“I’m not one of Pelosi’s favorite people, and that may be a part of why she’s singling me out in this instance. I’m not quite sure what it is,” Jefferson told reporters during a briefing Friday at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport, where he was bound for Baton Rouge to visit his daughter.
Never mind the fact that former DUMB@$$ AWARD wiener Rep. William Jefferson (D-LA) is being investigated by the FBI for corruption. Never mind the fact that investigators found $90,000 in his freezer. No, if you listen to Jefferson (and I have no idea why any reasonable person would), you’d have to believe that his political demise is the result of a carefully crafted plot carried out by House Minority Leader Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA). Apparently, if you follow Jefferson’s line of thinking, Pelosi doesn’t much like Jefferson, and has spared no effort to embarrass and entrap him. Yeah, and I suppose she put that $90,000 in your freezer, eh?? Not likely.
And it’s not as if this is the first time that Jefferson has been questioned about using his office for personal gain. In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, he commandeered a couple of National Guardsmen to take him to his home in Louisiana so he could check it for damage. Ah, the perks and privilege of office….
No, William Jefferson is the sort of politicians who can best serve his constituents by being behind bars so someone with a functional ethical compass can represent his district fairly and equitably. Nancy Pelosi would be remiss if she wasn’t trying to bounce his ass out of Congress.
WASHINGTON (CNN) — Rep. William Jefferson, who on Friday was stripped of his seat on the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, said the House minority leader singled him out because she wants to be speaker of the House one day.
Jefferson, D-Louisiana, is the subject of an ongoing bribery investigation. No charges have been filed against Jefferson and he maintains his innocence.
The House vote to remove him from the committee was unanimous.
On Thursday the democratic caucus voted 99-58 to suspend him. Jefferson said Friday that wouldn’t have happened without House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s maneuvering.
“>In this case, it was strictly political,” Jefferson said of the caucus vote. “[Pelosi] believes that it gives her a political advantage in this set of elections. She hopes that out of this she’ll be speaker of the House one day, if the Democrats can take charge.”
Of course, blaming Pelosi sure beats the Hell out of taking responsiblity for your own ethical and moral shortcomings, eh? Perhaps he should recognize that Pelosi’s actions simply signal that, unlike Republicans, Democrats are not about to tlerate corruption in their ranks.
Jefferson’s problems are of his own creation, and he has no one to blame but himself. If he had simply followed the minimum of ethical rules currently in place, and if he had remembered that doing the right thing is never a wrong thing, he would still be the anonymous, ineffective, ineffectual Congressman he’s always been. At least he would be the butt of jokes from late-night comedians.
It would appear that William Jefferson got caught with his hand in the cookie jar…or, in this case, the freezer. Blaming Nancy Pelosi for his predicament only makes him look clueless and desperate…which, at this point, is about all he has going for him.
