Rep. William Jefferson (D LA) was voted out of the House Ways & Means Committee today. This committee has jurisdiction over foreign trade — the very subject of the bribery and fraud investigation at which Rep. Jefferson is the center.
Last week, after the failure of entreaties to Rep. Jefferson to step down from the committee, at least until the federal investigation was completed, the House Democratic Steering Committee determined to strip him of the committee post. Jefferson then rounded up support from the 43-member Congressional Black Caucus.
Referring to black voters, who are among the most loyal Democrats in the electorate, he added, “You’ve got a whole base of people out there who believe that the Democratic Party takes them for granted already.”
Rep. Jefferson has been the subject, as yet unindicted, of a federal corruption investigation involving the use of his congressional position. Two associates have pleaded guilty to bribing him, he was filmed accepting some of the money, and the FBI found $90,000 of it in his home freezer. (more in my May 27 2006 diary, “Congressman Jefferson: Nigeria, Ghana, and Trouble”).
Democrats aim to campaign this year against a Republican culture of corruption. Nancy Pelosi and other House Democrats viewed the shadows over Jefferson as undermining that message. Their fear:
If the full 201-member Democratic caucus votes to remove Jefferson from the committee and he still refuses to accede, the matter would go before the full House. …
The Republicans, smarting over their own corruption scandals, probably would be only too happy to see the House debate a Democrat’s alleged corruption.
Of course, any such a debate would get really dirty, going places the Republicans avoid. Ultimately, after a 99-58 vote by the Democratic caucus to remove Jefferson from the Committee, he was removed by the full House on a voice vote — with no debate.
Rep. James Clyburn of South Carolina… a member of the Democratic leadership as well as the black caucus, said the rank and file had confronted “two competing interests – the legal interest and the political interest.”
I’m not impressed when the most the Black Caucus can summon up is “innocent until proven guilty” and “it will look as if you’re biased.” The House is not a jury, it’s a political body. Rep. Jefferson doesn’t even approach Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., elected from NY to 12 terms in the House, whose legacy of anti-discrimination efforts balanced what we see now as comparatively minor scandals.
If Republicans could impeach a president over a personal side trip, imagine how they could entertain a passive electorate with this story. The calculated risk taken by the Democratic leadership (not counting Howard Dean, who refrained from taking sides) is understandable. If they waited to move until after Jefferson’s anticipated indictment, it would be worse.
