Doesn't say much about the quality of people that voted him back in does it?

C'mon Mark, you know the rules. With DemocRATs, it's innocent until proven guilty, then, once proven guilty, the guilty must've been a victim of child abuse, sexism, or racism.

With Republicans, the rule is: once you're a suspect, you must resign, because, no matter what the outcome is, you're guilty!

And while we're on the subject of corruption, what about this report of the Secret Service illegally wiretapping Princess Di on the night of her fatal crash. Why didn't Clitton go through FISA?

Deleted - Off Topic.

Jefferson hasn't been charged. I agree he looks dirty... but he hasn't been charged. The FBI has tried to convict people in the press before and it's bogus (remember Richard Jewell?).

Khan, neither was Foley. But Jefferson was caught on tape accepting a bribe - and why keep $90k in freezer?

C'mon.

C'mon Mark, you know the rules. With DemocRATs, it's innocent until proven guilty, then, once proven guilty, the guilty must've been a victim of child abuse, sexism, or racism.

Two more Democrat rules for you, keefer:

1.) Any accusation against a non-white person, except for conservative non-white persons, can ONLY be based on bigotry and racism, never on real evidence.

2.) If there's any actual evidence to support the accusation against any non-white person, who is not convervative, see rule 1.

Jefferson hasn't been charged. I agree he looks dirty... but he hasn't been charged.

Kahn, according to government rules of ethics, passed under previous Democrat-controlled Congresses, a government official must avoid even the appearance of wrongdoing. In other words, according to the rules created by your side of the aisle, looking "dirty" is bad enough.

Did the DNC knowingly finance his campaign or did the hard cold cash come from his freezer.

This man is the poster child for corruption

Jefferson is a crook, but Mark, as per usual, lied about one thing. The Democrats did not elect Jefferson. The district he represents elected him knowing full well he was under investigation. There was no electoral malfeasance, no 18,000 undervotes. He was re-elected just like Tom DeLay was in 2004.

The difference will be in 2007 when the ethics committee goes after him. An example will be made out of him and they will likely remove him once his crime is proven. I'm disappointed that he won the runoff so easily. He didn't deserve it, much like Bush didn't deserve re-election given his botched war. But America makes mistakes. Slavery, Jim Crow, segregation, incompetent Republicans like Bush, incompetent Dems like Carter. Good thing is we fix them.

Pelosi will turn out to be a hammer like Tommy DeLay Beckwith. She's gonna clean house.

Let's face it, folks...

a) He a minority - therefore, so what if he's guilty;
b) He's a democrat - therefore, so what if he's guilty (he might even get a plum committee head as a reward);
c) 90K in cold hard cash discovered in his refrigerator? So what! See "a) and b)" above...
d) Caught on tape actually accepting a bribe? So what! See "a) and b)" above...
e) He's from New Orleans. Therefore, he has been immmunized from criticism. Anybody wanting to take him to task for alleged wrongdoing must be a racist, a homophobe, a bigot, and a hater of anything from Louisiana. That's the only reason they would raise the issue anyway, right?

If the next two years under Democrat "leadership" don't open up the eyes of the American people to just how corrupt our government is in every way shape and form, then nothing will.

What this nation needs is the rise of a grassroots third political party, starting on the local, then state levels to counter the monopoly that the Republicrats and Demublicans have upon the political system in this nation. Once the third (conservative?) party has broken into the national level, having established its presence on the state and local level, there will once again be true competition for the voters' trust. Until then, we'll be left with the dregs of human scum as personified by William Jefferson Clinton, Nancy Pelosi, Dick Durbin, Ted Kennedy, and their too-numerous-to-mention ilk. And yes, there's a parallel motley crew on the "R" side of the aisle as well who I won't mention at this time.

So long as the campaign chant remains "Vote for us! We're not as scummy as them," this nation will continue to be ill-served by the leaderless and hollow politicians called Democrats and Republicans. Garbage in, garbage out...

It's time to throw out the trash on both sides of the aisle...

Mark-

If you dislike crooks in office, let's talk about Cheney for a sec.

Do you approve of his secret energy meetings? Do you approve of his influence that magically got the nobids for Halliburton?

War profiteering was a crime back in the days of Truman. Why do you excuse it so readily? Would you excuse the behavior on this issue if a Democratic administration was in power?

I'd love answers to those questions.

"the dregs of human scum as personified by William Jefferson Clinton, Nancy Pelosi, Dick Durbin, Ted Kennedy, and their too-numerous-to-mention ilk. And yes, there's a parallel motley crew on the "R" side of the aisle as well who I won't mention at this time."

Dregs of human scum. I just love the hatred of fellow Americans here at blogsforshrub!

If you're really not a partisan hack, let's see a list of Republicans who are corrupt. Let me get you started. Duke, Delay, Cheney, Chocola, Foley, Hastert, Katie Harris, Newt, Cornyn. The list goes on. But none of them are "dregs of human scum" and the fact that you would speak that way of your political opponents tells us that your hatred of Democrats outweighs your love of America.

You are destroying America as much as the Kos people.

Why didn't Clitton go through FISA?

Years of discussion over the issue and you still don't understand the basics of the law. That's pretty impressive.

I don't understand this election. I mean it wasn't about retaining a Dem over a Rep. Jefferson's challenger was also a Dem. In that respect, I think Mark's statement: "So what if a crook gets to remain in office a while longer, as long as Pelosi gets her way, its ok, right?" seems a disengenuous. I doubt very much that Pelosi is thrilled about the outcome. In fact, she's already stripped him of his committee assignments, pending the outcome of the House ethics investigation against him.

