Yes, I was happy to see Dem corruptocrat William “Cold Cash” Jefferson booted out of office in December 2008. But the naivete, cluelessness, and obsequiousness of Jefferson’s replacement, GOP Rep. Joseph Cao, have been rather cringe-inducing.

Cao was the sole Republican vote for Obamacare. He backed the S-CHIP expansion, the $108 billion IMF bailout, and the omni-waste spending bill. And he voted to rebuke GOP Rep. Joe Wilson for calling out President Obama on his health care lies.

Cao also joined the Democrats in opposing repeal of the individual health insurance mandate. And he was one of two Republicans (Mike Castle was the other) who joined Democrats to vote for the $26 billion “Edujobs”/BigGovJobs bailout.

Evidently, Cao thinks this was enough appeasement to earn him the endorsement of Barack Obama.

Cue laugh track.

And now that Obama has endorsed his Democrat opponent, Cao believes that he can persuade the White House to rethink the endorsement by letting them know that the Democrat trying to unseat him is…corrupt.

Criiiiikey.

Via Fox News:

Republican Rep. Joseph Cao — in an act of either selfless concern or political expediency — says he “must” warn President Obama that the Democratic candidate he’s endorsed in the race has a history of ethical problems.

The Louisiana congressman is smarting after Obama used his first general election ad to endorse Cao’s opponent, Democrat Cedric Richmond. According to Cao’s campaign, he had hoped Obama would endorse him considering all he did for Democrats — like being the only Republican to cast a floor vote for the health care overhaul.

“He didn’t even have the courtesy (to call us)” before running the ad, Cao spokesman Devin Johnson told FoxNews.com. “That hurt the congressman. At least, he wanted that courtesy.”

But Cao says there must be an explanation — Obama must not have known about Richmond’s ethical problems.

“I believe that has happened in the congressional race for District 2 here in Louisiana,” Cao said in a written statement. “No one apparently told the president that Cedric Richmond had his law license suspended for lying to the voters; that he has been the subject of two ethics violations while a legislator.”

Sigh. Someone needs to send Cao a box of Kleenex, a cluebat, and a copy of Culture of Corruption.

Justice is served. The race hustlers will bray and moan, but disgraced Democrat Rep. William “Cold Cash” Jefferson had it coming. Thirteen years in prison for what the judge in the case called “the most extensive and pervasive pattern of corruption in the history of Congress:”

Former Rep. William Jefferson was sentenced today to 13 years in prison for his conviction on 11 counts of public corruption in a case in which he famously hid $90,000 in his freezer.

U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III delivered the sentence at a packed courtroom in the federal courthouse in Alexandria, Va. Prosecutors had asked for 27 to 33 years in prison, while Jefferson’s lawyers said the prison term should be less than 10 years.

…Ellis has not yet ruled on whether Jefferson can remain free while he pursues his appeal, which will likely take months.

Ellis did say that Jefferson must forfeit $470,653.47 to the government that the jury determined was obtained illegally in the schemes alleged.

…Ellis said he found Jefferson’s conduct “a cancer on the body politic.”

…Jefferson was found guilty after an eight-week trial of soliciting bribes, depriving citizens of honest service, money laundering and using his congressional office as a racketeering enterprise. The case was best known for the $90,000 federal agents found hidden in the freezer of Jefferson’s home in Washington, D.C.

The five charges for which he was acquitted included single count of violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act — the charge most closely related to the $90,000 found in his freezer. The government said that Jefferson, who received the money from Virginia businesswoman Lori Mody, took the cash with the intentions to bribe to the then vice president of Nigeria, Atiku Abubakar. Mody was acting as a cooperating witness and secretly recording her conversations with Jefferson for the FBI.

During the trial, in which neither Jefferson nor Mody testified, Trout said that Jefferson had no intention of paying a bribe to Abubakar, but never said why the money was in the freezer.

Jefferson’s lawyers, who are owed more than $5.7 million by Jefferson, according to documents submitted in his and wife Andrea’s recent bankruptcy filing, have 10 business days to file an appeal.

Via NOLA.com:

Forrmer U.S. Rep. William Jefferson and his wife, Andrea, have filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection as the convicted ex-congressman prepares for a forfeiture hearing in his federal corruption case.

William Jefferson was convicted earlier this month in Virginia on 11 of 16 corruption charges. He faces a forfeiture hearing because the jury found that he and his family received $470,000 and more than 30 million shares of stock proceeds as a result of criminal activities.

