Good News in Louisiana
It isn't often that I'll think it's good news that a Democrat loses an election, especially an incumbent Democrat in Congress, but this time it definitely is:
"Dollar Bill" Jefferson (D-LA) Loses Re-Election
By Eric Kleefeld - December 6, 2008, 11:40PM
Rep. "Dollar Bill" Jefferson (D-LA) has lost his seat in tonight's Louisiana elections to Republican candidate Joseph Cao, giving the Dems their own case of Ted Stevens Syndrome -- that is, a safe and well-entrenched incumbent, who holds a seat that ought to be an easy win for his party, going down to defeat on a corruption scandal.
Yes, that's right, the guy guy who got caught hiding bribe money in his freezer, but still hasn't been tried, in large part because of overreaching by the prosecutors, is out.
I think this is great news for a couple of reasons. The main reason is that we all benefit from the ejection of a corrupt politician. Maybe he was serving his district, but he wasn't doing that nearly so much as he was lining his own pockets.
The other reason is that for years now, as we have talked about the legions of Republicans involved in public corruption, the wingers have gleefully pointed to him, saying "Yeah, but you're sticking with Jefferson."
Now they don't have that argument.
If the case ever goes to trial, despite the Feds' efforts to screw the case up, he will presumably be convicted and sent away, and I say good.
Pardon season is upon us. As Bush pardons some of the criminals on his side, let's see if he hands out a "Get Out Of Jail Free" card to Jefferson.
"Dollar Bill" Jefferson (D-LA) Loses Re-Election
By Eric Kleefeld - December 6, 2008, 11:40PM
Rep. "Dollar Bill" Jefferson (D-LA) has lost his seat in tonight's Louisiana elections to Republican candidate Joseph Cao, giving the Dems their own case of Ted Stevens Syndrome -- that is, a safe and well-entrenched incumbent, who holds a seat that ought to be an easy win for his party, going down to defeat on a corruption scandal.
Yes, that's right, the guy guy who got caught hiding bribe money in his freezer, but still hasn't been tried, in large part because of overreaching by the prosecutors, is out.
I think this is great news for a couple of reasons. The main reason is that we all benefit from the ejection of a corrupt politician. Maybe he was serving his district, but he wasn't doing that nearly so much as he was lining his own pockets.
The other reason is that for years now, as we have talked about the legions of Republicans involved in public corruption, the wingers have gleefully pointed to him, saying "Yeah, but you're sticking with Jefferson."
Now they don't have that argument.
If the case ever goes to trial, despite the Feds' efforts to screw the case up, he will presumably be convicted and sent away, and I say good.
Pardon season is upon us. As Bush pardons some of the criminals on his side, let's see if he hands out a "Get Out Of Jail Free" card to Jefferson.
posted by Jack McCullough at 8:57 AM
1 Comments:
This is good news.
Now the Democrats need to get behind getting rid of that Gov in Illinois and get serious about investigating Charlie Rangel, whose excuses so far have been pretty embarassing ("whenever it seemed like I was getting to understand what they were saying, they would break into Spanish"), and it's inexcusable for the guy running the committee that writes tax law to be unable to keep up with his taxes, even leaving aside the questionable use of House stationery to solicit contributions to some Rangel Center (and I hope they take his name off that one, too).
The Democrats have a lot to gain by establishing themselves as the clean party. They've been out of power long enough that they should be able to do it convincingly, but only if we seriously try to get rid of guys like Jefferson, Gov B, Rangel etc.
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