There are two sides to every story: Bill Jefferson is right about that, which does not mean that he should stick around to constantly remind us that that there are two sides to every story. We know that, and we know that when the story gets to be as tentacled and hydra-headed as this one has become, the number of sides and shapes to the story will multiply exponentially.
The gentleman from Louisiana has the right, and deserves the opportunity, to tell his side of the tale, but we already know that it'll be a sordid one; full of blanket denials, partial admissions, and deepest regrets.
He will apologize for honest mistakes and assure the “people of the 2nd District” that though he is not perfect, he would never betray their trust. He will declare his intention to vigorously fight the charges against him and he will demand his day in court.
He should get that opportunity, but in the meantime, he should quit and go home. Scoundrels are out of season.
There is no way to be sure that the Justice Department has the goods to either indict or convict Jefferson. There are questions. If, for example, the government has Jefferson on tape taking a suitcase full of cash, as it claims, and if they recovered much of that cash from Jefferson's freezer, what more would you need? Why would you have to have to send in the FBI to hold a Saturday night rummage sale in his office?
Still it's going to be hard to get around the cash blocks in the freezer. The image is too dastardly, and too emphatically so, to allow any innocent explanation, So if, and this is a very big if, Jefferson stashed $90,000 in cash in a freezer, he should go, indicted or not. He should quit and go home, because there is no reasonable explanation for money in the freezer. None. What's the possible defense?
“The bank was full.”
“I ran out of room under the mattress.”
“I hate paying high ATM fees when I'm not at my own bank?”
Money in the freezer says that the poor people of New Orleans, who need really need it, were and are not getting his full attention. While Jefferson has a reputation as an attentive, responsive congressman, money in the freezer is as strong an argument against that as anything. Louisiana's 2nd District is on the top 10 list of districts with the lowest household incomes, with a median household income of just over $27,000. And that was before Katrina.
So if he is charged, Jefferson should fight his vigorous fight, and he should maintain his innocence as long as he feels it necessary. But since there is no reversing the political embarrassment that he has become, he should resign his seat and let some less-burdened soul represent the poor -- really poor -- people of New Orleans. That should be his main reason for going, the good of the people.
Jefferson is a gift from the political gods for Republicans, who have been trying unsuccessfully for months, to make the case that political corruption is not just a Republican issue. First they went after fines Nancy Pelosi had to pay for campaign violations, then they went after Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer and others for unreported trips. Last week, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid had to explain taking free ringside tickets for boxing matches in Las Vegas. None of it has worked, because the American people seem to have an appreciation for scale -- they get privilege versus corruption. They know that the senior senator from Nevada going to boxing matches in Las Vegas may be taking advantage of his privileges, but that it's not the same thing as being taken with an entourage of friends, family, and business associates to St. Andrew's in Scotland to play golf.
The Democrats' “culture of corruption” finally began to stick when along came Dollar Bill Jefferson to deliver to the Republicans the perfect we-told-you-everyone-does-it moment.
Which is why Nancy Pelosi is so pissed off. The House Democratic leader has been waging the “culture-of-corruption” war on the Republicans for a long time, at least since the Thanksgiving Eve massacre of 2003, also known as House passage of the Medicare prescription drug benefit. That night, Republican leaders left a 15-minute vote open for three hours so they could twist arms and switch votes, even using the President to undo a vote that they had already lost.
Bill Jefferson and his cold hard cash steps all over Pelosi's GOP corruption message, and she doesn't like it. She asked him to step down from the Ways and Means Committee; he's lucky she didn't go postal on him. Jefferson and Pelosi have been “estranged” for a while; he's been mad at her since 2000, when she made fellow Californian Bob Matsui chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee when Jefferson desperately wanted the job.
Dollar Bill Jefferson as the chief campaign fund-raiser for the Democrats: Imagine the possibilities and shiver. Go home, Congressman. Scoundrels are out of season.
Terence Samuel is a political writer in Washington, D.C.