Meanwhile, he and his wife are seeking protection from a handful of creditors. They owe more than $1 million and less than $10 million, according to forms filed in federal bankruptcy court last week by the Jeffersons’ daughter, lawyer and former state legislator Jalila Jefferson-Bullock.

The WSJ has a PDF of the bankruptcy petition.

In other related corruption news, the disgraced lawmaker’s brother was convicted last week on four of seven corruption charges related to an education bribery case:

After deliberating for most of the day on Friday, a federal jury of six men and six women found Mose Jefferson guilty on four of seven counts in a case that involved the bribing of former Orleans Parish School Board president Ellenese Brooks-Simms to gain a favorable outcome in a $14 million contract involving a computer learning program called I Can Learn.

He was convicted on two counts of bribery and two counts of obstruction of justice and was cleared of one count of bribery, one count of conspiring to bribe Brooks-Simms and one count of conspiring to commit money laundering.

Jefferson faces a maximum possible sentence of 20 years on each obstruction of justice count.

Bilking taxpayers is a Jefferson family affair.

Guilty. Guilty. Guilty. Guilty. Guilty. Guilty. Guilty. Guilty. Guilty. Guilty. Guilty.

NOLA reports:

Former Democratic Congressman William Jefferson was found guilty of 11 of 16 corruption charges today by a federal jury.

The jury of eight women and four men returned a guilty verdict following five days of deliberation.

In the 16-count indictment, Jefferson was charged with soliciting bribes and other crimes for a series of schemes in which he helped American businesses broker deals in West African in exchange for payments or financial considerations to companies controlled by members of his family, including his brother Mose, his wife, Andrea, their five daughters and a son-in-law.

Jefferson, who represented the New Orleans-based 2nd Congressional District for nine terms, will now face sentencing by Judge T.S. Ellis III, who earlier meted out stiff sentences for lesser figures in the case. According to the U.S. attorney’s office, Jefferson faced 235 years in prison if convicted on all counts, and will still face substantial prison time.

The verdict comes four years after the Aug. 3, 2005 raids of Jefferson’s homes in New Orleans and Washington, D.C., in which the FBI found $90,000 in cash hidden in the freezer of his D.C. home, money the government said Jefferson was going to deliver as a bribe to Atiku Abubakar, then vice president of Nigeria, to gain his help with a telecommunications deal in Nigeria being pursued by Lori Mody, a Northern Virginia businesswoman.

The money was the lion’s share of $100,000 in FBI cash that the congressman was videotaped receiving packed in a briefcase days earlier in a suburban Virginia parking lot from Mody, who, beginning in March of 2005, had become a cooperating witness for the FBI, secretly taping her conversations with Jefferson.

The jury did not find him guilty on the Foreign Corruptions Practices Act, which was the count linked to the money in the freezer.

Hat tip: JWF.

Let’s hope he doesn’t end up with a czar appointment…

Cold cash, hot Democrat mess
by Michelle Malkin
Creators Syndicate
Copyright 2009

Remember William “Cold Cash” Jefferson? House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the Clean-Up Crew hope you’ve forgotten. Jefferson is the former Louisiana congressman caught with gobs of money in his freezer nearly four years ago in an FBI sting. He finally went on trial this week on a multitude of federal bribery and racketeering charges.

Refresher: FBI agents confronted Jefferson with video showing him accepting $100,000 in marked bills from a government informant. Prosecutors say he took the money to bribe a Nigerian official in a business deal. “We got to motivate him real good,” Jefferson told the informant, according to a Justice Department transcript. “He’s got a lot of people to pay off.”

Prosecutors also allege that he demanded or accepted many other payments to Jefferson family-owned firms in exchange for his aid in winning regulatory approval for projects in several West African countries. All but $10,000 of the marked cash was found foil-wrapped in the freezer of Jefferson’s Capitol Hill residence. On tape, Jefferson “questioned how his reputation could survive” and wondered aloud to the feds whether the search warrant affidavit could be permanently sealed to keep the information from being made public.

Jefferson’s defense team is making an audacious claim that Jefferson’s actions were all “private” and had nothing to do with his official capacities as a lawmaker. Jefferson promises to deliver an “honorable explanation” for deep-freezing the money (arts and crafts project? science experiment?). No word on whether he’ll explain why he plotted to leave the tax-paying public in the dark.

