Nearly two years ago, the FBI found $90,000 in bribe money in the freezer of Rep. William Jefferson (D-Louisiana). In spite of this evidence, he was re-elected by the people of his district. Then he was given a seat on the Homeland Security Committee by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-California).
Monday, the Justice Department announced that Jefferson had been indicted on 16 criminal counts, including soliciting bribes, obstructing justice, engaging in racketeering, money laundering, wire fraud, conspiracy, and violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. If convicted on all charges, Jefferson could be sentenced to 235 years in prison.
Of course, Jefferson's lawyer says he is innocent. What would you expect an expensive attorney to say? In spite of that, it is time for Democrats to finally dump this criminal. They should have done it a couple of years ago.
During the 2006 elections, the Democrats made a lot of political hay out of Republican corruption, and justly so. There was and still is a lot of corruption among Republicans. But Democrats cannot accuse Republicans of corruption and then turn around and protect as corrupt a politician as Jefferson.
Corruption is wrong no matter what political party it occurs in. Democrats must kick this criminal out of Congress and, if possible, out of the party altogether. Any effort to do otherwise will destroy any moral authority Democrats have in the next election.
Don't delay Democrats! Take action now.
Finally. I also didn't understand why the Dems protected him for so long-even if it had ultimately turned out that he was cleared, the evidence of the cash in the fridge put him under a shadow. (Same thing for Jerry Lewis, incidentally). I don't care what party someone is, when someone acts corruptly, not only should he or she not be rewarded, but that person needs to be prosecuted (and that includes Bush).
ReplyDeletePelosi did strip him of his chairmanship. Until someone is actually indicted doing more would have been finding a person guilty before he or she was even charged.
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