Handling Corruption

8:06 pm EST June 15th, 2006 | Politics | 13 Comments

Kudos to Rep. Pelosi and the Democratic majority who voted in favor of this action

Louisiana Congressman William Jefferson was suspended from the House Ways and Means Committee.

To Rep. Jefferson and his deluded supporters: shut up. You’re a shame to the Democratic party, the House of Representatives and the United States of America.

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13 Responses to “Handling Corruption”

  1. scratch says:
    June 15, 2006 at 9:06 pm

    I liked Pelosi’s position on this:

    Q: “But isn’t there a presumption of innocence?”

    A: “You’re talking about a court of law…Congressmen are held to a higher standing. Any Democratic Congressman who has $90,000 in his freezer is going to hear from me.”

  2. JD says:
    June 16, 2006 at 1:06 am

    This is an incredibly strong position they are taking. Essentially, they said that we know you are guilty of this, and as a result, we will remove you from a Committee.

  3. factcheck says:
    June 16, 2006 at 7:06 am

    Big difference between the Democrats and the RW “culture of corruption”, don’t you think?

    We disavow our crooks. Republicans embrace them.

  4. SaveFarris says:
    June 16, 2006 at 9:06 am

    We disavow our crooks. Republicans embrace them.

    So Delay and Duke are still in Congress, eh?

  5. Dugger says:
    June 16, 2006 at 9:06 am

    D*mn Democrats and their culture of corruption. Time to clean house in Congress and start with those corrupt Democrats.

    Won’t you join me now in this bi-partisan program to rid Congress of crooked Democrats? (we’ll come after crooked Republicans later, if there are any).

    Dugger, Reaching Out

  6. BD says:
    June 16, 2006 at 11:06 am

    DeLay and Duke are no longer in Congress because they realized they could no longer obfuscate their corruption, not because they were doing the noble thing and not because their party cut them loose. I don’t seem to recall that DeLay was getting the sort of cold shoulder and outright dismissal that Democrats are rightly giving Jefferson–quite the opposite, in fact.

    Jefferson is under allegations of wrongdoing and the Democrats remove him from a mere committee leadership position. Republicans tried to change the ethics rules so that Tom DeLay could remain Majority Leader even if under indictment.

    You tell me who comes out looking worse in comparison.

  7. BD says:
    June 16, 2006 at 2:06 pm

    I’d say I can’t follow your logic, but that would imply that any were present.

  8. Dugger says:
    June 16, 2006 at 2:06 pm

    The Democrats

  9. Marty says:
    June 16, 2006 at 3:06 pm

    Good for the Democrats. They made Jefferson give up a committee assignment. Brilliant political move. No doubt.

    Makes it look like they are serious about corruption without doing anything truly drastic AND it it makes a great headline.

    Cynical and calculating, but brilliant.

  10. Oliver Willis says:
    June 16, 2006 at 4:06 pm

    DeLay and Duke are out of congress because of the law. The Republican caucus both strongly defended both of them until the end. Jefferson stunk of sleaze and the Dems cast him out.

    See the difference?

  11. Marty says:
    June 16, 2006 at 6:06 pm

    Absolutely a difference- in the type of political gamesmanship.

    Cunningham is out because of the law, and I doubt you can find anyone who supported him when he made his big confession. Delay is out because he stepped down to focus on fighing the charges against him and to save himself the embarrassment of not getting voted in as Majority Leader or Congress in general. (Note- he hasn’t been convicted of anything yet, but I’m sure Jason Leopold is on the case.)

    Jefferson has not been “cast out”- he has been removed from ONE committee assignment- Ways and Means. He is still on the Budget Committee (write your own joke here) and Co-chairs the African Trade and Investment Caucus, Brazil Caucus and the Nigeria Caucus (where more issues arise.) But like I said- it was a brilliant move by Pelosi, et. al. because now they can make the talking point that Democrats “cast out” their bad apples in a symbolic gesture.

    Jefferson not only stunk of sleaze. He is the perfect political sacrificial lamb for the “culture of corruption” theme.

  12. Oliver Willis says:
    June 16, 2006 at 7:06 pm

    And Cunningham was applauded by the GOP leadership when it was first reported he was under probe.

  13. Marty says:
    June 17, 2006 at 8:06 am

    Applauded? Did you read what you linked? More like given the benefit of ‘innocent until proven guilty’ for both Cunningham and Murtha who are both known as war heros and were both coming under investigation at the time.

    Unless you believe people should be “cast out” just for being investigated. Then the Democrats should have “cast out” William Jefferson a long time ago. (Perhaps when his aides were found guilty of accepting bribes.) No- the timing of this re-assignment is a political move- not one of principal.