Also no word on how his family members could have possibly cashed in on his name, influence, and prestige if Jefferson were just another citizen acting “privately.” The New Orleans Times-Picayune’s Stephanie Grace reported this week that “the tight-knit clan with the damaged name includes several siblings who also benefited from Jefferson’s power and prominence — and who stand accused in a newly revamped federal indictment of forming a criminal enterprise to steer an appalling amount of federal, state and city money into their own pockets. Last year, Jefferson’s political operative brother Mose and his assessor sister Betty, along with Betty’s daughter, were charged with systematically bilking government-funded social service programs. Another sister is cooperating with the feds.”

So, where’s the congressional clean-up crew?

Refresher: In January 2006, still basking in the glory of her ascension, Speaker Pelosi announced a “Clean House Team to Address [the] Republican Culture of Corruption.” A press release trumpeted: “It is long past time for the Congress to address the systemic Republican culture of corruption that has undermined the American people’s confidence in this institution,” Pelosi said. “I am proud that some of the best minds in our Caucus will be leading the Democratic effort to clean up the corrupt Republican Congress. These great leaders will work to restore truth and trust to the People’s House.”

The Jefferson family case has all the Beltway business-as-usual ingredients that Speaker Pelosi vowed to eliminate when she took power: nepotism, abuse of power, corporate cronyism, and gross violations of the public trust. But Jefferson is a black Democrat who has been fiercely defended by both the Congressional Black Caucus and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Democrats are all too willing to lambaste corruption among their political foes, but fear the wrath of race-card players in their own party. It has muted criticism of tax-cheating, self-dealing New York Rep. Charlie Rangel, under investigation for numerous ethical improprieties in his personal finances and fundraising activities; congressional sisters Loretta and Linda Sanchez, under investigation by the House ethics committee for a payroll mess; and crony of color Rep. Maxine Waters, who had a personal and financial stake in Boston-based OneUnited, a minority bank that received $12 million in federal TARP bailout money.

Putting the Democratic culture of corruption front and center is not a headache Nancy Pelosi needs — especially as a new Rasmussen poll shows her party now losing to Republicans on the core issue of governmental integrity. The Rasmussen Report reveals:

“Republicans also now hold a six-point lead on the issue of government ethics and corruption, the second most important issue to all voters and the top issue among unaffiliated voters. That shows a large shift from May, when Democrats held an 11-point lead on the issue.”

It’s a sharp and timely reminder that while death, taxes, and “temporary” bailouts are forever, political fortunes in Washington are never immutable.

Finally. Nearly four years after FBI agents discovered nearly $90,000 in purported bribe money stuffed in Louisiana Rep. William Jefferson’s freezer, the Democrat is finally going on trial this week. He faces 16 federal bribery and public corruption charges. NOLA sums up:

While the “cold cash” came to symbolize the case on the Internet and late-night television, the investigation into complex international business deals also made legal history with the first-ever raid on a sitting congressional member’s office and a constitutional battle over the separation of powers and how bribery statutes are applied to members of Congress.

…If convicted, he would likely face up to 20 years in prison.

The trial, expected to last four to six weeks, won’t lack for drama. The prosecution’s case is likely to include some of the hundreds of hours of secretly recorded conversations, many between Jefferson and Virginia businesswoman Lori Mody, a disgruntled investor who became a cooperating witness.

The snippets of conversations already released by prosecutors include Jefferson telling Mody on May 12, 2005, that Nigerian businessman Suleiman YahYah will probably have to pay bribes to get a telecommunications project proposed by iGate Inc. past regulators. Mody was an iGate investor.

“We got to motivate him real good,” Jefferson said, according to a Justice Department transcript. “He’s got a lot of people to pay off.”

Cries of racism in 3, 2, 1…

***

Elsewhere, via the Times-Picayune’s Stephanie Grace, we learn that indictments run in the Jefferson family:

…the tight-knit clan with the damaged name includes several siblings who also benefited from Jefferson’s power and prominence — and who stand accused in a newly revamped federal indictment of forming a criminal enterprise to steer an appalling amount of federal, state and city money into their own pockets. Last year, Jefferson’s political operative brother Mose and his assessor sister Betty, along with Betty’s daughter, were charged with systematically bilking government-funded social service programs. Another sister is cooperating with the feds.

And last week, a grand jury added a new alleged racketeer to the mix, former state representative and City Councilwoman Renee Gill Pratt.

