Charlie Rangel said the proof that Hillary Clinton can still win the Democratic nomination is that she is still pursuing the Democratic nomination. Either she has a chance, he said, or she’s nuts.

"If mathematically she couldn't get the nomination it would mean that Obama has won and so she wouldn't be in the race," said Rangel. "And so obviously mathematically she can."

When asked how she could win the nomination, Rangel replied. "I don't know, but if mathematically she cannot win then why aren't we declaring Obama the winner? I mean it doesn't make sense. It is not my job to explain how, if she put $6 million of her money, the team is still together, the campaign is still going on, why do I have to explain mathematically why she can't win? If mathematically she can't win then they are crazy. They ought to go to an insane asylum."

He added, "Anybody who really knows that they can't win and they won't quit, there is really something wrong with them."

Clinton is still in the race. So by that logic she must see some way of winning. What is it?

"I have no clue" said Rangel, explaining it wasn't his job as Chairman of the House's Ways and Means committee to chart or analyze Clinton's path to the nomination.  read more »

Representative Charlie Rangel has a very meta take on Vito Fossella's predicament, seeing it as another example of an ongoing Republican implosion.

"They are self-destructing," Rangel told me, referencing the president's vetoes of what he said was bi-partisan legislation and ethics lapses by Republican elected officials.  read more »

Weirdly few event listings today; if you have anything to add, please do so in the comments section.

9 a.m. As part of "Million Trees," Citi Cards, with 40 company volunteers, plant trees; Thomas Jefferson Park, 114th Street and Pleasant Avenue.

5:15 p.m. Congressman Edolphus Towns holds news conference to recognize the achievements of the principal and teachers at Bedford Academy High School; Prospect Park Picnic House, 3rd Street and Prospect Park W.

Hillary Clinton send a "personal" letter to Barack Obama about the Florida and Michigan delegates.

Obama calls comments John McCain made about Obama and Hamas "offensive."  read more »

One of Vito Fossella’s Democratic challengers, Steve Harrison, just released a public statement saying that if Fossella runs for reelection, “The people will decide in November if his recent behavior and revelations should disqualify him from continuing in office.”

It's a slightly different approach than Harrison took yesterday, when he told me Fossella's D.U.I. arrest spoke to the congressman's "character" and decision-making ability.

Here’s the statement:  read more »

In the latest in a string of outer-borough events, one of which recently took Scott Stringer to Queens, today the Manhattan borough president was in Brooklyn filming an appearance on Brooklyn Community Access Television (BCAT), a public affairs channel that serves viewers outside Stringer's home turf.  read more »

Hillary Clinton just sent a formal public letter to Barack Obama calling on him to work to find a resolution to the Florida and Michigan question that reflects the votes in those states and seats their delegations at the convention. She also attempts to shame him for what she calls his failure to "support those efforts" in Michigan, and for the Obama campaign's opposition to revotes in Florida. "In Florida a number of revote options were proposed. I am not aware of any that you supported," she writes.

As pointed out in a conference call yesterday, it is not clear that the Clinton campaign picks up enough support to change their dire position even if both states are counted. But as long as the Obama campaign doesn't budge, it's a talking point for the Clinton campaign.

Here's the letter:  read more »

I just asked Hillary Clinton's finance chair Hassan Nemazee about accounts from other Clinton donors of Obama bundlers contacting them about the possibility of coming over to the campaign.

"There is only one instance that I know of in which a Clinton donor went over to the Obama campaign," said Nemazee. "I remain convinced, until shown otherwise, that donors, be they in New York or elsewhere, are sticking with Hillary and the campaign."

He added, "I would like, in my role, to hopefully be welcoming the Obama people over to Hillary Clinton's campaign. But obviously, we're at a point in the campaign where both common sense and the political reality is indicating that that's not one of my priorities at the moment. What I can say is, if I were the national finance chair of the presumed nominee, I would do everything in my power to welcome supporters of the opposing side into the campaign as much as possible."

He said that he had in fact done as much when he was in a similar position.  read more »

Assemblyman Karim Camara of Brooklyn, who was arrested for D.U.I. last year, says a police videotape related to the case has been destroyed, leaving officials without what he called “the one objective piece of evidence.”  read more »