William Jefferson

Finally there is something I can agree on with the Supreme Court. They have refused to review the Justice Department's appeal on the raid of Rep. William Jefferson's office. That leaves a lower court's ruling that the raid was unconstitutional intact.

Don't get me wrong on this - I firmly believe Jefferson is corrupt and should be punished for that. I have had a problem with this raid however. It puts one branch of government above the other. The House can't force people from the administration to testify before Congress, so how can the executive branch hold such power over the legislative?

This also prevents a possible slide down a dangerous road. Imagine if one party controls the White House and the other controls Congress. If the party in the White House is corrupt enough, then they could drum up reasons on members of Congress to search their offices. With the current President, I wouldn't put it past him to try something like this. Thankfully there is a little more protection there now.

Of today's news regarding the indictment of William Jefferson:

House Republican Leader John Boehner of Ohio said Jefferson should be expelled from Congress if he is found guilty and refuses to resign.

"The American people rightfully expect the highest ethical standards from their elected leaders," Boehner said.

Oh how 8 1/2 months changes things. What did John say last September about Bob Ney?

Yesterday on Fox News Sunday, House Majority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) was asked whether Rep. Bob Ney (R-OH) should step down from Congress. Ney pled guilty last week to federal corruption charges, admitting to prosecutors that “he had accepted tens of thousands of dollars in illegal favors from Abramoff and from a Syrian businessman nicknamed ‘the Fat Man.’”

Apparently, in Boehner’s mind, this doesn’t necessarily disqualify you from serving in Congress. Boehner twice refused to answer whether Ney should step down, saying only that it was a decision Ney should make for himself.

Yup - it's ok for old white guys to stay in Congress when found guilty of accepting bribes, but don't let a black guy think about doing it.

About time we get another corrupt politician taken care of:

An indictment charging Rep. William Jefferson, D-La., in a long-running bribery investigation is being announced Monday, federal officials said.

The indictment is being handed up in U.S. District Court in Alexandria. A press conference was being organized for late Monday in Washington to discuss the case.

A Justice Department official familiar with the case said the indictment outlining the evidence against Jefferson is more than an inch thick and charges the congressman with crimes that could keep him in prison for up to 200 years. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the case.

True we can look forward to the right justifying all the corruption on their side of the aisle because of this one bad egg. Their math - 1 bad Democrat = dozens of bad Republicans. We have already seen this in action for the past several months.