I mean really folks. I’m glad he’s gone. A little footsy in a men’s room that led to NOTHING, compared to getting caught on video and audio taking $100,000 and the FBI finding it (well, at least 90K of it) in your freezer, serial numbers matching.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5421939
Where is the hate for Mr. Jefferson?
I heard that William Jefferson will be quiting right after Ted Kennedy.
Ole cold cash Jefferson will quit ,once they finishing looking in his wine cellar for mo money.
Maybe he will quit when members of his own party call for it.
Maybe he will quit when members of his own party call for it.
That will never happen, they see nothing wrong with his actions. It is all just propaganda.
Sorry, I forgot. Also after Rep. Alan Mollhollan resigns. That will be after the FBI, whose appropriations he is in charge of, finishes its investigation.
Hilly has her own troubles. Those darn Chinese donors!
You’re worrying yourself over nothing here.
MattinSF is preparing another one of his well thought out, careful and in-depth investigation of the Jefferson affair, and will very shortly come out with the full and accurate story. Shortly thereafter he will then call for the typically appropriate punishment du jour, disemboweling, decapitation, etc.
Oh, wait a minute, Jefferson isn’t a Republican.
Nevermind.
Once someone else gets caught dipping their stick with other men, they’ll see greater indignation. Many have called for Jefferson’s resignation, to not see it. Seems to me he should get bounced. But Craig would probably also get re-elected, if he were to have been pursuing it (which he wasn’t).
Well, it seems that Craig’s Republican colleagues are claiming that the distinguishing factor between him and, say, Vitter, is that Craig pleaded guilty and has thus been convicted. If they are to be believed, they wouldn’t be calling for his conviction but for that fact.
Of course, it wouldn’t be difficult to discount that explanation and claim that the distinguishing factor is that Craig’s error was to pursue sex with someone of the same gender.
I tend to think, however, that the true distinction lies in the facts that Craig’s approval ratings in Idaho torpedoed and his Senate seat was no longer a lock to stay in Republican hands. In other words, few would have called for his resignation, conviction or no conviction, if they thought there was no chance the Democrats could ever take his seat.
Since there’s no chance Jefferson’s seat will ever go Republican, there’s no need to pressure his to resign. Compare that to Gary Condit, where his colleagues quickly abandoned him.
Since there’s no chance Jefferson’s seat will ever go Republican, there’s no need to pressure his to resign.
That seems like a non-sequiter to me.
If the seat will never go Republican, then boot him out of office (by the Dems upper management), and replace him with somebody “clean”. Ok, how about “cleaner”, these are politicians after all. That way, the Dems can stick to the higher moral ground, which was part of their campaign platform for the last interim elections.
To date, all they have done has been basically hand slaps by taking away committee chair positions. Big whoop te do.
To be fair, the Repubs haven’t actually been storming down the walls on this either after the FBI raid of Jeffersons’ office. To much of the “but for the grace of God go I” me thinks.
My point had nothing to do with what the Republicans or Democrats ought to do in any case, be it Jefferson, Vitter or Craig. For the most part, it was merely observational.
I simply have a hard time believing that the Republicans pressured Craig to resign because they somehow thought he was now unfit for office or that it was the “right thing” for him to do. Rather, I suspect that they did it for purely political reasons – if he resigns now, a Republican replacement can be appointed, with little chance of the seat falling to the Democrats next year.
I suspect that the only reason a party would pressure a member to resign is out of self interest and not because of some higher moral ground.
I know Craig pleaded guilty - - but has Jefferson been found guilty (yet)?
I suspect that the only reason a party would pressure a member to resign is out of self interest and not because of some higher moral ground.
I understood what you said in your original post, and I agree with what you said above. My point was also that the Dems, mostly for political reasons, ought to boot Jefferson to maintain the image of staying on the high road. It seems lke after the rush in January, that Pelosi and gang have all but disappeared from radar.
What I still don’t understand about your original comment is, if Jeffersons’ seat is so safe (with respect to Democrats) regardless of which Democrat is in it, why not put someone less tainted in it, and reduce the oppositions’ ammunition by another bullet?