued in a bid for McMahon's seat, according to a Politico report by Maggie Haberman.

Jennifer Nelson got the ax from McMahon after sharing a file labeled "Grimm Jewish Money Q2" with a New York Observer reporter. The memo offered a breakdown of money raised by McMahon's Republican challenger, Michael Grimm. Nelson said the aim of the memo was to point up the weak support Grimm had within the 13th District, which encompasses Staten Island and parts of Brooklyn.

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