Would that be equivalent to STUCK ON STUPID?
I hope this hearing will also include testimony from Blanco and Nagin.
I thought Blanco and Nagin had been pretty much "unavailable" lately.
william brinkley was on joey scarbourough's show last night and basically said nagin is going through a mental breakdown.
You have to be kidding me!! What is William Jefferson doing there?
Jefferson left in political limbo by raids
All he can do now is wait, experts say
Sunday, August 07, 2005
By Bruce Alpert
Washington bureau
WASHINGTON -- When FBI agents raided his homes, car and his accountant's office last week, U.S. Rep. William Jefferson, D-New Orleans, entered a political limbo of unknown duration and unknown consequences.
He joins two House colleagues, House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, and Rep. Duke Cunningham, R-Calif., who, like Jefferson, are sweating through criminal probes.
It's an unenviable situation in which Jefferson, like his two Republican colleagues, must wait for the other shoe to drop -- a possible criminal indictment -- while trying to convince constituents he's continuing to represent them effectively.
Aides and friends say Jefferson, who was unavailable for comment, is trying his best to stay upbeat and continue his congressional duties as if last week's high-profile raids didn't happen.
But the wait for the prosecutors' next move can be pure hell, according to Mike McCurry. McCurry should know. He was President Clinton's press secretary while accusations flew that Clinton had lied when he testified he had not had a sexual relationship with Monica Lewinsky. But perhaps more relevant was McCurry's job fresh out of Princeton University as press secretary to Sen. Harrison Williams, D-N.J.
In 1978, Williams was named a participant in the Abscam scandal, a sting operation in which members of Congress, in exchange for political favors, were offered money by federal agents posing as Arab sheiks. It would be many months before federal prosecutors decided to indict the popular New Jersey senator.
"It was a tortured period when it was just unclear whether the Justice Department would indict, and all you could do is just continue doing the normal congressional work while all this speculation was out there," McCurry said. Ultimately, Williams, who insisted on his innocence until his death in 2001, was indicted, convicted, sentenced to three years in jail and forced to give up his Senate seat.
A survivable storm
But political analysts say that being subject to a high-profile investigation isn't necessarily enough to cause long-term political harm.
DeLay, the GOP majority leader, retains strong support from the House Republican caucus, despite harsh criticism from Democrats for taking a trip to Scotland apparently financed by controversial lobbyist Jack Abramoff, in possible violation of House rules. His political action committee has also been subject of a 32-month investigation by a Texas prosecutor into alleged fund-raising irregularities.
If this bothers DeLay, he doesn't show it. Just before Congress recessed, DeLay got credit from the Bush administration for combining the right balance of inducements and threats to overcome intense opposition and secure the GOP votes needed to pass the Central American Free Trade Agreement.
"We're now at a point where a congressman has to be indicted and convicted for an offense like this to end his career," University of Virginia political scientist Larry Sabato said.
Sabato said he thinks Jefferson will retain his support with most New Orleans voters, unless prosecutors charge him with a crime and win a conviction on charges that are not considered trivial.
"Until then, I doubt this has a major effect on Jefferson," Sabato said. "He is the duly elected congressman for his district, and most other politicians will say, 'Let's see what happens,' and, 'There but for the grace of God . . .' As for the negative publicity, the best road to take is full, swift disclosure of the truth. Get it over with quickly."
Self-discipline crucial
Jefferson is the second member of Congress to be subject to FBI raids this summer. Rep. Randy Cunningham, R-Calif., whose yacht and California home were raided several weeks before records and other materials from Jefferson were secured by FBI agents, has already announced he won't seek re-election next year.
Federal investigators are probing whether Cunningham steered military work to a contractor who bought his California home and then quickly sold it for $700,000 less than what he paid the lawmaker, and whose Washington, D.C., yacht served as Cunningham's rent-free home while Congress was in session.
"Coming on the heels of Randy Cunningham, this idea of FBI raids seems like déjà vu all over again," said Norm Ornstein, political analyst for the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank. "Allegations of sweetheart deals are damaging. FBI raids are more so. A member can operate for a while under this kind of cloud if he/she is internally tough and disciplined and has his/her colleagues rally behind with an innocent-until-proven-guilty mantra."
Hank Braden, a New Orleans lawyer and former Louisiana state senator who is a longtime friend of Jefferson's, said being under a federal probe's microscope would be hard on anyone.
"But Bill Jefferson is very cool, levelheaded and very intelligent, and he is going to handle this very well," said Braden, who predicts that the eight-term congressman will continue with an active schedule. His staff said he's proceeding with a trade trip to Brazil this week with New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin.
"But he's also not going to sit idly by," Braden said. "He's going to demand that they come up with specifics and say what the hell he allegedly did wrong. He's a member of Congress. He's a sitting congressman. This can't go on for years."
Unlike in the cases of Cunningham and DeLay, any alleged wrongdoing by Jefferson hasn't been revealed publicly.
A curveball
One complicating factor could be the expected departure of Noel Hillman, the chief of the Justice Department's public integrity section, which is conducting the Jefferson probe. Hillman is expected to be nominated by President Bush for a district court judge post in his native New Jersey, according to published reports. Under a deal with New Jersey's two Democratic senators, he's likely to win confirmation by October.
Hillman is a tough but fair prosecutor, said Mark Corallo, the press secretary to President Bush's first-term Attorney General John Ashcroft. He won't let a case drag on any longer than necessary, Corallo said. But whether the case will be completed before Hillman joins the federal judiciary is unknown.
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