Pelosi Gets it Right on Jefferson
25 May 2006 10:13 am by Taylor Marsh
Pelosi Gets it Right on Jefferson
UPDATE II: Bush orders documents sealed.
UPDATE: Jefferson seizure, “Breach Was More of the Spirit, Not the Letter, of the Constitution.”
But the FBI had no other choice than to search Jefferson's office, Gonzalez
says, because the congressman refused to provide them with documents after
a subpoena was filed. NPR
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I have a real beef with Leader Pelosi standing beside Hastert in asking for
Rep. Jefferson's documents to be returned. I've researched and talked with a
lawyer and find the separation of church argument specious in the face of an
ignored subpoena served on a congressman. I know others disagree, but that's
the way the law works. It's a matter of interpretation and advice. But for me
the bottom line is that if a congressperson is involved with possible criminal
behavior, this trumps any separation of powers argument, or should, I believe.
That said, what the CBC is doing today is revolting. The Congressional Black
Caucus is gunning for Leader Nancy Pelosi, all because she called Jefferson
out and asked him rightly to resign Ways and Means. Not only is Pelosi right on this
one, but courageously so. That the CBC is circling the wagons around Jefferson
is all about protecting political turf and has nothing to do with doing the
right thing, which is ousting this man from the powerful Ways and Means committee.
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.
As others have said, did Hastert ask Delay to resign or try to investigate
his widespread corruption? No he did not. Did Hastert ask for Cunningham's resignation?
No he did not.
Rep. Nancy Pelosi did the right thing in asking Jefferson to resign Ways and
Means. It's more than Hastert has done as Speaker of the most corrupt Congress
in our lifetime.
As for the Congressional Black Caucus, it's not a black and white issue. It's
an issue of right and wrong.
