I wonder how long it'll be before the mailing lists of the DNC, which are probably on some William Jefferson-owned PCs start getting emails about from a Jefferson offspring asking for help getting their money out of Nigeria? After all, the story has all the elements of a good Nigerian Scam letter; the family fortune endangered, the patriarch locked away or threatened by the law, the benighted son or daughter pleading for help getting their money... it's all there.
Seems Jefferson is our very own "allegedly" corrupt politician. I suspect he's a Democrat by neccescity, and for no other reason. Had he been able to be elected under the Banner of Pachydermness, he'd have as easily thrown his allegiance to them. Public service, so it appears, was all about getting and staying rich, not the public good...
Four months later, over lunch in a congressional dining room, Jefferson informed Mody that he wanted a 5 percent to 7 percent stake in W2-IBBS in the name of his five daughters. That stake would be channeled through their own African company, Global Energy & Environmental Services LLC, which would be run by his son-in-law, according to court documents.
Over the ensuing months, Mody increasingly questioned Pfeffer and Jackson about the deal and her $3.5 million. In March 2005, she went to the FBI. From then on, Jefferson's ever-more-complex business dealings unfolded under the watch of federal investigators.
On May 12, 2005, Jefferson demanded that his stake in the Nigerian deal rise from 7 percent to as much as 20 percent, "for my children," according to court documents. The figure eventually reached 30 percent.
"for his children", yeah, the impoverished Harvard-law educated ones...yeah, that's it; that's the ticket.
Oh, and I completely forgot this bit of William Jefferson trivia...
Amid the chaos and confusion that engulfed New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina struck, [Rep. William Jefferson, (D-LA)] used National Guard troops to check on his property and rescue his personal belongings — even while New Orleans residents were trying to get rescued from rooftops, ABC News has learned.
What a nice guy...
posted by Jo Fish on 06.05.06 at 09:17 AM
Comments:
I am as partisan as they come. I am the Yellowist of Yellow Dog Democrats, if it came right down to it I would probably pull the lever for either Jefferson or Lieberman - if given no other Democratic Party choice. But the simple incomprehension within Party leadership about why I would prefer Jefferson being taken away in handcuffs or Lieberman totally humiliated by Ned Lamont would be laughable if it wasn't so disturbing. "But they are us!!" seems to be the main message. Well maybe that is the problem.
I coined a new phrase this morning (stealing the core from Lord Acton): "Power corrupts. Inside the Beltway power corrupts absolutely" and this extends from Congress to the White House to the Washington based Press and from party to party. Harsh? Yes. Over broad? A little but not nearly as much as I would like. 2006 is shaping up to be an odd year. Lots of the Kool Kidz are beginning to realize that the dorks out in the hall, otherwise known as voters, readers and people who actually work their asses off for a living, are laughing at them and not with them.
Conventional, inside the Beltway, consensus on Bush and the War got it all terribly wrong. Fatally wrong. Fatal as meaning thousands of dead kids, in our case 18 year old kids, for the Iraqis 10 year old kids dead dead dead. And these people had the nerve to laugh out loud at Bush's "missing WMD" skit at the Capitol Correspondants Dinner two years ago and freeze in fear when Colbert pointed out some necessary truths this year.
We need Democrats in control of Congress in 2007and in 2009 of the White House. Not necessarily the same Democrats that are in control of the Party today. And a leadership that blindly lines up behend Jefferson may learn that lesson in a fashion way more painful than it needs to be.
At a national level Jefferson is just as cold and dead as those Benjamins wrapped up in his freezer. Christ Traficant had a better case and he is federal prison.
Certain ostensibly liberal people in the press and some ostensible leaders in the Democratic Party need to wake up and realize that they are last revelers at the Bush Iraqi War Celebration Party. The food is gone, the beer and champagne are flat, and that banging at your skull is Reality trying to sink in.
Yeah, we can't have this kind of stuff in our party. It's time for Jefferson to go.
posted by: Tony on 06.06.06 at 10:07 AM [permalink]
Blogsphere as the death of the Mainstream Media is no longer a strange story. The whole world runs on a mess of corruption and hopefully blogging about it will wake up more people. “We deserve clean, decent government. We aren’t likely to get it, but we should demand no less.” is true everywhere. Management consultants and international advisers have for many decades helped African leaders grapple with their acquired power, sadly, they have also, always helped themselves to bags of cash.