It wasn't about race either -- at least not completely. His challenger was also black. But apparently -- get this -- Jefferson managed to paint her as too liberal.

Kahn is right -- fair is fair. Jefferson hasn't admitted to anything, hasn't been found guilty of anything, hasn't been so much as indicted for anything. On the other hand, the handwriting appears to be written on the wall pretty darned clearly. Heck, two people in the case have already pled guilty of bribery -- and more specifically, they have indicated that they were bribing him!.

[By the way, Khan, how does it feel to be characterized as a libbie? Lol!]

In light of that, what's particularly hard to understand is that Jefferson managed to line up a bunch of influential endorsements - including NOLA mayor Ray Nagin. That, to me, is the most disturbing aspect of the situation. It suggests to me that they're pandering to their own self-interests -- at a time and place where you'd think attention to the greater good would be particularly important. Apparently Huey Long still lives, just in a different skin.

Rico - I was just about to respond to that. I know - I'm a liberal now!

Bigfoot - If we the people of the United States have evidence enough to convict him then we should be charging him and arresting him. These rules should, no they MUST apply to everyone. We created the rule that leaders step down if indicted - but the Democrats have NOT adopted that rule. They should - but they haven't. And, Jefferson hasn't been indicted. They better hurry up, or he'll be demanding that money be returned.

Do you remember Richard Jewell? Just look him up. Did his job, saved lives, accused BY THE FBI THROUGH THE PRESS BUT NOT IN COURT of being the Olympic bomber. He had nails at home. Good God nails - what would someone be doing with those if he wasn't the bomber?

Foley - well there was never even a crime there was there? Just hounding a gay guy out of office in the most cinical and viscous way possible.

I wonder whats up with DeLay? When will those charges come to trial or be settled?

Oh, and Mark V. KNOWINGLY saying something that is untrue is lieing. You twit.

Hey Gavin, you (Ed. Note: insult deleted), let's take a look at the difference between the Dem's and Rep's. Clinton, indicted, gone due to term limits. Pelosi, speaker of the House; Durbin, reelected, Jefferson, reelected, Kennedy, reelected, McDermott, reelected, etc, etc, etc. Duke, convicted, gone, Delay, gone, Newt, gone, Foley, gone, oh and by the way, Foley only wrote inappropriate things to the pages, the Dem who actually had sexual relations with an underage male page was reelected several more times. Hastert, Cheney, Harris, and Cornyn have not been even remotely accused of doing anything wrong.

Oh and do you actually know why no bid contracts were given to Halleburton? Because there are only a small handful of companies that can do what they do in a war zone. Most of which are not American companies.

"Hey Gavin, you idiotic POS"

Why is it the default position of the radical extremist rightwing to call people things like idiotic pieces of shit?

Gavin,

Arcman went over the top, but the point he brings up is irrefutable: the Democrats keep hold of their corrupt elements, the GOP gets rid of its. I know - after all, I've co-written the book on Democratic corruption (coming out from World Ahead in January).

:o)

Ricorun,

And what did DeLay admit to? You Democrats were out for his blood even before he that bogus indictment was handed down...and then when it did come in, you wanted his immediate resignation from Congress.

Hypocrits.

Oh, by the way Gavin, I am not a radical extremist rightwinger, only one a person that is sick and tired of watching the Democrats get away with being corrupt and continuing to always get elected. I have been watching this nonsense for the past 40 years, and am sick and tired of it. And to show you that, we "radical extremist rightwingers" can take the high road, I apologize for call you a name.

Mark: "And what did DeLay admit to?"

Are you talking to me? If so, why? I didn't say anything about DeLay. I never called for his resignation, either -- ever.

Jefferson is a crook, but Mark, as per usual, lied about one thing.

Gavin, "as per usual?" "As per usual?" What the hell does "as per usual" mean? It means you're trying to impress somebody. If it worked, then whoever you impressed is as stupid as you are.

BTW, your talking points that followed in one of your subsequent posts are just that--talking points.

...your hatred of Democrats outweighs your love of America.

At least he loves America, Gravel. You on the other hand, don't. And your love of men outweighs your hatred of women...

Shameless plug, eh Mark? LOL!

Hey, Gravel....
Ok, how about we just call you a moron..a little nicer than IPOS!!!
And guess what.....Halliburton got a lot more contracts under The Bubba's administration..you doofus!!!!
They are but a handful of companies that do this work...you would have prefered we had "outsourced" it to the French??? Yeah,you probably would...

Gavin writes:
"The difference will be in 2007 when the ethics committee goes after him. An example will be made out of him and they will likely remove him once his crime is proven."

2007? Is that when they're going to do the same thing to Alcee Hastings, 20 years later?

Let's see... Nancy Pelosi removed Jefferson from the Ways and Means committee, even before the mid-term elections.

Compare that to the Republicans changing to rules to allow Tom DeLay to stay in power. That didn't seem to go over well with voters.

At least he's free now to spend his time endorsing book deals.

Right, because the Democrats are better since they didn't change the rules so that Harry Reid could get million dollar land deals, he just forgot to mention it, and they didn't do anything. They didn't change the rules so that their people could have relationships with pages, they just didn't do anything about it. And no, I'm not talking about Clinton, but I can't blame you for asking. The left certainly did jump all over him, right?

"Let's see... Nancy Pelosi removed Jefferson from the Ways and Means committee, even before the mid-term elections."

You really think this is an example of ethical superiority? Jefferson was being investigated for bribery long before he was removed from the committee. They had to remove him after that video of him accepting a bribe was made public.