Congressional Black Caucus Blasts Pelosi for Requesting Jefferson Resignation
Posted on | May 26, 2006
I am going to go out on a limb here and say that, in the case of Representative William Jefferson (D-LA), the Congressional Black Caucus just needs to shut the fuck up. The group had an emergency meeting with House Minority Pelosi over her request to Rep. Jefferson, the focus of a bribery scandal that has resulted in the first raid on the office of a sitting member of US Congress ever, resign from his seat on the Ways & Means Committee. The Congressional Black Caucus has accused Pelosi of using a race-based double standard in asking him to resign.
In his refusal to step down, Jefferson noted Pelosi did not make the same request of individuals like Rep. Alan Mollohan (D-WV) who is facing ethics questions over earmarks obtained through his seat on the House Appropriations Committee. I fail to see how that has anywhere near the magnitude of what is happening to Jefferson. I think it is safe to say that, with evidence as damning as there is against Jefferson, Nancy Pelosi or her Republican counterpart would ask for the resignation of any member of their party regardless of their ethnicity.
The Congressional Black Caucus needs to dismiss the race issue and look at the facts of the case before blindly accusing Nancy Pelosi of racial discrimination. The FBI has video surveillance footage of Rep. Jefferson accepting a $100,000 cash bribe from a government informant. $90,000 of that bribe was later found wrapped in aluminum foil and then concealed in food containers in Jefferson’s freezer. Jefferson was also the subject of the first FBI raid on a sitting member of Congress’ office. That means both the executive branch and the judicial branch were in agreement that there was enough evidence of wrong-doing on the part of Rep. Jefferson that were grounds for the raid to go through. That looks a hell of a lot worse than mere questions over earmarks.
To make matters worse, and aide to the Congressional Black Caucus made some rather provocative statements:
"The African-American community, which overwhelmingly backs the Democratic Party, will not take this lightly. I hope she enjoys being minority leader."
We already have enough problems with leaders on both sides manufacturing some sort of "constitutional crisis" over the raid. We do not need the Congressional Black Caucus manufacturing a racial discrimination crisis on top of it. They would be better off grooming a candidate to replace Jefferson because this will be an issue in his re-election campaign.
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