Representative William Jefferson (D-LA)
The Congressional Black Caucus has (surprise, surprise) come out in opposition to stripping Representative William Jefferson (D-LA) of his seat on the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, saying he deserves a "presumption of innocence."
As a refresher, Jefferson is currently involved in a bribery investigation. The FBI says Jefferson accepted $100,000 in cash and that they later found $90,000 of it stashed in his freezer.
Two people have already been convicted in the investigation.
Democratic Party leaders, including House Minority Leader Nancy "I'm a Crazy Liberal" Pelosi, have called on Jefferson to give up his seat on the Ways and Means Committee until the the situation is resolved. Jefferson refused, and as such Democratic leaders responsible for committee assignments voted to suspend him from the committee. However, Representative Melvin Watt (D-NC), Chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, invoked a rule providing for a 5-day delay. As such, the decision has been postponed until next week.
At first, I had a difficult time deciding where I stood on this matter. On one hand, I am a firm believer of someone being innocent until proven guilty, but on the other hand I see how Jefferson being allowed to keep his seat (especially since I think he's guilty as sin) reflects badly on both the Democratic Party and Congress as a whole.
In the end, I don't think that it's a matter of him being innocent until proven guilty, it's a matter of what's best for his party and what's best for Congress and just because he's stripped of his seat doesn't mean he isn't being given a "presumption of innocence." I personally don't see why Jefferson doesn't just give up his seat for the time being. It would save himself the embarrassment of being forced from the seat and surely he understands how much keeping the seat during this investigation hurts his own party, whether he's innocent or guilty.
Congressman, do what's right by your party, and your country, and step down.
Despite my feelings that Jefferson keeping his seat only hurts the Democratic Party, Representative Watt seemingly disagrees. "It's about to blow up in their face" he predicts. He also thinks 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.
Well, Gee Representative Watts, I don't know if they'll wonder that but I hope if they do they'd wonder the same thing if Jefferson was white and they won't wonder that just because Jefferson is black.
Representative Watt may be right that there isn't a rule nor precedent to justify Jefferson's stripping (although if Jefferson would just do what's right by his party and Congress and give his seat up he wouldn't need to be stripped of it), but I do take issue with those words: "black member of Congress."
This implies that black voters might think that Jefferson was stripped of his seat because and only because he was black. But, that's complete bullshit, and I hope that black voters would be smart enough to realize that it's not a race issue — he's not being stripped of his committee seat because he's black — he's being stripped of his committee seat because he's under investigation for committing a serious crime. It should and would be no different for a white man in Jefferson's shoes. I'm sick of the 'race card' being pulled every time a black man is accused of a crime or he's given some sort of punishment relating to that crime.
I would hope black voters would wonder the exact same thing Representative Watt points out if it was a white member of Congress. I'm tired of this looking at people based on race and Representative Watt's comments bring to light a theory that black voters might be upset about Jefferson's treatment for the sole reason that he also happens to be black. Dr. King dreamed of a day when we would all judge each other not by the color of our skin but on the content of our character, but sadly if people like Representative Watt still believe that black voters would pass judgement on an issue a certain way just because the person involved is black than Dr. King's dream is still a long way from becoming a reality.
