[Vision2020] Ethics??

Mon Dec 11 15:41:57 PST 2006

Local Democrats call for return of Jefferson to key House panelWhy aren't criminal charges being filed?

If he would be convicted of a felony, then it would be much easier to get rid of him.

This is an opportunity for Democrats to show that they are just as unethical and hypocritical as Republicans.
W.
----- Original Message ----- 
From: Pat Kraut 
To: vision2020 
Sent: Monday, December 11, 2006 10:32 AM
Subject: [Vision2020] Ethics??

"I don't think it would be easy to keep him off all committees," Ornstein said. "But I can't imagine him being put on a meaningful committee." 

      More From The Times-Picayune   |   Subscribe To The Times-Picayune
      Local Democrats call for return of Jefferson to key House panel
      Monday, December 11, 2006 
      By Bruce Alpert
      Now that U.S. Rep. William Jefferson has been convincingly re-elected to a ninth term, some local Democrats are calling on House Speaker-elect Nancy Pelosi to return him to his slot on the powerful House Ways and Means Committee. 

      Pelosi, a California Democrat, led a successful effort last spring to strip Jefferson, D-New Orleans, from the tax-writing panel after the Justice Department revealed that its agents, as part of an ongoing corruption investigation, had discovered $90,000 in the freezer of his Washington, D.C., home during a raid in August 2005. 

      "The 2nd Congressional District said, 'This is our guy,' " said state Rep. Cedric Richmond, D-New Orleans. "She should respect that. He's one of the smartest members of the Ways and Means Committee. . . . She should let him represent us." 

      Brendan Daly, a spokesman for Pelosi, said committee assignments are still being worked out. But Norm Ornstein, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, doubts the incoming House leader will agree to the request, made by Richmond; Jefferson Parish President Aaron Broussard said he hopes the congressman lands on an influential panel, if not necessarily Ways & Means. 

      "I don't think it would be easy to keep him off all committees," Ornstein said. "But I can't imagine him being put on a meaningful committee." 

      According to Ornstein, many Washington political observers were surprised that Jefferson managed not only to defeat his runoff opponent, state Rep. Karen Carter, D-New Orleans, but to do so decisively, with 57 percent of the vote. 

      "It's not the greatest move for the public image of Louisiana," said Ornstein, who thinks it reinforces stereotypes about the state being tolerant of corruption. 

      Broussard said he thinks Pelosi spurned Jefferson in an attempt to put House Democratic leaders ahead of the curve, believing the allegations against the congressman are serious enough even without an indictment to keep him off a major committee and for 2nd District voters to follow up by voting him out of office. 

      "I think whatever the speaker does in the way of assignments would probably -- more respectfully -- be to address the will of the people of that district, as opposed to her personal assumption of the unelectability of a congressman under a cloud of suspicion," he said. 

      The Rev. Tom Watson, founder of the Watson Memorial Teaching Ministries in New Orleans, said voters showed they couldn't be swayed by mere allegations of wrongdoing, knowing that despite a probe that began in March 2005, the government has not filed a single charge against Jefferson. 

      CONTINUED   1 | 2  Next 

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