Gill Pratt isn’t a sibling, although as Bill Jefferson’s former aide, Mose Jefferson’s longtime companion and a lieutenant in the family’s political organization, she’s as close as it gets.

According to the indictment, she also acted as an inside woman, using her public offices to steer earmarks, grants, inflated leases and even vehicles donated to the city after Katrina to various nonprofits and firms controlled by family members.

Among the new allegations: While in the Legislature, Gill Pratt secured $300,000 for two New Orleans schools to purchase software from a company for which Mose Jefferson was exclusive sales agent. He earned a $30,000 commission, a portion of which he allegedly funneled back to her. The “I Can Learn” software is also at the center of another federal case involving Mose Jefferson, who is accused of bribing former Orleans Parish School Board President Ellenese Brooks-Simms to support the School Board’s purchase of the product.

For her trouble, Gill Pratt is alleged to have received some free home repairs and use of the infamous donated Dodge Durango, which she transferred to a Jefferson family-controlled nonprofit that later hired her. The indictment says she also got a taxpayer-funded ride in the Muses parade, which Mose Jefferson supposedly financed with his ill-gotten gains…The most amazing part of the whole story is that all that taxpayer money was designated to help the most vulnerable of Bill Jefferson’s, Betty Jefferson’s and Renee Gill Pratt’s constituents.

When government grows, corruption flows.

It’s that simple.

***

Flashback August 2008: Jason Mattera asks former Rep. Jefferson for some cold cash tips…

Well, this helps take the sting out of the re-election of corruptocrat Jack Murtha. Republican upstart Joseph Cao defeated Bill “Cold Cash Jefferson” in the runoff for Louisiana’s 2nd Congressional district race. This is — this was — a solidly Democrat, Democrat-dominated district. Yes, the voters are sending a message. They want hope, change, and a clean start.

The details:

Nine-term Democratic Rep. William Jefferson, who has been battling scandals and a federal indictment for the past three years, lost his bid for re-election on Saturday.
Louisiana Democratic Rep. William Jefferson has been embroiled in a bribery scandal.

Louisiana Democratic Rep. William Jefferson has been embroiled in a bribery scandal.

Republican challenger Anh “Joseph” Cao, an attorney and community organizer, defeated Jefferson in the 2nd Congressional district race. He will become the first Vietnamese-American elected to Congress.

With 100 percent of precincts reporting, Cao had almost 50 percent of the vote to Jefferson’s 47 percent.

The 2nd Congressional district, in and around New Orleans, is mostly African-American and heavily Democratic, and Jefferson appeared to be favored to win re-election going into the election.

“The people of the second district were able to transcend party, transcend race,” Cao said after claiming victory Saturday night.

Hey, Bill Jefferson: DLTDHYOTWO!

And take your Bribe-Loc freezer bags with you:

Photoshop: Suitably Flip

***

Well, this tempers my enthusiasm: A commenter notes that Cao is pro-amnesty immigration lawyer. He apparently favors the DREAM Act and other open-borders measures. I’m sure the WSJ editorial board will crow that these are the reasons Cao won. In a black majority district? I don’t think so.

***
Congrats also to John Fleming, who won the open seat in the 4th district in Louisiana.

RNC Chair Mike Duncan: “Voters in Louisiana spoke out today and overwhelmingly embraced the Republican Party’s core values when they elected Joseph Cao and John Fleming to Congress. This is truly a victory for the people of Louisiana, having sent two strong, conservative candidates to represent their interests in Washington. Louisianans embraced John Fleming’s conservative belief that government needs to operate in a more effective and efficient manner and that taxes and spending in Washington should be lower. Voters in the Second District rejected William Jefferson’s corruption and embraced Joseph Cao’s hard-working approach and commitment to preserving the dignity of all people and serving the greater good.”

***
About Cao:

Anh “Joseph” Quang Cao, 41, was born in Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City), Vietnam, the fifth of eight children. He grew up in Vietnam during the most turbulent years of the Vietnamese Civil War and can vividly remember bombs exploding next to his elementary school. After the fall of Saigon in 1975, Joseph fled Vietnam for the safety of the United States. His father, an Army officer committed to the freedom of South Vietnam was imprisoned by the Communists, leaving his mother to singlehandedly raise the five remaining children.

