What's a Voter to Do?

Rep. William Jefferson, D-La has been revealed as another blight spot on Capital Hill. He has risen to infamy following the reports from an FBI sting operation that videotaped him receiving over $100,000 in cash to be used as bribes; as well as audio tapes where he describe measure to funnel other money through his children to him for future bribes.

Filing: Tape Shows Lawmaker Taking Money
May 21 4:35 PM US/Eastern

By MATTHEW BARAKAT
Associated Press Writer
ALEXANDRIA, Va. - A congressman under investigation for bribery was caught on videotape accepting $100,000 in $100 bills from an FBI informant whose conversations with the lawmaker also were recorded, according to a court document released Sunday. Agents later found the cash hidden in his freezer…

The affidavit says Jefferson is caught on videotape at the Ritz-Carlton as he takes a reddish-brown briefcase from the trunk of the informant's car, slips it into a cloth bag, puts the bag into his 1990 Lincoln Town Car and drives away. The $100 bills in the suitcase had the same serial numbers as those found in Jefferson's freezer…

Jefferson assured the FBI informant in their coded conversations that he paid the money to the Nigerian official, even though the money was still in Jefferson's possession when agents searched his home Aug. 3.

On Aug. 1, two days after Jefferson picked up the $100,000, the informant called Jefferson to ask about the status of "the package."

Jefferson responded: "I gave him the African art that you gave me and he was very pleased."

I hope you caught the fact that even though he was given the money to pay a bribe to a Nigerian official, he lied to the FBI informant and kept nearly all the money for himself.

This is the same Rep. William Jefferson, D-La that we read about last September after Katrina hit New Orleans. I found this blog by Jonathan Tasini that refers to the news reports at that time.

More Ethical Problems for Rep. Jefferson

… Seems like Rep. William Jefferson has even more ethical problems. As I reported before, Jefferson is under FBI investigation.

Now comes a new report that might indicate a pattern: CNN's John Mercurio's The Morning Grind reports on a Roll Call story that says "Rep. William Jefferson, under investigation by the FBI, went on the defensive Wednesday in the wake of a damaging ABC News report that the Congressman allegedly used National Guard resources to gather personal belongings from his New Orleans home amid the Hurricane Katrina rescue operation...."

Here was the ABC News summary: Sept. 13, 2005 — Amid the chaos and confusion that engulfed New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina struck, a local congressman used National Guard troops to check on his property and rescue his personal belongings — even while New Orleans residents were trying to get rescued from rooftops, ABC News has learned. On Friday, Sept. 2 — five days after Katrina hit the Gulf Coast — Rep. William Jefferson, D-La., who represents New Orleans and is a senior member of the powerful Ways and Means Committee, was allowed through the military blockades set up around the city to reach the Superdome, where thousands of evacuees had been taken. Military sources tells ABC News that Jefferson, an eight-term Democratic congressman, asked the National Guard that night to take him on a tour of the flooded portions of his congressional district. A 5-ton military truck and a half dozen military police were dispatched. Lt. Col. Pete Schneider of the Louisiana National Guard tells ABC News that during the tour, Jefferson asked that the truck take him to his home on Marengo Street, in the affluent uptown neighborhood in his congressional district. According to Schneider, this was not part of Jefferson's initial request."

There is more on Rep Jefferson and other questionable Congress members at http://www.beyonddelay.org/index.php, a site dedicated to exposing legislative ethics violations.

Rep. William Jefferson, D-La

Five days after Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, on September 2, 2005, Rep. Jefferson allegedly used National Guard troops to check in on his home and collect a few belongings – a laptop computer, three suitcases, and a large box. Military sources told ABC News that Rep. Jefferson asked the National Guard to take him on a tour of the flooded portion of his congressional district. Lt. Col. Pete Schneider of the Louisiana National Guard said that during the course of the tour, Rep. Jefferson asked that the truck stop at the Congressman's home. The Congressman entered his house and collected his belongings, returning to the truck, which was now stuck in the mud. The National Guard ultimately sent a second truck to rescue the first truck and Rep. Jefferson and his belongings were returned to the Superdome.

Questions, questions, questions….

What was in the ‘laptop computer, three suitcases, and a large box’ that was more important than the lives of his constituents who were still perched on rooftops, without food or water?

Was it more money from the freezer?

Cryptic correspondence with undercover FBI informants?

How does a person serve for 16 years in the House of Representatives and become embroiled in such a blatant criminal investigation?

Was he just born that way?

Is it because after 16 years, graft, corruption and elitism have become a way of life?

Or is Jefferson a poster child for term limits?