The Content of A Character Will Finally Be Explored
I wondered what they’d do to distract from the sentencing of Cooter Libby tomorrow. And while Boss Hawg remains unscathed at Blair House, now I can see the purpose in the timing of this indictment:
Rep. William Jefferson, spotlighted by the find of $90,000 in his freezer many months ago, was indicted today with charges of corruption that could net him as much as 235 years in prison.
I’m eager to see the outcome of this pending trial. The media to date has displayed enough fishy stuff that it’s hard to sustain a presumption of innocence, so it’s difficult to see how he can possibly obtain a fair trial. But his shadow has loomed large over Congressional corruption probes as the crimes alleged to have been committed would be the worst for a Democrat in more than 15 years, which Rightists have exploited to suggest ‘everybody does it’ to offset the breadth of indicted or under-investigation GOP officials.
Everyone doesn’t do it. The majority in either major party doesn’t cross that line. It doesn’t take genius to recognize that even with a politicized pro-GOP Justice Department trumping up fake investigations of several Dems, the record clearly shows the preponderance of corruption has occurred in the ranks of Republicans.
It’s not partisanship to hope that all the guilty are exposed, put on trial and convicted, including - if he’s guilty - Representative Jefferson. After all, such people help destroy our trust in government, an institution we are supposed to control, instead of vice-versa. But there’s plenty to suggest that a greater corruption exists: the loopholes in the laws that have yet to be plugged.
The most visible example of this is a system that permits our sitting Vice President to record enormous financial gains in his stock portfolio by contracts awarded in the prosecution of a war and occupation. Despite any protestation, it creates the appearance that our current poorly conceived and dishonestly promoted War on Iraq has been motivated in part by personal greed.
Any government, however well designed and insulated by good law, will be subject to monetary pressures. And all lawmakers will likely encounter moments when their greed is tested. Most are capable of resisting that temptation, to their credit.
But now’s the time to emphasize that new laws to put greater limits on potential temptations be advanced and passed. It is time to plug the biggest loopholes. Our country needs greater limits on the profitmaking potential of policymakers from the policies they impose. And even more critically, we need across-the-board public financing of campaigns and clean election strategies.
If Jefferson’s guilty, he’s not even close to the level of ill-gotten profit obtained by Randall ‘Duke’ Cunningham. But let us not be distracted by such comparatives, as a crook is a crook is a crook.
Instead, let’s redouble our efforts to further limit the corruptibility of our entire system of government. There’s too many incentives to kill, for profit, hundreds of thousands of people. And there’s multimillions more on ice corrupting our electoral process than can be found in one Congressman’s freezer.
Email your Reps and Senators today and insist that these loopholes be filled. And tomorrow, raise a glass to toast the sentencing of Cheney’s hireling, an enemy of all citizens who has earned his fate.
June 4th, 2007 at 1:36 pm
The timing might be totally coincidental - Jefferson’s a scumbag, and has been in the G’s sights for a long while.
Besides, whatever Cheney’s failings - and as far as I’m concerned, the guy’s Evil, with a social security number - he’s never sent public servants to get cash out of his freezer. Being a crook is one thing; being at the same time utterly hapless and completely contemptuous of decent opinion is quite another. Cheney is by far the greater danger, but Jefferson’s the bigger embarassment.
June 4th, 2007 at 3:00 pm
From his bio:
“Jefferson is an active and senior member of the powerful Ways and Means Committee and its subcommittee on Trade. He is also a member of the House Committee on the Budget.”
You’ll notice it doesn’t say he’s chairman of the Ways and Means Committee or the House Committee on the Budget. You know why that is? Because last year when the FBI raided hs office Pelosi stripped him of his leadership positions.
The Democratic party did it’s best to oust him in the primary and run off elections but the people down there don’t much trust outsiders telling them who to elect I guess.
Contrast that with Denny Hastert’s shrieking over the raid on Jefferson’s office and his years’ long cover up of Mark Foley’s scandals. And how about Boehner appointing Ken Calvert to the Appropriations’ Committee when John Doolittle had to step down pending his indictment? Turns out the FBI is delving into Calvert’s records too. Jerry Lewis, House Appropriations ranking member is not long for congress either.
If you’re keeping score at home here’s some info for you:
Congress.Org Jefferson’s Power Rank Standings
Man he’s last in the party and the entire chamber! This guy not only has less pull than any Democrat or Republican but with a -2.50 power rating he could probably cause your bill to spontaneously burst into flames by glancing approvingly at it!
Compare that to 4th ranking Repub Jerry Lewis Power Rank Standings
Lewis is probably going to retire next year before of course he’s indicted first in the Duke Cunningham scandal. Like the disgraced traitor Duke - and that’s what people who bilk the national security apparatus of the US ought to be considered - Lewis is going to find out that resigning doesn’t make much difference to honest feds (but who knows how many of those are left in Gonzalez’s DOJ?) when it comes to felony charges.
And yet there sits Lewis as ranking minority member on the Appropriations Committee. 4th most powerful Repub and 118th most powerful member in the House.
Why doesn’t Boehner force him to step down? LOL, have you seen the Republican House caucus? Replacing Jesse James with Billy the Kid isn’t going to curb crime in Dodge City.
June 4th, 2007 at 6:05 pm
I also liked the way Rove tried to distract us by making Sarah Silverman tell that Paris Hilton joke.