Could those annoyed mutterings on Capital Hill about Congressmen Rangel be coming from a fellow Democrat, Senator Schumer? The senator’s office doesn’t return phone calls, so it’s hard to say. But it certainly seems as though Mr. Schumer has been relegated to third place in the Empire State’s lineup of power in Washington, as Senator Clinton maneuvers for the presidency and Mr. Rangel, the always cheerful, polite, and open congressman from Harlem, emerges as a national figure via the chairmanship of the Committee on Ways and Means.

Certainly a showdown seems to be brewing between the two Democrats over what to do about tax policy. Mr. Rangel has his eye on the possibility of raising taxes on the operators of his home town industry, hedge funds, by taxing the increase in the value of their carried interest in the funds they run as ordinary income rather than capital gains. Mr. Schumer, who has raised a fortune in political cash from big hedge fund operators and their clients, is against the strategy. As are we, incidentally, in that we favor the principle that all like interests be taxed alike. The principle would force congressmen who want to go after hedge funds also to raise taxes on small mom-andpop partnerships.

Mr. Rangel, in any event, has other strategies in mind, our Russell Berman is reporting from Washington. The chairman sent a message Tuesday to the Democratic candidates not to “get ahead of the tax-writing committee with their rhetoric” on tax plans during the presidential campaign. Senator Obama, of Illinois, and Senator Edwards, formerly a senator from North Carolina, have already proposed various tax cuts for the middle class and increases for top earners, but neither has run their plans past Mr. Rangel, who has backed Senator Clinton, who hasn’t yet specified which kinds of tax increases she is going to go for – though certainly tax increases would be central to her presidency.

What Mr. Rangel has in mind, Mr. Berman reported yesterday, is something he calls the “mother of all tax reforms,” which will center on an elimination of the alternative minimum tax. But what’s the point of that reform if it is going to be used to raise taxes on those who pay the largest share. The chairman also is giving what Mr. Berman described as a “general thumbs up” to Mayor Bloomberg’s plan to increase the incentive not to work by expanding the earned income tax credit. Mr. Rangel is also saying he is open to considering a proposal floated recently by the Secretary Paulson in respect of lowering the corporate tax rates but he hinted that he might use a corporate tax cut as a bargaining chip to gain administration support for his other tax priorities. “It would be one step further toward me trying to work with the administration,” he said.

As for Mr. Schumer, the chairman’s message seems to be that he isn’t going to sit for the third-ranking Democrat in the Senate initiating any tax agenda. It may be true that the most dangerous place in Washington is between Senator Schumer and a camera. But Mr. Rangel, we learned in Korea, is nothing if not courageous – and committed to the idea that tax policy originates not in the Senate but the House. Even though Mr. Schumer is “my dear friend,” Mr. Rangel says, “my respect for the Constitution and the jurisdiction of this committee far exceeds that.”