Appearances

It would appear that some Democrats are missing the point. While there are still faint echoes of the "culture of corruption" meme coming out now and then, the issue has virtually zero clout any longer. Why? Does the name William Jefferson ring a bell? This one man has destroyed the viability of the issue as a campaign tool against Republicans for the Democrats. Even with a compliant media doing it's level best by calling Republicans facing scrutiny "disgraced" and Democrats in the same situation "embattled", the issue is pretty well useless. I've said all along it was not a good strategy, for precisely this reason; it's too easy to cut one of your own when swinging that two-edged sword.

So now the Democratic leadership is trying to strip Jefferson of his committee positions. The Congressional Black Caucus is balking. The issue loses even more ground in the public eye. The CBC points out that Jefferson deserves the presumption of innocence. That is absolutely true in the courts. In politics, however, the standard has always been different. The appearance of wrongdoing has been more than enough to destroy careers. The CBC already has a precedent applied to a white legislator – Alan Mollohan was asked to step down from his committee. Which he did. The precedent IS there, the CBC is choosing to ignore that.

WASHINGTON – House Democratic leaders are determined to sanction Rep. William Jefferson, scandal-scarred but unindicted, despite a blunt reminder from the Congressional Black Caucus that he is entitled to a "presumption of innocence."

"It's about to blow up in their face," predicted Rep. Melvin Watt , chairman of the CBC.

The North Carolina Democrat added Thursday night that black voters might wonder why a "black member of Congress" would be stripped of his committee post with neither rule nor precedent to justify it.

The reaction heightened a controversy that has flared at the outset of a national election campaign in which Democrats accuse Republicans of fostering a "culture of corruption."

The CBC is missing the point here, I suspect. Jefferson is radioactive politically. He is not worthy of the efforts and political capitol that are being expended on him. He's hurting the Democrats in an election year. It's probably already too late to fix this, though.