The Daily Background

Tagged under Abramoff corruption, even though it’s not technically.

Exposing and getting rid of corrupt politicians is something that everybody should be able to celebrate. In the case of William Jefferson, House Representative from Louisiana, we can also celebrate the cleaning of the Democratic party as well. Democrat William Jefferson, who has claimed innocence in the face of FBI investigations into alleged corruption has been caught on tape by the FBI being bribed for 100 grand. I wrote yesterday, when his office was raided by the FBI, and before this news broke:

Now I confess I haven’t been following his story closely (and he has not been indicted… yet), but I agree with Howard Dean’s appraisal of the situation: if he’s indicted, he should resign (he says he won’t). That doesn’t mean that he’s admitting guilt at all.

He can sit this race out. For the good of the party this year. If he’s really innocent, he can make a comeback in 2008 and re-take his seat as a cleared man coming back to claim the seat that’s rightfully his. If he’s found guilty (which he may indeed be), then good riddance. I would rather have a clean Republican in office than a dirty Democrat. Of course, he wouldn’t necessarily be replaced even by a Republican. Besides, there are relatively few dirty Democrats. I’ll let you make the obvious joke about clean Republicans.

Well, I feel kind of wise now, in saying what I did. I’ll make one adjustment: Jefferson should resign immediately, rather than waiting for an indictment, which is surely imminent. Washington Post has a front page article about the Jefferson scandal.

Filed under: William Jefferson Related, Z-TDB Blog