"Cold Cash" Jefferson and the Ethics of the Democrat-led Congress

Now that Representative William Jefferson, (D-LA) has been indicted on 16 alleged violations of federal law, including serious charges of racketeering, soliciting bribes and money-laundering, I have to wonder if Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi will honor her 2006 campaign pledge to make this a "more ethical" Congress?

The investigation into Representative Jefferson has been going on now for some time, a fact that did not prevent his re-election from the 2^nd District of Louisiana in last November's congressional elections. Reports detailing some of the evidence collected by federal authorities include $90,000 in cash that was found in the congressman's freezer when law enforcement officials raided his Louisiana home in August 2005 and a videotape of Jefferson taking a $100,000 bribe from an FBI informant.

The charges are so serious that the congressman, if convicted on all counts, could face up to 200 years in prison, not exactly a lightweight sentence. Two of his former associates have already reached plea deals with prosecutors in exchange for cooperation in the case against Jefferson. As one would expect, Republican leaders have already begun to take steps to have Representative Jefferson expelled from the House of Representatives, even as Jefferson has voluntarily given up his seat on the House Small Business Committee in order to avoid a vote on his removal from that position.

Speaker Pelosi could get off to a running start in her promised quest to preside over the most ethical Congress in history, a campaign pledge she now has the opportunity to make good on, by honoring the Republican request to expel Congressman Jefferson from the House of Representatives. Now, I know that a fundamental principle of the American legal system is that those accused of crimes are presumed to be innocent until they are proven guilty in a court of law. But rarely does a federal prosecutor take on such a high profile case, against an elected official of the federal government no less, unless the evidence is pretty sound that a conviction will result from the proceedings. One could easily argue that Representative Jefferson has a sufficient cloud over his head to justify his removal from the House.

Will Speaker Pelosi move to expel Jefferson as part of her campaign pledge for a more ethical Congress? My guess is no, although I suspect that if Mr. Jefferson were a Republican she might be more inclined to take such a measure.