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Are you tired of William Jefferson* (D) being the Representative for LA-02?

*...in his freezer.

By: Moe Lane (Diary)  |  November 21st, 2008 at 10:00 AM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

That’s a serious question, and one that can be profitably asked across the political spectrum. In fact, the following questions are really directed at our lurkers: does having Rep. Jefferson in a position of trust and authority bother you, on a fundamental level? Are you tired of having this man’s continued presence in Congress give the lie to all of your pious statements about being for clean government? Do you quietly fume about how the runoff election and his federal trial for bribery and racketeering will happen at about the same time?

Are you?

Well, talk is cheap. Time for you people to clean your house.

There’s a guy running against Jefferson in the general. His name’s Joseph Cao (you can contribute here). Vietnamese-American, philosophy professor (trained with the Jesuits, no less), bachelors’ in physics, and an attorney with a history of social work both here and abroad. He’s also not a corrupt Louisiana nepotist currently under indictment on multiple counts of abusing his office, which should also be a factor for your support. All in all, if we’re to believe your rhetoric, he’s precisely the kind of Republican that you keep telling us that we should be running for office. Well, here he is. The fact that he’s considered a long shot is not a judgment on us, by the way. Nor is the fact that Rep. Jefferson still has a position of authority in Congress. That’s all you guys, and until you’re collectively ready to cut Bill Jefferson loose, he’s going to keep on being a blot on your honor.

So. In LA-02, on December 6th, vote for the Republican.

It’s important.

Moe Lane

PS: Again. …in his freezer.

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COMMENTS

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  • TxCon

    if you think people in this district will listen to you and vote Jefferson out? He has been crooked for a real long time and yet keeps getting re-elected.

  • Achance

    having a 40 year US Senator hounded from office and facing jail as the result of a show trial in DC, watched three present or former members of our legislature hauled off to jail, watched one of the largest companies in our state effectively dissolved by the Public Integrity Section sure wonder why he’s still in office.

  • Moe_Lane

    Besides, I’m right. That’s enough of a justification for going down swinging. :)

  • aaronbg

    Han Pritcher, one of our lefty lurkers, has committed to voting for Cao for the same reasons that Moe has listed. Don’t be so pessimistic. If we don’t fight to educate and persuade those on our left then Jefferson’s re-election is guaranteed. He can be defeated…we just need to make the case.

  • Han_Pritcher

    I hope Jefferson loses. By default that means I hope that this Republican wins. I don’t live anywhere near that district, nor do I know anyone who does. As such, I won’t do much more than I’ve done.

    I ain’t contributing to his campaign, nor would I even consider phonebanking. I can’t imagine you guys doing those things for Begich (nor would I have expected it).

    Jefferson is entitled to his day in court and a chance to clear his name. He is not entitled to my support because we are of the same party. There are limits, however, to my lack of support.

  • aaronbg

    dangit…now I have to retract my statement.

  • aaronbg

    premise still stands.

  • E_Pluribus_Unum

    And we don’t laugh about that anymore. So if Repubs make a go at Jefferson, you may see it as futile, or you may see it as the start of an unexpectedly beautiful friendship (between Republicans and electoral boldness).

  • TxCon

    that Dems will vote their scumbags and/or felons out of office. I hope I’m wrong this time.

  • Hermes

    Although I don’t live anywhere near Mr. Jefferson’s district, I did contribute to Mr. Cao’s campaign. He looks like the type of candidate that we should be backing in every election.

  • Aquinas

    not in but right next to Jefferson’s district (I’ve had the grace to have been represented by David Vitter, Bobby Jindal, and Steve Scalise back to back).

    While y’all are right in saying just because something seems impossible doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try and eventually cracks will appear in the wall, the Dec. 6th election is not that time.

    The best chance to beat Jefferson this year was from his main Democratic rival Helena Moreno, a former newscaster in New Orleans (who would have been much better and more moderate than Jefferson) and she went down to him a few weeks ago. At some point Jefferson’s trial will come back to bite him. But in his district, one in which race is by far the overriding factor, he will continue to get elected until another decently known black man challenges him or his trial finally gets concluded and he gets thrown in jail.