At the age of eight, Joseph and two of his seven siblings arrived in the United States. He spent his first four years in America where he attended primary school and learned the English language and culture. Eventually, he settled in Houston, Texas, where he graduated from Jersey Village High School and in 1990 earned a Bachelor of Science degree in physics from Baylor University in Waco, Texas.

After graduation, Joseph entered the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits), finally arriving in Louisiana for the first time to begin his religious training at Grand Coteau. During his first two years in the Society, Joseph was sent by his religious superiors to various parts of the world to minister to the poor and indigent. Joseph was then sent to New Orleans in 1992 to study theology and philosophy, furthering his training for the priesthood. He subsequently was accepted to Fordham University in New York, where he earned his Master of Arts degree in philosophy in May 1995. He returned to New Orleans to teach philosophy and ethics at Loyola University. The following year, Joseph left the Society of Jesus and taught at a local parochial school in Virginia.

While in Virginia, Joseph volunteered at Boat People S.O.S., Inc. (BPSOS) to assist poor Vietnamese in their quest for social justice and enculturation and to lobby the U.S. Congress on issues concerning civil and religious rights. He eventually became a board member of BPSOS and served in that capacity from September 1996 to March of 2002.

In September of 1997, Joseph returned to New Orleans to study law at Loyola School of Law and subsequently resumed teaching philosophy at Loyola in 1998. In May of 2000, he obtained his Juris Doctorate from Loyola and began his legal career as an associate at the Waltzer Law Firm. He left Waltzer & Associates to become in-house counsel for BPSOS, opening a New Orleans office seeking social and legal equity for the many refugees in the city. During his time as BPSOS in-house counsel, Joseph initiated programs to help victims of torture and to provide social and cultural developments for poor minorities.

Joseph Cao and familyJoseph is married to Hieu “Kate” Hoang; they have two daughters, Sophia and Betsy. He opened his private law practice in 2002, which he continues to operate. Also in 2002, he was selected by Archbishop Alfred Hughes of the Archdiocese of New Orleans to be a member of the National Advisory Council to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, which addresses many pressing issues, such as women’s rights in the U.S. Church, social justice, pedophilia and children protection, the Catholic response to Hurricane Katrina, and education.

Like many in New Orleans, on August 28, 2005, Joseph and his family fled from their home in Venetian Isles (located in New Orleans East) as Hurricane Katrina was bearing down on New Orleans. Returning in early September, Joseph saw that everything he possessed was destroyed, including his home and his law offices. Joseph would once again have to rebuild his life.

Determined to return and rebuild, in October of 2005 he moved his family to Westwego and began the rebuilding of his Orleans home and law office. His office would take three months to repair, his home a year and a half. Like the people of Orleans and St. Bernard Parishes who were ravaged by Hurricane Katrina, Joseph has endured struggles against insurance companies and the political leadership and has proven to be a leader in rebuilding the Vietnamese community. He assisted the residents in New Orleans East in their successful fight against a landfill that threatened to change the social fabric of their community. He fought energy and telecommunication companies to have basic necessities restored in a timely fashion.

In 2007 Joseph ran as an independent for the State House of Representatives and carried Orleans Parish. He presently serves as a board member of the MQVN Community Development Corporation which is responsible for many programs such as charter schools, medical clinics, and retirement centers. Last year he was appointed by Governor Bobby Jindal to the Board of Elections for Orleans Parish. He was also elected to the Republican Parish Executive Committee and the State Republican Executive Committee where he continues to serve. In 2008 Joseph was elected as an at-large delegate to the Republican National Convention.

Joseph Cao understands the struggles of the rebuilding process and shares the hopes and desires of the people of New Orleans. His is a life of determination — to never submit to adversity and to always seek social improvement and justice.

PERSONAL HISTORY • Law degree from Loyola University • Former Jesuit seminarian • Vietnamese refugee • Small business owner • Fluent in English, Vietnamese, French, and Spanish • Married with two daughters • Member, Mary Queen of Vietnam Catholic Church

MAN OF ACTION • Opened local Boat People SOS Office to help local refugees • Has worked at local, state and national levels to ensure equal rights of legal minorities in the U.S. • A former secondary school teacher • A former university professor • Appointed by the Archbishop of New Orleans to U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops National Advisory Council

KATRINA SURVIVOR • Helped restore energy and telecommunications service to New Orleans East in timely fashion • Rebuilt his home and law practice from scratch • Helped protect neighborhoods from illegal and hazardous dumping of Katrina debris • An involved volunteer in rebuilding greater New Orleans

Photoshop: Suitably Flip

Intrepid Jason Mattera is back with another Hot Air/Young America’s Foundation joint production from Capitol Hill.

