Penny wise, pound foolish
The Congressional Black Caucus is making a huge mistake in supporting Jefferson here.
Furious black lawmakers, rallying behind Rep. William Jefferson (D-La.), were pulled back from the brink of open revolt against House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) in an emergency meeting with her Wednesday evening.
Jefferson is on tape taking and putting into his car’s trunk $90,000 worth of money that was serial number matched to the bills found in his freezer. He’s corrupt and he’s stupid and he needs to resign for the good of the party.
The CBC putting the interests of one of the members of their subset ahead of interests of the Democratic party – and let’s not forget the country – is really fucking stupid. On the political side, it will add legitimacy to the false equivalency bipartisan bullshit that the media will try to use in re: the Republican culture of corruption. DeLay took $400 million, Jefferson $90,000… but it’s not going to matter to the media with their “but the Democrats are corrupt too!” messaging. It is also bad for the party nationally as it reinforces the belief that all politicians are corrupt and the false image that there is no difference between Democrats and Republicans.
I’m not saying that the FBI sweep on his office was legitimate – it’s not, both on Unitary Executive bullshit grounds (even Hoover never thought he could raid a Congresscritter’s office) and it’s also almost certainly partisan and racially motivated (DeLay and Cunningham’s offices were never ransacked) – but supporting him on this small battle loses the war.
Jefferson is corrupt. Jefferson is harming the country and the party. He needs to go.