    It’s simply the unique nature of the district and his connection with it. A better bet to get him ousted is to save up your contributions until a challenger looks like he may win and then all donate to him. I’m as conservative as they come and I’m not typically defeatist but in this situation just trying to be a realist.

    At least those in the 2nd District have a Republican to vote for on Dec. 6th. My Dec. 6th vote for my LA state senator is between two Democrats…figures

  • kingfish

    http://www.spectator.org/archives/2008/11/20/should-congress-have-a-cao

    Our kind of guy.

    Wonder how much the RNC will dump into his campaign?

  • Moe_Lane

    No more concessions, no more keeping our powder dry, no more nickel-and-diming. It is a moral obligation to support the clean against the corrupt and the good against the bad; and if we can’t win a fight we can at least do our level best to make the other side ashamed of their support.

    I’m pretty much without spare income these days, so I can’t do much. But I can still do things like this, by God, and I shall.

  • Aquinas

    and searching for a high quality candidate to challenge Jefferson is not a concession nor keeping our powder dry. It’s being smart about how much powder we use and when we use it. When you shoot cannon you want to aim it at a ship not the ocean.

    To the comment below, the RNC will likely not dump much if any in the race because it’s not a 2nd or 1st tier race for them.

    Let’s search for some quality candidates that fit the bill for that district and get the RNC to convince them to run against Jefferson with some good financial backing. That would be some strategic and smart resistance, the kind we need to win in ’10 and ’12.

  • Han_Pritcher

    As I’m sure you are party-blind in this.

    We elect these people. We pay their salaries. They are there because of us, and they should be held accountable when they break faith with their duties. It is one thing to disagree with an elected official, or for them to do something apparently stupid. Outright corruption is something else again.

    Talk may be cheap, but it is not without value. Keep it up.

  • hudsonrepub

    I just contributed to Mr. Cao with the hope that the residents of LA-02 will do the right thing and replace Rep. Jefferson. However, I am losing faith in the ability of those who vote to pay attention to what their elected officials do and hold them accountable for their actions. I am still deeply troubled by the re-election of Murtha in PA. When you can call your constituents racists and rednecks and still win re-election I am not sure what would cause someone to lose their seat in Congress. Surely not stashing some $$ in the freezer.

  • rcc

    Yes, it does bother me. I’d like to see Jefferson thrown out. But I don’t live in that district and I don’t feel strongly enough to send money to his opponent. I didn’t send money to Begich, either.

  • Moe_Lane

    Good to know.

  • birdmojo

    Does it bother me compared to sending Federal Agents after Tommy Chong in the months following 9/11?

    Does it bother me compared to PATRIOT and PATRIOT II?

    Does it bother me compared to Delay saying that there was no fat in the budget to cut?

    Does it bother me compared to the TSA throwing out my potential binary explosives into a 55 gallon drum full of other potential binary explosives?

    Does it bother me compared to the prescription drug benefit?

    Does it bother me compared to sending Federal Agents to bust up Medical Marijuana co-ops in California (that exist in accordance with California State Law)?

    Does it bother me compared to the $700 Billion bailout?

    Or is the general assumption that, all other things being equal, and not talking about anything else, and not thinking about anything else, indeed, in a veritable vacuum, this particular crook remaining in office is something that ticks me off?

  • 2006_personoftheyear

    I don’t agree with this…I agree that there is a moral obligation to throw the corrupt outta office. But, moving from ends to means, it doesn’t mean that any attempt to throw the dude out is well-advised.

    Pretending I am a Republican for a second…if I have a choice to give $ to the freezer guy’s opponent or to some other Republican in a tight race, I have to make the following comparison. What makes the world a better place, giving the money to Prof. Cao, or to Joe the Republican Congressional Candidate in a Tight Race? While throwing out Jefferson might be a greater benefit than Joe the Republican beating Isaac the Democratic Incumbent, you must also consider the probability that you donation causes that desired effect. If the probability of throwing out the freezer guy is much lower than the probability of electing Joe over Isaac, then it probably does more to make the world a better place giving money to Joe, not Prof Cao.