He asked Democrat Rep. William “Cold Cash” Jefferson, the accused freezer cash-stashing subject of a 16-count criminal indictment whose public corruption trial is scheduled for Dec. 2, for some handy storage advice and an autograph last week.

Rep. Jefferson refused to provide either.

Jason’s first question: “”I was wondering if you could give me some advice? In your opinion what is the best way to stuff $90,000 in a freezer: a Hefty or a Ziploc bag?”

Click for the answer, er, non-answer and a few menacing-looking gestures from Rep. Jefferson that are ripe fodder for all those tee-vee body language experts.

Jason, be careful out there!

Blogger Patterico has an exclusive report on a brand new set of bribery allegations against Democrat William “Dollar Bill/Cold Cash” Jefferson.

Most honest, open, ethical House in history? Nancy Pelosi was unavailable for comment.

The Supreme Court refused on Monday to hear the Justice Department appeal seeking to restore the FBI’s full authority to search the offices of members of Congress under investigation for crime…

…The Court’s denial of review in U.S. v. Rayburn House Office Building Room 2113 (07-8160) left intact a ruling by the D.C. Circuit Court that gives members of the House and Senate some protection under the Constitution’s Speech or Debate Clause against criminal searches — even with a warrant — of their legislative offices. The specific search at issue involved the office of Rep. William Jefferson, Louisiana Democrat, who has since been charged with bribery and other federal crimes. The Justice Department appeal argued that the Circuit Court’s decision would seriously hamper probes of corruption and criminal conduct by lawmakers.

WSJ has more details:

Last August, a Washington-based U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued a court order barring prosecutors from using evidence gathered in the office raid. When the government asked the D.C. Circuit to reconsider the stay, it voted 5-4 to leave the restrictions in place.

“Its effect is to critically undermine the executive branch’s ability to investigate and prosecute corrupt activity in an affecting the legislative branch,” U.S. Solicitor General Paul Clement said in the Bush Administration’s appeal. Mr. Clement urged the Supreme Court to overturn the appeals court ruling. “Until it does so, investigations of corruption in the nation’s capital and elsewhere will be seriously and perhaps even fatally stymied.”

Rep. Jefferson, in a court brief, asked the high court to reject the appeal, arguing the raid followed inadequate procedures that “involved the compelled disclosure of legislative material to executive branch agents with no opportunity for the member to shield privileged material from view.”

A criminal trial in the bribery allegations against Rep. Jefferson was originally set to begin in February. The trial was delayed, however, while a federal appeals court considers whether grand jury testimony given by staffers against the congressman violated the U.S. Constitution.

Rep. Jefferson’s legal team has fought the bribery investigation and indictment by arguing the Speech and Debate Clause in the Constitution — which bars executive branch interference with legislative branch office functions — was violated during the FBI raid. Jefferson’s lawyers are citing the same section of the Constitution in fighting the grand jury testimony. Their arguments, however, were recently rejected by the federal judge presiding over the trial.

Oh, and by the way, where are the Democrats who will do and say the principled thing here. Hillary? Obama? Hello?:

Photoshop via Theodore’s World.

Quote:

Jindal, a 36-year-old Republican, will be the nation’s youngest governor. He had 53 percent with 625,036 votes with about 92 percent of the vote tallied. It was more than enough to win Saturday’s election outright and avoid a Nov. 17 runoff.

“My mom and dad came to this country in pursuit of the American dream. And guess what happened. They found the American dream to be alive and well right here in Louisiana,” he said to cheers and applause at his victory party.

Update 2 (See-Dub): Congratulations, Rep. Jindal!

Update (MM): My favorite quote from Bobby Jindal as he heads toward a win today…

“People want to make everything about race. The only colors that matter here are red, white and blue,” Jindal said.

Here’s a flashback to my column on Jindal and the NYTimes’ skin-color obsession and here’s a reminder of the smear campaigns the Left has waged against him over religion.

He’s an extraordinary, young, dynamic, whip-smart, staunchly conservative Republican.

***
I bet it just killed them to write this about the LA governor’s race:

Analysts predict Mr. Jindal, 36, could get more than 50 percent of the vote in the open primary, thus avoiding a November runoff and becoming the nation’s first Indian-American governor. If he fails to win a majority, he would face the next-highest vote getter in the runoff.

