It's time to cut bait on race loyalty by Clarence Page
It's time to cut bait on race loyalty by Clarence Page
Copyright by The Chicago Tribune
Published June 14, 2006
WASHINGTON -- Some members of the Congressional Black Caucus have raised the bloody shirt of racism in defense of their embattled colleague Rep. William Jefferson (D-La.). I appreciate their sense of loyalty to a friend, but Jefferson hasn't given them much to work with.
Jefferson's friends say he deserves the presumption of innocence. Indeed, under our constitutional system of justice, as an embattled Chicago politician once said, "Every man is innocent until his case has been through appeal."
But the Court of Public Opinion, in which all politics operates, is quite another matter.
There is, for example, the embarrassing little question of the alleged bribery money that the FBI found in Jefferson's freezer.
Jefferson denies wrongdoing, but his outlook does not look sunny. Two other men already have been convicted in the bribery probe. One is a former Jefferson aide. The other is a businessman who pleaded guilty on May 3 to paying more than $400,000 in bribes to Jefferson.
Worse, the FBI is reported to have caught Jefferson accepting a briefcase with $100,000 in alleged bribe money from an undercover informant in front of a northern Virginia hotel. During a search of his Washington home, the FBI said it found $90,000 worth of the marked bills in Jefferson's freezer. No word yet on what happened to the other $10,000.
While corruption probes are nothing new in politics, this one leaves Jefferson's fellow Democrats in what Washington insiders call "an awkward" position. It is hard for House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi and other party leaders to continue pummeling the Republican "culture of corruption" while Mr. Freezer Bucks remains perched on his prestigious House Ways and Means Committee seat.
But as Democratic leaders took the initial steps toward stripping Jefferson of his committee post last week, his fellow Congressional Black Caucus members issued a statement defending the right of the sharecropper's son to be presumed innocent, at least until he is indicted.
Caucus Chairman Melvin Watt, a North Carolina Democrat, raised the specter of black voters wondering with great suspicion why "a black member of Congress" is the first to be stripped so swiftly of his committee post.
"It's about to blow up in your face," he warned party leaders.
In other words, Watt and others want Jefferson to be treated the same as Republicans recently have treated their leaders.
Former majority leader Tom DeLay temporarily resigned his post only after his indictment late last year on criminal charges of conspiracy. Pressured by fellow Republicans, he later announced that he would not try to return to the job. He resigned from Congress last week.
Dan Rostenkowski, an Illinois Democrat, hung on to his powerful chairmanship of the Ways and Means Committee until his indictment in 1994. He won re-election while under investigation, but lost to a relatively unknown Republican, even in unshakably Democratic Chicago, while under indictment. He eventually pleaded guilty to mail fraud.
But led by Georgia's rising star Rep. Newt Gingrich, Republicans exploited Rostenkowski's downfall as emblematic of Democratic corruption, a theme that helped the GOP win control of the House in 1994.
The donkeys hope to turn that theme against the elephants this year. The scandals surrounding DeLay and other friends of Republican superlobbyist Jack Abramoff have helped. The scandal surrounding Jefferson does not help.
For the good of his party, his colleagues and whatever is left of his own sense of integrity, Jefferson should step aside voluntarily, pending the completion of the investigation against him.
At a time when voters are looking for alternatives to the corruption that we see coursing through Congress, Jefferson's defenders seem to be saying that Democrats are no worse than their rival party. Voters aren't looking for "no worse." We want better.
When House Republicans rewrote their ethics rules so DeLay would not have to resign if indicted, I chastised Republicans with a President John F. Kennedy declaration that sometimes loyalty to party demands too much. As a black voter looking at the small but mighty rally around William Jefferson, I can only conclude that sometimes loyalty to race demands too much too.
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Clarence Page is a member of the Tribune's editorial board. E-mail: cptime@aol.com
Copyright by The Chicago Tribune
Published June 14, 2006
WASHINGTON -- Some members of the Congressional Black Caucus have raised the bloody shirt of racism in defense of their embattled colleague Rep. William Jefferson (D-La.). I appreciate their sense of loyalty to a friend, but Jefferson hasn't given them much to work with.
Jefferson's friends say he deserves the presumption of innocence. Indeed, under our constitutional system of justice, as an embattled Chicago politician once said, "Every man is innocent until his case has been through appeal."
But the Court of Public Opinion, in which all politics operates, is quite another matter.
There is, for example, the embarrassing little question of the alleged bribery money that the FBI found in Jefferson's freezer.
Jefferson denies wrongdoing, but his outlook does not look sunny. Two other men already have been convicted in the bribery probe. One is a former Jefferson aide. The other is a businessman who pleaded guilty on May 3 to paying more than $400,000 in bribes to Jefferson.
Worse, the FBI is reported to have caught Jefferson accepting a briefcase with $100,000 in alleged bribe money from an undercover informant in front of a northern Virginia hotel. During a search of his Washington home, the FBI said it found $90,000 worth of the marked bills in Jefferson's freezer. No word yet on what happened to the other $10,000.
While corruption probes are nothing new in politics, this one leaves Jefferson's fellow Democrats in what Washington insiders call "an awkward" position. It is hard for House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi and other party leaders to continue pummeling the Republican "culture of corruption" while Mr. Freezer Bucks remains perched on his prestigious House Ways and Means Committee seat.
But as Democratic leaders took the initial steps toward stripping Jefferson of his committee post last week, his fellow Congressional Black Caucus members issued a statement defending the right of the sharecropper's son to be presumed innocent, at least until he is indicted.
Caucus Chairman Melvin Watt, a North Carolina Democrat, raised the specter of black voters wondering with great suspicion why "a black member of Congress" is the first to be stripped so swiftly of his committee post.
"It's about to blow up in your face," he warned party leaders.
In other words, Watt and others want Jefferson to be treated the same as Republicans recently have treated their leaders.
Former majority leader Tom DeLay temporarily resigned his post only after his indictment late last year on criminal charges of conspiracy. Pressured by fellow Republicans, he later announced that he would not try to return to the job. He resigned from Congress last week.
Dan Rostenkowski, an Illinois Democrat, hung on to his powerful chairmanship of the Ways and Means Committee until his indictment in 1994. He won re-election while under investigation, but lost to a relatively unknown Republican, even in unshakably Democratic Chicago, while under indictment. He eventually pleaded guilty to mail fraud.
But led by Georgia's rising star Rep. Newt Gingrich, Republicans exploited Rostenkowski's downfall as emblematic of Democratic corruption, a theme that helped the GOP win control of the House in 1994.
The donkeys hope to turn that theme against the elephants this year. The scandals surrounding DeLay and other friends of Republican superlobbyist Jack Abramoff have helped. The scandal surrounding Jefferson does not help.
For the good of his party, his colleagues and whatever is left of his own sense of integrity, Jefferson should step aside voluntarily, pending the completion of the investigation against him.
At a time when voters are looking for alternatives to the corruption that we see coursing through Congress, Jefferson's defenders seem to be saying that Democrats are no worse than their rival party. Voters aren't looking for "no worse." We want better.
When House Republicans rewrote their ethics rules so DeLay would not have to resign if indicted, I chastised Republicans with a President John F. Kennedy declaration that sometimes loyalty to party demands too much. As a black voter looking at the small but mighty rally around William Jefferson, I can only conclude that sometimes loyalty to race demands too much too.
----------
Clarence Page is a member of the Tribune's editorial board. E-mail: cptime@aol.com
posted by Carlos T Mock at 11:07 AM
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