Since the voters of Louisiana won’t do the right thing.
A federal appeals court upheld bribery and other charges against Louisiana Democratic U.S. Rep. William Jefferson on Wednesday, clearing the way for a trial.
Jefferson, who cruised to victory in a primary last week and is expected to easily win re-election, had sought to dismiss a 16-count indictment charging him with taking bribes, laundering money and misusing his congressional office for business dealings in Africa.
This guy shouldn’t be within inches of the U.S. House let alone a member of it.
I think he keeps getting elected by Republicans. Democrats split the vote between him and another left winger, which forces a run-off, and Republicans vote him back.
Granted, I still believe in innocent until proven guilty, but politicians should play by a higher standard. Once the trial goes forward, they should resign. Hell, resign with the understanding that if they are cleared, your replacement will step aside and let you come back.
So strange that you can’t vote if you’re a convicted felon, buy you can be elected to national office.
Of course, if the law was changed Dems would lose a Congress-critter. The Republican party would lose about ten.
STOP ELECTING HIM!! I gave money to his challenger a while back and yet he won by like 10 points. I … I don’t … I don’t know what else to do…
It’s time to admit something we’ve all known for quite some time: Cajuns just ain’t very bright. We can’t even figure out how to survive a hurricane. What makes you think we can figure out “Vote for the guy who’s NOT indicted?”
CSS: Once the trial goes forward, they should resign. Hell, resign with the understanding that if they are cleared, your replacement will step aside and let you come back.
Exactly right. There should be some version of the 25th amendment for members of Congress but a bit less voluntary. If indicted you must step down. Once cleared you get to return to office.
Convicted felons (I’m looking at you, Ted) should not be allowed to serve and should be automatically removed from office.
“It’s time to admit something we’ve all known for quite some time: Cajuns just ain’t very bright. ”
You prove it more with every post farris
I tell ya, between Jay Tea posting that when he’s wrong the country benefits (another thread), and Farris’s admission that he isn’t very bright, it’s a welcome moment of truth and clarity from the right….
It’s time to admit something we’ve all known for quite some time: Cajuns just ain’t very bright.
Boy, I’d love to see the bloodbath if a liberal elitist fake America Democrat wrote this statement.
It’s the Marion Barry effect!
It’s amazing that he even ran again. But
it says something about the corrupt politics
in Louisiana.
Good post, Oliver,
If only we Republicans could do the same thing with asswipe Ted Stevens.
Of course, if the law was changed Dems would lose a Congress-critter. The Republican party would lose about ten.
Many a criminal has been elected and reelected. Countless examples from both sides of the aisle.
Murtha looked guilty as hell in Abscam. He got off because he didn’t quite come across for the Arabs but his heart sure looked like it was in the right place.
And what about that liberal lion Ted Kennedy? Massachusetts has had the honor of reelecting that drunken coward over and over again after his disgraceful behavior. Leaving a young chick to die alone, in a car he put into a pond in a drunken stupor. Never seeking help and sneaking off the island to try and set up an alibi. Is there anyone in Congress with a more despicaple record? Yet elected and reelected.
“Despicaple”???
What are you, Sylvester the Cat?
Ted Kennedy’s behavior in the Chappaquiddick affair was a one-time lapse in judgement (or mortal sin, if you will). Stevens’ behavior is part of a 40 year pattern of corruption and abuse of power.
Surely, a “Christian”, as I presume Amused Observer considers himself, could find it in his heart to forgive Ted Kennedy for his transgression 37 years ago. I, on the other hand, being NOT a Christian, do not forgive Stevens for his lifetime of shady bullshit.
I mean 39 years ago.
There is no clearer window into a man’s charactor than how he behaves under pressure. There is no comparison between a politician taking advantage of his office and extracting favors, Stevens, Chris Dodd, etc. and the behavior of Kennedy.
That girl may or may not have been able to survive if help had been forthcoming. Kennedy himself should have been able to get her out of there. He got out. But his cowardice, fleeing the scene without trying to get help, attempting to set up an alibi, sealed her fate.
