Hunter S. Thompson once famously wrote, "In a nation run by swine, all pigs are upward-mobile and the rest of us are f---ed until we can put our acts together: Not necessarily to win, but mainly to keep from losing completely."
Please join me in ushering Rep. William Jefferson, D-La, into the pigsty. Watch him as he rolls around in the mud with the decadent and depraved, the morally bankrupt and the ethically paralyzed.
For a man who "has done nothing wrong," Jefferson looks pretty guilty. On a guilty scale of one to 10, Jefferson scores a ten - billion.
According to the Washington Post, which obtained an 83-page FBI affidavit, Jefferson was videotaped accepting $100,000 in $100 bills from an Virginia investor who was wearing a wire. On August 3, 2005, FBI agents raided Jefferson's home and found a freezer full of $90,000 cash. Coincidence? Somehow I don't think so. While he hasn't been charged with a crime, things aren't looking good for the congressman.
Things aren't looking good for Democrats either, who up until now have been fairly successful in trying to convince Americans that only Republicans are corrupt. While prominent Republicans like Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham and Tom DeLay have suffered similar scandals, the idea that corruption only reaches Republicans is laughable. Greed doesn't have a political preference, and money has a tendency to a create massive moral vacuum.
As the media cover this story, and we stare into the depths of Jefferson's corruption, it becomes apparent there is a growing problem in Washington. While corruption in politics is nothing new, it is amazing that in an age when mass media has reached a pervasive height, politicians continue to believe they can get away with this kind of thing.
Hopefully, these revelations will bring about a newfound sense of accountability in Congress. The House Ethics Committee is a nice idea, but what is the point if it doesn't have any teeth? Who is watching the House Ethics Committee? Is it relevant? Does it have any real power?
The problem is, Americans have no way of knowing whether members of the House Ethics Committee are actually ethical themselves. Corruption continues because there is no oversight over members of the House Ethics Committee. If it isn't going to allow other branches to watch over it, how can we be sure that Congress is really ethical at all? This culture of ignorance is fostering a dangerous climate of moral ambiguity and destroying my faith in government.
Ironically, the search of Jefferson's office has brought about an odd case of bi-partisanship aimed at both the Justice Department and President George W. Bush. Angry that the Justice Department raided a legislative office, Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Majority Leader Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., argued the search was unconstitutional as it violated the separation of powers.
To be sure, the search was unprecedented and opened the possibility for Nixon-esque abuse of power by shadowy men in high levels of government. The larger issue is that the FBI and the Justice Department acted out of necessity. While distasteful, searching Jefferson's office might have been the FBI's only realistic play.
In the end, Jefferson will resign his post on the House Ways and Means Committee and leave Congress in shame - as he should. Ultimately, the real question is whether Congress can learn to police itself in order to learn how to stop this kind of abuse of power.
Until then, we're just Losing Completely.
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