Blatantly Corrupt Congressman Reelected

[Lemur]

Say what? The guy found with $90,000 in his freakin' freezer just got reelected? As Jar Jar Binks would say, "Exqueeze me?" How does this sort of thing happen?

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

New Orleans area reelects congressman under probe

Sun Dec 10, 2006 1:26am ET161

NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - New Orleans area U.S. Rep. William Jefferson won a ninth term to Congress in a surprising landslide on Saturday as loyal black voters shrugged off a federal bribery investigation into $90,000 found in his freezer.

Jefferson defeated fellow black Democrat Karen Carter with 58 percent of the vote in the first election for the 2nd Congressional District since Hurricane Katrina destroyed much of the area.

"What is called for now is unity, on the East Bank, West Bank, black and white, rich and poor throughout our district, with one objective, to recover this great and wonderful city," Jefferson, 59, told supporters.

Voter turnout was believed to be very low at under 20 percent, a testament to New Orleans' shifting demographics after flooding displaced half of the residents and slow rebuilding thwarted their return.

After the November 7 primary, Carter, 37, was the favorite of white voters, who nearly equal the number of blacks in Orleans Parish after the storm.

But she performed poorly in Jefferson Parish across the Mississippi River where the sheriff took on Carter for accusing his team of racism in a Spike Lee documentary because they didn't allow blacks to cross a bridge to escape flooding.

Jefferson's victory may bode poorly for the area's ability to win recovery money in Washington since Democrats led by California Rep. Nancy Pelosi, who will become House speaker next month, ousted him from the powerful Ways and Means Committee following the bribery accusations.

"I think it will make it more difficult to get money for Louisiana," political analyst Ed Renwick said.

Jefferson has said repeatedly he has not accepted bribes. But he could face indictment during his new two-year term.

[Xiahou]

On the bright side, he's likely to be removed from office when he's indicted/convicted....

[Marshal Murat]

Where is the press outrage? Thats what I want to know, where is it?

[Grey_Fox]

Meh, many times people will vote along party lines sticking with who they know, even if that person were Hitler.

[BigTex]

The same way not even CNN mentioned Harry Reid's corruption scandle. People have very very short attention span's.

[Lemur]

Hmm, using Google News, this doesn't exactly look like it's being ignored. Beyond the AP story I pulled (and AP feeds a lot of newspapers), there's Fox News, USA Today, NY Times, ABC news, LA Times, Washington Post ... the list goes on. Looks like this story circulated to almost every major news source; talk of a conspiratorial cover-up may be premature.

What nobody's answering, though, is how on earth did this happen? I mean, what the heck were the voters thinking?

[ezrider]

Say what? The guy found with $90,000 in his freakin' freezer just got reelected?

Maybe he just likes the feel of cold, hard cash

[Ronin]

this guy is not only corrupt....he´s stupid as hell....

you keep your cash in the fridge???

[macsen rufus]

Now you know why they say you get the government you deserve