William Jefferson (D-LA) Should Resign From Congress

Why?

Why did Louisiana's 2nd Congressional District re-elect William Jefferson? There was a run-off election between Jefferson and another Democrat, and the district could have voted to send the candidate who wasn't under investigation by the FBI, but no, they had to vote for Jefferson.

This is a major, MAJOR problem with American politics. Most people do not pay enough attention until things get really bad like it did with the Republican corruption during their twelve year reign in Congress. That is part of the reason the Democrats were voted into majority control of Congress in 2006. We cleaned up some of the corruption by doing so, but we still need to finish the job regardless of party affiliation. It looks like Congress is heading in that direction by getting the House Ethics Committee involved now that Jefferson has been indicted:

House Approves Speedy Jefferson Probe

The House ordered a speedy internal investigation that could oust indicted Rep. William J. Jefferson from Congress before his bribery trial.


Mindful of anti-corruption sentiment among voters last November, the House passed two resolutions Tuesday that require the ethics committee to investigate charges more quickly than in the past.


Jefferson, meanwhile, resigned his seat on the Small Business Committee in response to his indictment on federal charges of taking more than $500,000 in bribes. Democrats already had moved to take that seat from him. Jefferson admitted no wrongdoing.

I know that, in our country, everyone is presumed innocent until proven guilty, but I have noticed a trend of late regarding indicted members of Congress. The trend follows the pattern of investigation, proclaimed innocence, indictment, resignation from House committee while proclaiming innocence, conviction, and finally, resignation from Congress with apology for crimes they committed. This was the case with Bob Ney and Duke Cunningham. They kept denying and denying and denying, for months, that they are guilty, then all of a sudden, almost overnight, they admit that they were guilty all along.

I wish that we could skip all that with Jefferson. If he is guilty, he should resign from Congress now yesterday, plead guilty, and stop wasting our time. We should not have to endure this prolonged process every time a member of Congress gets caught being corrupt. Additionally, if we do go through this process and Jefferson is found guilty, Jefferson will be a tool of the Right to counter our claim that we are fighting corruption in Congress. In fact, they are already using him to do just that.

If Jefferson is guilty, (and considering the trend, the fact that he was hiding money in his freezer, and that some of his former aides have already pleaded guilty, he probably is guilty) after doing so many things wrong, he should do the right thing and end this now.