The materials placed on a 45 day ‘cooling off period’ by President Bush are long gone. I think Attorney General Alberto Gonzales new directive that any review of documents by the filter team not begin until July 27 to give judges time to consider Jefferson's call for a delay is a baaaaad move. Jefferson should remove himself from government – he won’t so the Ethics Committee should get the job done….the man is a disgrace.
The ethics committee should wait until he has been tried in a court of law, or at least wait until he is indicted for a crime.
The justice department is gathering the necessary evidence with which to do that. They are being extremely careful with how they proceed because they don't want to give the courts and reasons to create some new privilege for Congress that could result in keeping them from being investigated.
If he resigns, he'd be replaced by another Dem with similar politics until he could be replaced through an election. Those he represents are pretty much getting what they voted for, and he'll likely be less corrupt than his replacement simply because no one will go near him to attempt to bribe him with the investigation going on.
The justice department is taking this slow and steady and making sure they don't make any mistakes that could allow the evidence to be suppressed. They'll get this slime ball, and hopefully pull down a number of his associates as well in the process.