Louisiana Democrats are demoralized, caught between the perception of post-hurricane incompetence surrounding their standard bearer, Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco, who is not running for re-election, and corruption allegations against senior elected officials like William J. Jefferson, the congressman from New Orleans.

So, despite the Times’ best efforts to shift all the blame onto President Bush for the botched Katrina response, they have to admit that the political consequences on the ground are landing right where they ought to…on the dithering, indecisive governor Blanco, on Mayor Nagin, and the Democratic machine that assisted their failure.

I bet they don’t like this part either:

He is a born-again Roman Catholic who has suggested that teaching intelligent design as an alternative to evolution may not be out of place in public schools, favors a ban on abortion and opposes hate-crimes laws. Conservative views aside, the slightly built congressman is anything but a backslapping good ol’ boy.

Blasphemy! How could someone who is both a Rhodes Scholar and from a racial minority believe that stuff? Those are The Wrong Ideas, and in the New York Intelligentsia’s reckoning, Rep. Jindal might as well be wearing overalls, chugging moonshine, and a plucking a four-string banjo as he wipes the stains from his lunch of pan-fried squirrel from his cheek with a Confederate flag bandana and contemplates assaulting suburban canoeists.

Speaking of which, if Rep. Jindal wins, it will undermine the very stereotypes the Times trades in:

The congressman, tossing souvenir cups from a fire truck in a town parade, was met with shouts of “Hey Bobby!” from the rural whites lining the route.

Hmm…maybe everything in the whole world…isn’t about race after all?

Oops, more blasphemy. Sorry.

Giving credit where credit is due, the Washington Post does a good job covering the latest on the William “Cold Cash” Jefferson case. The culture of corruption is alive and well:

Before searching Rep. William J. Jefferson’s New Orleans home in August 2005, FBI agents confronted him with a video that showed him accepting $100,000 from a government informant, according to a prosecution document filed yesterday in federal court in Alexandria.

Afterward, the Louisiana Democrat sank back into a couch in his living room and “with total dejection remarked ‘what a waste,’ ” according to the government account, which did not elaborate on his comment.

Jefferson then “questioned how his reputation could survive” and expressed concern whether the search warrant affidavit could be permanently sealed to keep the information from being made public, according to the document.

Meanwhile, on the same day, FBI agents found $90,000 of the $100,000 in marked bills in Jefferson’s freezer at his Capitol Hill home. The government alleged that Jefferson took the money from a Virginia businesswoman who was working as an informant, to bribe a Nigerian official in a business deal.

The pretrial document provides a glimpse into the public corruption investigation’s early months. It was among 14 answers filed yesterday by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Alexandria in response to motions filed this month by Jefferson’s lawyers.

Yep. On top of everything else, the corruptocrat tried to solicit the feds’ advice on how to suppress the facts from the tax-paying public.

And the demands from Democrats for this crapweasel to step down are…where?

Photoshop via Theodore’s World.

An ex-New Orleans school board president has pleaded guilty to accepting $140,000 in bribes from a local businessman in exchange for promoting and approving a software education program for the parish schools. Who was the accused briber?

According to documents, Brooks-Simms received $140,000 in bribes and the unnamed businessman received a contract for the program that was worth $900,000. U.S. Attorney Jim Letten said that both Brooks-Simms and the businessman funneled the payments through several bank accounts to disguise their illegality.

The documents showed that in 2002, 2003 and 2004, Brooks-Simms approved contracts between the school board and JRL Enterprises to provide the OPSB with computer-related equipment, programs and services and that on three separate occasions she received payments in the amount of $40,000, $50,000 and $50,000.

While court documents did not name the businessman, an article in the New Orleans Times-Picayune quoted sources as saying it was Mose Jefferson, brother of indicted Congressman William Jefferson.

Wonder if he kept the cash in a freezer, too?

Republicans moved on Tuesday to seek Rep. William J. Jefferson’s expulsion from Congress, a day after the Louisiana Democrat was indicted on charges of taking more than $500,000 in bribes.

Jefferson, meanwhile, relinquished his seat on the House Small Business Committee before members of his own party could vote to kick him off the panel.

In a two-paragraph letter to Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Jefferson, 60, said he was taking the step “in the light of recent developments in a legal matter.” He acknowledged no wrongdoing.

