Congressman in deep gumbo

Rep. William Jefferson, D-Nigeria -oh, sorry, Louisiana, has finally been indicted on bribery and racketeering charges, among others. I first wrote about ol' "Dollar Bill" last year, when the Republican House leadership, as well as the Democratic minority, was complaining loudly about the FBI raiding Jefferson's Capitol Hill office. I didn't see a problem with it at the time, and I still don't. The FBI had a valid warrant signed by a judge, and "separation of powers" doesn't extend to never investigating a crime on Capitol Hill, despite what then-Speaker Dennis Hastert and others said at the time. The Capitol is not some kind of sanctuary where legislators can hide all of their goodies from scrutiny, as much as some of them would like it to be.

If nothing else, Jefferson should go to the clink for using emergency rescue personnel to shuttle him to his house to collect "things" during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, when they could have otherwise been saving the good representative's constituents.

First Randy "Duke" Cunningham, now Jefferson. I hope they root all of the corrupt ones out this time. I'm not optimistic, since John "ABSCAM" Murtha is still in Congress 30 years later.