BATON ROUGE, LA. — An eight-term Democratic Louisiana congressman whose Capitol Hill office was raided earlier this year as part of a bribery investigation failed Saturday to win the endorsement of the state’s Democratic Party. Rep. William Jefferson was passed over by the party’s State Central Committee in favor of state Rep. Karen Carter. The committee voted 69-53 to endorse Carter in the Nov. 7 election….Jefferson, who has denied the bribery allegations and has not been charged, will still appear on the ballot as a Democrat and will not lose campaign funds because of the vote. But it marks the first time in recent memory that an incumbent failed to win the state party’s endorsement, said party member Elsie Burkhalter.
I’d be the first person to admit that corruption and venality are the monopoly of no political party. Being caught with your hand in the public cookie jar is neither a Red or a Blue thing. What IS different is the way in which the parties seem to be reacting to it. While Republicans seems to be heavily in denial, and while they seem to think that it will disappear if they just pretend for long enough that the problem doesn’t exist, Democrats seem to understand that it’s not just actual corruption, it’s the appearance of corruption and how you deal with issues of propriety. Republicans, for whatever reason, just don’t get it…and it will likely cost them their majority on November 7th. The same thing happened to Democrats in 1994, and while it’s been a bumpy road (Jim Traficant and Alan Mollohan, anyone??), the Democratic Party seems to have regained at least a degree of moral authority. It’s a lesson that clearly escaped former DUMB@$$ AWARD wiener WIlliam Jefferson. Before we begin bragging about our superior ability to keep our eyes on the ball, we should remember that 12 years ago, we Democrats were in the same position that the GOP finds itself in today. At least Democrats aren’t arrogant enough to approach their pending re-ascension to power as the Republicans did in 1994 with their Contract On With America. Power, when combined with humility, is a good thing. Let’s hope that Democrats will be able to keep that in mind.
I don’t know enough about Louisiana politics to be able to know, or even predict, what will happen in Jefferson’s district. At least the state Democratic Party’s refusal to endorse him is a step in the right direction. It’s just too bad that Republicans seem incapable of taking similar action.
