Rep. William Jefferson: The Congressman, $100,000 and his freezer…

This is how the hopelessly compromised Congressman William Jefferson, Democrat of Louisiana, pleaded on Monday in a vain and vanquished attempt to keep the probing media at bay and reassure his constituents that he’s not a crook. But what makes this plea especially feeble is the fact that cognitive dissonance in America has evolved to the point where the term “corrupt politician” is now inherently redundant.

After all, today when a politician is caught with his hand in the cookie jar, instead of inciting moral outrage, it merely provides comic relief. And Mr. Jefferson is only the latest to become a laughing stock amongst a presumed (Congressional) den of theives. Because on Sunday, the F.B.I. revealed that it has a series of tapes of Jefferson taking bribes amounting to over $400,000 – including videotape of a meeting last July at which he took a briefcase containing $100,000 in $100 (marked) bills – $90,000 of which the FBI later found “concealed in various food containers” in a freezer at his home.

But to get the full measure of this public servant, all one needs to know is that – as he was negotiating the quid-pro-quo for this fateful $100,000 at the Ritz Carlton Hotel just outside Washington, DC – Jefferson was caught on tape referring to this tainted cash as “African art” and laughing triumphantly as he dismissed:

…all these damn notes we’re writing to each other as if … the FBI is watching.

Duh!!!

Of course, now that his career in Congress has been reduced to taking bribes and pleading fecklessly, Jefferson is taking the familiar perp-walk along that well-trodden congressional plank to prison whilst insisting that he will not resign – because he’s been an “extraordinarily effective” congressman. Which only begs the question: Extraordinarily effective for whom Congressman?

NOTE: It is axiomatic in the legal profession that when the facts would condemn one’s client, one should argue the law. But, in rare instances, this legal tactic has redeeming merit. And so it is with the bi-partisan argument that the F.B.I. raid on Jefferson’s congressional offices on Sunday constituted “an outrageous intrusion in the separation of powers”. Because, not only is this argument legally sound, but – given all of the incriminating evidence the F.B.I had already collected on Jefferson – this raid appears to have been utterly gratuitous.

ENDNOTE: Alas, where arguing the law might give the F.B.I. another black eye, it will do nothing to reduce Jefferson’s criminal liability. Therefore, perhaps he should do what most black scoundrels do when caught in a legal vice-grip: play the race card. And in his defense, Jefferson can argue that – since most blacks have good reasons to distrust banks – the other side of this story is that, in fact, there’s absolutely nothing suspicious about hiding their cash beneath their mattresses or stashing it in their freezer….

Congressman William Jefferson, taking bribes