Ex-Democratic lawmaker convicted in bribery case

From the Washington Post via the Houston Chronicle:

Former Rep. William Jefferson, D-La., was found guilty of corruption charges Wednesday in a case that featured $90,000 in bribe money stuffed into his freezer and a legal battle over the raid of his Washington office that reached the highest levels of the government.

Federal jurors in Alexandria, Va., convicted Jefferson of using his congressional office and staff to enrich himself and his family, offering and accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes to support business ventures in seven West African nations. The eight-woman, four-man jury convicted Jefferson on 11 of 16 counts that included bribery, racketeering and money laundering.

More here.

If you serve as an opposition party representative during what arguably amounted to the most corrupt administration in US history, that is, the Bush era, the least you could do is keep your nose clean. Jefferson, for all his accomplishments, was apparently unable to do that. I mean, relative to the corruption of the likes of Tom DeLay and the entire Bush administration, Jefferson's down-home Louisiana style of corruption wasn't much more than chump change, but it's anti-democracy bullshit when it's hundreds of thousands of dollars, just as it's anti-democracy bullshit when Republicans do it with billions.

That is, fuck Jefferson. He betrayed his office and his nation.

Which reminds me, how is DeLay's trial going? And is the DoJ ever going to look into all those no-bid secret contracts former VP Cheney gave out to his company Halliburton? Are we ever going to get serious about corruption? I'm not too hopeful.

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