Republicans, citing Pelosi’s election-season promise to run the most ethical House in history, sought Jefferson’s expulsion from the chamber, possibly before he comes to trial on the bribery charges.

Republican Minority Leader John Boehner of Ohio was pushing for a vote late Tuesday on a resolution to bar Jefferson from serving on any House committee and to direct the ethics committee to decide by July 11 whether the allegations in the indictment merit his expulsion, according to a partial draft of the document obtained by The Associated Press.

Specifics were uncertain because the resolution was still being written.

It’s unusual for the House in a resolution to specifically instruct the ethics committee to report whether a member’s expulsion is warranted. Usually such resolutions leave it to the committee to recommend appropriate sanctions after its investigation.

The unusual directive produced a rare retort from the chairwoman of the House ethics committee.

“It is inappropriate for any other member to impose on these proceedings,” Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones, D-Ohio, chairwoman of the Standards of Official Conduct committee, said in a statement that did not mention Boehner by name. “I refuse to allow these proceedings to be politicized by House Republican leadership.”

An ethics committee probe seemed certain. Pelosi, D-Calif., later Tuesday was expected to name 10 House Democrats to a pool from which the House ethics committee can pick if it decides to appoint a special subcommittee to investigate the charges against Jefferson.

Democratic leaders fear that Rep. William J. Jefferson’s indictment yesterday on racketeering and bribery charges, coming exactly one year after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi engineered his ouster from the powerful Ways and Means Committee, could rekindle a smoldering dispute between the speaker and black lawmakers who were once pillars of her power.

For months, the Louisiana Democrat’s mounting legal peril has bedeviled Democrats as they sought first to point to corruption as a tool to oust Republicans from control of Congress, then pressed for ethics and lobbying changes that they said would usher in a new era of clean politics on Capitol Hill. For every thrust Democrats made against the GOP, Republicans parried with Jefferson, saying problems in Congress were bipartisan.

Through it all, much of the Congressional Black Caucus has stood by Jefferson and against the Democratic leadership. And yesterday, Rep. Danny K. Davis (D-Ill.), a veteran caucus member, said it would be “as supportive of our colleague as possible, in terms of saying a person in America is presumed to be innocent until proven guilty.”

Looks like the GOP, seeking a decision on whether Jefferson should be expelled from Pelosi’s mostethicalhouseever, may move as soon as today for an ethics review of the lurid 16-count, 95-page indictment against the Freezer King. Jefferson holds one last committee seat on the Small Business Committee. But probably not for long:

“I can’t imagine that based on what’s happened and what we’ve done [on ethics rules changes and lobbying legislation] that at the very least, he’ll be asked to step down from committee,” said House Democratic Caucus Chairman Rahm Emanuel (Ill.), who stressed that he was not speaking for the leadership. “We’ve set down a pretty clear marker about what’s going to be expected.”

That’ll earn Emanuel more scorn from the nutroots and accusations of racial double standards from the Congressional Black Caucus–which, as I noted last June when he was stripped of his Ways and Means seat, gave Jefferson a standing ovation after he accused the Dem leadership of singling him out because he was black.

Live by identity politics, die by identity politics.

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Bigger headaches for the Clean House Club:

The Democrats in Congress have lost much of the leadership edge they carried out of the 2006 midterm election, with the lack of progress in Iraq being the leading cause. Their only solace: President Bush and the Republicans aren’t doing any better.

Six weeks ago the Democrats held a 24-point lead over Bush as the stronger leadership force in Washington; today that’s collapsed to a dead heat. The Democrats’ overall job approval rating likewise has dropped, from a 54 percent majority to 44 percent now — with the decline occurring almost exclusively among strong opponents of the Iraq War…

…The shift away from the Democrats in Congress has occurred on two levels. In terms of their overall approval rating, the damage is almost entirely among people who strongly oppose the war in Iraq. In this group 69 percent approved of the Democrats in April, but just 54 percent still approve now — a likely effect of the Democrats’ failure to push a withdrawal timetable through Congress.

Their decline in leadership ratings vs. Bush is more broadly based — that’s occurred among war opponents and supporters alike, apparently reflecting more an assessment of their performance than an expression of support or opposition.

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Previous:

Dems call Dems racist
Freezer burn
How the Dems clean house
Blocking Cold Cash Jefferson
Cold Cash Jefferson on Homeland Security Committee
How Dems store their bribes
Foiled again!
Culture of corruption continued