Think about that for a moment. He left her to die and swam off the island, returning the next day in a phony neckbrace. To charactorize that as a lapse of judgement is being quite charitable.
As for it being a onetime thing, I don’t think he’s directly been reponsible for any other deaths. But do you really want to put yourself in the position of having to defend the excesses and scandals that seem to follow Kennedy when he’s been doing a little drinking?
I do not defend a drunken Kennedy’s actions anymore than I defend any other drunk driver. Standards have changed over the years, and if the same accident had happened today, Kennedy would undoubtedly have done prison time. His Senate career, in which he has done much to be proud of, would have been over.
But you were young in the 50s and 60s, A.O. Didn’t you ever get behind the wheel after a few too many? Most people did back then, including me. Got stopped once or twice, never arrested. Today the cop wouldn’t have been so forgiving, wouldn’t have chuckled and said, “Be careful, pal, you’re almost home.” It’s a miracle I never killed myself or anyone else. I NEVER drive after drinking nowadays.
If you admit that you EVER drove drunk, what makes you think a Chappaquiddick couldn’t have happened to you?
On the other hand, it takes a very bad man to live a LIFETIME of corruption. What does Stevens have to be proud of?
“Most people did back then, including me.”
And including George W. Bush.
Bruce,
It’s not the driving that shows what kind of scum bag Kennedy is, it’s his behavior afterwards. Perhaps you don’t recall just what he did. He left that girl in the car to die. He did not go up to any of the houses there and summon help, he fled the scene. He swam off the Island and tried to establish an alibi, returnng on the morning ferry wearing a phony neckbrace. Only his cousins stern admonishments kept him from trying to deny the whole thing. Meanwhile that girl was trapped, abandoned, and died while Kennedy slunk off to hide. That’s why he’s the biggest scumbag in Congress.
Stevens, Jefferson, Murtha, they were tempted by easy money or free home improvements. Piss poor behavior, most likely worthy of some jail time, but not even close to Kennedy. He stands alone. It’s not the drunken driving that makes Kennedy stand out, that’s quite common. It’s not the fact a married man took a drunken little chick out for a moonlight drive. Cheating spouses are a dime a dozen.
No, it’s deliberately leaving someone to die in an attempt to get out of an awkward situation that Kennedy is damned for.
And that’s a mighty poor reflection upon a majority of the folks from Massachussetts. Louisiana may have nothing to hold thier heads up about with Jefferson but they can still look down on Old Mass.
Laura Bush was stone-cold sober when she committed vehicular manslaughter by running a stoplight and killing a man (and, like Kennedy, didn’t suffer any legal consequences of any kind).
I do remember what Kennedy did, and it was terrible. But, again, it was one day out of his life of service to his state and his country.
Stevens and Jefferson woke up every day of their careers wondering how they could enrich themselves at taxpayer expense, for 40 years in Stevens’ case.
I condone none of the bribery that Stevens, Jefferson, and quite frankly many others in Congress on both sides of the aisle engage in. I think they ahould all be hunted down and booted out. But those crimes pale in comparison to Kennedy. That lifetime of service bullshit doesn’t cut it. Stevens did plenty of good things both for his state and the nation as a whole. That has no bearing on his ethical lapses nor does it have any on Kennedy. Kennedy’s crime is just a whole lot worse than any other member of Congress.
And it’s not like this was Kennedy’s only brush with disgrace and scandal. Quite frankly the man has a wee bit of a drinking problem, his after hours social life is full of what charitably could be could be called poor judgement.
“I condone none of the bribery that…quite frankly many others in Congress on both sides of the aisle engage in”.
I doubt that “many others in Congress” engage in bribery, but if you (AO) want to make sensationalistic charges without any evidence or specific examples, I can’t stop you.
“…his after hours social life is full of what charitably could be called poor judgement”.
More example-free claims/charges!