What to Do with William "Freezer" Jefferson (D-LA)?

I'm with Captain Ed from Captain's Quarter's...give Rep. William Jefferson (D-LA), indicted on multiple felony counts including bribery and extortion, his due process, but nail him to the wall if he's convicted. I was actually happy to see the GOP's corrupt politicians get their just desserts (Reps. Randy Cunningham and Bob Ney are both doing prison time), now the same should apply to the Democrat sleazoids who are convicted. I'm really concerned though, because if the slap on the wrist that former Clinton National Security Advisor, Sandy "Pants Burglar" Berger got, Jefferson might end up with the Presidential Medal of Freedom if he's found guilty. Jefferson says he has a perfectly good explanation for the $90,000 the FBI found in his freezer...I can't wait to hear it...and if Nancy Pelosi kicking him off the Ethics committe splits black voters from the Democratic party, so much the better.

"Now that the other shoe has finally dropped on Rep. William "Dollar Bill" Jefferson, the next question is what the Democrats intend to do about him. Under indictment on sixteen counts of corruption, Jefferson represents just about everything against which the Democrats campaigned last year, with their attacks on the supposed "culture of corruption", and they'd like to be rid of the albatross. However, the Congressional Black Caucus smells a double standard, and they're not likely to go along with any plan that could railroad Jefferson out of the House without having been convicted first:

Democratic leaders fear that Rep. William J. Jefferson's indictment yesterday on racketeering and bribery charges, coming exactly one year after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi engineered his ouster from the powerful Ways and Means Committee, could rekindle a smoldering dispute between the speaker and black lawmakers who were once pillars of her power.

For months, the Louisiana Democrat's mounting legal peril has bedeviled Democrats as they sought first to point to corruption as a tool to oust Republicans from control of Congress, then pressed for ethics and lobbying changes that they said would usher in a new era of clean politics on Capitol Hill. For every thrust Democrats made against the GOP, Republicans parried with Jefferson, saying problems in Congress were bipartisan.

Through it all, much of the Congressional Black Caucus has stood by Jefferson and against the Democratic leadership. And yesterday, Rep. Danny K. Davis (D-Ill.), a veteran caucus member, said it would be "as supportive of our colleague as possible, in terms of saying a person in America is presumed to be innocent until proven guilty."

The Democrats screwed this up when they supported Jefferson's re-election. They should have pulled their support in last year's midterms when it became obvious that Jefferson was corrupt. They could have easily selected someone else in the LA-02 and thrown enough money behind him or her to have avoided this situation now. Given where they are at the moment, it would have been money well spent.

After his re-election, Nancy Pelosi made it worse. She wanted to assign him to a significant committee to repair relations with the CBC, relations she damaged by removing him from the Ways and Means committee and hinting that he should resign last year. This year, she assigned him to the Homeland Security committee, and only got stopped by Republicans when they demanded a roll-call vote to put Jeffersons supporter on the record. They still have left that seat unfilled, as Pelosi has apparently never withdrawn the nomination.

The problem for the Democrats is that the CBC has a point -- or rather, two of them. First, Jefferson has not been convicted of anything, at least not yet. While Jefferson should never have had any committee assignments, and should be removed from the last one he has, the House should not expel him unless he receives some sort of due-process hearing. Either that means a trial, which may take a long time, or an ethics hearing, which will require Pelosi's endorsement and will invoke the wrath of the CBC all over again.

The second point involves the double standard the CBC recognizes. Allan Mollohan still retains his powerful position on the Appropriations Committee, despite an investigation into serious corruption issues by the DoJ, similar to Jefferson before the indictment. Pelosi never demanded his removal from Appropriations, and in this case the assignment is even more egregious, as Mollohan sits on the subcommittee that controls funding for the DoJ. Mollohan, however, is white, while Jefferson is black, and the CBC doesn't see much else separating the two cases.

Pelosi is in a jam, which will be made worse by John Boehner. He wants the Ethics Committee to review the indictment and make a recommendation on expulsion from the House for Jefferson. That's an overreach, but it still puts Pelosi in a vise. She either has to endorse that call and fuel the CBC's opposition to her, or fight it and wind up defending a man indicted on multiple counts of corruption. Either choice is a loser."