Wow, This Just Keeps Getting Better
I honestly think the Congress is completely out of touch with reality at this point. Like the decadent royal courts of Royal France and Imperial Russia, they no longer hear what the people say, or understand how they look to those people. The courtiers jockeying for position and power have no time to actually deal with any real problems. They dress well and expect their privileges, though. Oh yes, the privileges are very, very important.
Nancy Pelosi, who I frankly think is not a very sharp politician, called for Jefferson to step down from his committee seat. Jefferson refused. Now it turns out that there was an enormous political upheaval within the ranks of the Congressional Black Caucus over Pelosi's move.
Furious black lawmakers, rallying behind Rep. William Jefferson (D-La.), were pulled back from the brink of open revolt against House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) in an emergency meeting with her yesterday.
The meeting with a handful of CBC members was called after Pelosi wrote the embattled lawmaker, who is at the center of a massive bribery scandal, a curt note requesting his immediate resignation from the powerful Ways and Means Committee.
Outraged that one of its members was being picked on even though he has not been charged with a crime, the Congressional Black Caucus had intended to issue a defiant statement against their leader but agreed after the meeting to pause, at least briefly, for reflection.
Earlier this week, Pelosi approached Jefferson and told him that she thought he should resign, according to a Democratic aide. Later, at the Democratic caucus meeting yesterday morning, she took him into a side room and told him that she had prepared a letter calling on him to resign the committee seat and that she would allow him one hour to withdraw gracefully before she sent it, according to the aide. In both instances, Jefferson remained defiant.
Pelosi’s one-sentence missive to Jefferson called on him to vacate his committee seat “in the interest of upholding the high ethical standard of the House Democratic Caucus.”
Jefferson promptly refused, calling her request “discriminatory” and “unprecedented,” and suggested that she was employing a double standard by failing to ask other lawmakers facing ethics questions to relinquish their committee assignments. Rep. Alan Mollohan (D-W.Va.) has come under fire for earmarks he secured through his seat on the Appropriations Committee.
Yes, by all means leap to the defense of a man who keeps cold, hard cash on hand at all times. In his freezer. A man who has his own video out showing him taking cash. Good move. Plays well in Peoria, too. I've said before that the Democrats blew it on this one, this just seals the deal, I think. The issue is not, and should never be the color of a man's skin. It should be about his actions. But there was an ominous warning yesterday:
Most lawmakers would not comment afterwards, but a CBC aide summed up some members’ frustration, saying, “Congresswoman Pelosi, by preemption without any legal justification, has now created a new precedent for how members are going to be treated. Unfortunately, she’s chosen to single out an African-American for this honor.”
Then the aide added an electoral threat, saying, “The African-American community, which overwhelmingly backs the Democratic Party, will not take this lightly. I hope she enjoys being minority leader.”
And this bit of farce as well:
Meanwhile, Pelosi and House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) called in a joint statement for the Justice Department to return the records taken in the search of Jefferson’s office.
More and more like the royal courts each day. Slipping into decadence, disregarding the people. One big difference, though. The old royal courts had courtiers. We appear to have an entire Congress made up of only court jesters.
