William Jefferson (D-La) displays his favorite walk-in freezer.
Posted on 12/18/2006 5:56:16 AM PST by Libloather
La.'s voters are either masochists or just stupid for re-electing Jefferson
By Tonyaa Weathersbee, Guest Columnist
December 18, 2006
It's official: The people in Louisiana's 2nd Congressional
That has to be the reason why they voted to send Rep. William J. Jefferson, a man with legal woes the size of the federal deficit, back to Washington recently. I'd prefer to believe that there's a psychological reason behind their choice rather than another one: That they're just straight-up stupid.
This past Saturday, Jefferson, Louisiana's first black congressman since Reconstruction, overwhelmingly defeated state Rep. Karen Carter, who is also black, in a runoff to keep his House seat. This would be the Jefferson who is being investigated for bribery; the man whose Washington home was raided by FBI agents who found about $90,000 in marked bills in his freezer.
The FBI said it had videotaped him earlier taking $100,000 in marked bills from an informant. On top of that, two of his associates-the owner of a company seeking lucrative contracts in Africa and a former congressional aide-have also pleaded guilty to bribing him.
True, Jefferson hasn't been charged with a crime yet. But the evidence so far is damning. And right now the people in his New Orleans district, a place where Hurricane Katrina ripped a particularly devastating swath, don't have the luxury of giving a tainted congressman the benefit of the doubt. This is, after all, a time when they need someone who can persuade those who are holding the purse strings that the money they need to continue to recover from devastation won't wind up packed next to a side of beef.
If Jefferson is indicted and pleads guilty or he's convicted, he'll have to quit or face being expelled. If he's indicted and goes to trial, well then, he's going to be distracted from his congressional duties to deal with his legal woes.
But even if Jefferson manages to escape being indicted, his presence will still carry a cloud. He has already been removed from the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, and he could find himself further marginalized in a Democratic congress that came to power on a platform of cleaning up corruption.
In any case, I can't see how Jefferson is going to be of much use to those who voted for him. And it amazes me that Jefferson-a man who used National Guard troops to help him retrieve his belongings from his house after Katrina when they should have been used to rescue constituents who were stranded and roasting on rooftops-managed to command such loyalty. But that loyalty will quickly be reduced to a liability for a district that is poorer and needier since Katrina.
Yet, I can see how he managed to grab another term.
Many times, black people, having been beleaguered with a history of our elected officials being singled out and targeted by the feds, tend to automatically see investigation as persecution. Our sympathies and our loyalties tend to lay with the person rather than the institution he or she represents. And since there are still relatively few of us in high positions, many of us feel the need to protect, rather than scrutinize, those folks.
I understand it. But it's time for that kind of political masochism to stop.
Why? Because when black elected officials mess up, the people they hurt the most tend to be other black people. And the black people who continue to vote for them need to understand that they don't need to prove their trustworthiness to a black elected official if that official violates his or her trust to them.
Again, I know that Jefferson is still innocent until proven guilty. But he still has offered no plausible explanation as to how $90,000 in marked bills wound up in his freezer. Other than denying any wrongdoing, all he has said is that there are two sides to the story.
To which people like my boyfriend retort: "I wanna hear yours."
Until such questions are answered, Katrina victims will be stuck with a representative who no one trusts, whose skittish colleagues are going to assume that any phone call they take from him is likely being tapped.
And that's going to hurt.
Tonyaa Weathersbee is an award-winning columnist for the BlackAmericaWeb.com, Florida Times-Union and has appeared on Nightline and BET Tonight. Her commentaries have also been published in the Houston Chronicle, Baltimore Sun and Kansas City Star. This commentary first appeared on BlackAmericaWeb.com.
Maybe La. voters are lawless themselves.
I'll take "stupid" for $200 Alex.
Stupid works for me.
My bet is the later.
Ever notice that liberals don't care about corruption when it's involving a Democrat in office?
The simple explanation is that Jefferson best represents his districts values...
Its a lynching. He's as innocent as OJ.
Truth is that he's probably the most honest person in the State.
Blacks seem to be their own worse enemy.....very sad
That's as disturbing as his reelection.
Maybe he should run for mayor of DC?
Lets be brutally honest here. If you were to ask the voters in his district about the charges, I suspect the vast majority of black voters would claim it was a plot by whites to drive him out of office. Until the black community becomes really involved in understanding the details, this will continue. As long as they listen to the race baiters, they are doomed to making bad choices.
"I'd prefer to believe that there's a psychological reason behind their choice rather than another one: That they're just straight-up stupid."
Sorry to disappoint you.
"That they're just straight-up stupid. "
just watch Jerry Springer
New York just reelected Alan Hevesi, the Dem Comptroller of the state, who has so far had to pay back $130,000 of taxpayer money. And has been under investigation for more wrongdoing.
They had to elect him or some evil Republican would be Comptroller: they'll take a corrupt Dem every time. At least here they had an easy choice, in LA they picked Jefferson over another Dem, which is even more confounding.
Even though Miss Weathersbee does admit that Jefferson is probably a crook, notice how this article still reeks of self pity and excuses. I suppose I should be thankful that she would admit that a black "could" do anything wrong, because, of course, by definition, all blacks are guiltless and all whites are racists.
#2, and THAT's my FINAL ANSWER!..........
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.