    Extend this analogy to, say, spending money on one’s family or giving to a charity compared to giving to Prof Cao. And also extend it from money to effort.

    This is all complicated by the fact that Prof Cao’s first name is, in fact, Joe…

  • hudsonrepub

    nt

  • birdmojo

    If the question is “does it bug you?”, the answer is “of course it bugs me, they should bring back tarring and feathering”.

    If the question is “does it bug you enough to open your wallet and send some money to help support the party that would like you to know that the democrats are much, much worse than they are”, well… I’m digging through the “remember 2000?” box in my attic and I’ve found a 3×5 card with the phrase “not a dime’s worth of difference” on it.

  • TxCon

    It happens all over the country and it bugs me. But I also know that there are enough people in that district who probably think that “the Man” is out to get Jefferson and are going to vote for him no matter what, some probably even more enthusiasticly than before.

  • Moe_Lane

    You’d rather whine about how both parties are awful than do anything about it.

  • Moe_Lane

    …and this election cycle is pretty much over otherwise.

  • aaronbg

    You can support the candidate Joseph Cao without supporting the party. Check him out and see if you think he is worthy of 5 bucks…if not address that rather than all the apostasies of the entire Republican Party leadership. Cao shouldn’t have to pay for the sins of the party…only his own sins, if there be any.

  • RobW

    n/t

  • 2006_personoftheyear

    …which isn’t the case. I mean, even if I was totally cynical, I would still want him gone, because we already have a safe majority anyway, and it’s a hella Democratic district so if he’s gone some other Dem will likely take his place, now or in 2 years, and his being there only gives ammo to the other side. Even the most partisan Democrat probably wants him gone for that reason.

  • birdmojo

    No, not really.

    It’s more that I’m interested in whether the Republicans will learn anything this time around in their time in the wilderness.

    (Do we agree that the Republicans might be in the wilderness? Perhaps that is the first step.)

    As it is, I am under the impression that the current plan for the Republican Party is to wait for the Democrats to overreach (like with a second assault weapons ban or something) and then win back the house and interpret the rejection of the democrats as an endorsement of the republicans and begin overreaching.

    It’s not that I’m whining that the two parties are awful. I’m wondering if the party that went from discussing “Permanent Republican Majority” to telling people that they have to support this one race in GA lest the Democrats have a filibuster-proof number of Senate Seats understands what happened in the last four years.

    You guys do know that you’re in the wilderness, right?

    I find “why?” to be the most helpful question to have a solid answer to before the “how does a political party leave the wilderness?” question is answered… because “waiting for the other party to prove that they’re even worse than us” is a foolproof way to get out of there, well… It’s not a particularly good way to STAY out of it.

    But, as I’ve said many a time, don’t take my word for it. Just watch what happens.

  • Moe_Lane

    Talk is cheap, and races don’t get much more binary than this one.

  • birdmojo

    But I’m not sure that the Republican Party, as a whole, knows why it lost the election.

    If it doesn’t know why it lost, then that five bucks would do more good in the hands of one of the hoboes in Acacia Park (we know that it would be spent locally, at the very least).

  • Moe_Lane

    And now you’re threadjacking. So either get back on topic – which is about how to maximize the GOP’s chances of removing the crook currently occupying this seat – or leave this thread.

  • Dan_McLaughlin

    Why don’t you try asking whether Mr. Cao is a good candidate and better than Jefferson?

  • 2006_personoftheyear

    …then again, I didn’t do anything to help any other congressional candidate, on either side, this time around (other than vote), including people in close races up against crooks. Hell, I didn’t even do anything to help Obama, other than vote for him twice (primaries and general).

    Does that make me a bad person? Maybe, but if so then there are a lot of other pressing issues out there in the world that I do little about, that would make me a bad person anyway. Like poverty ‘n stuff.

    Does that mean it secretly doesn’t bug me, and I am lying? If so it would also mean that McCain potentially winning didn’t bug me back before the election, and it did bug me when McCain was even or ahead in polls. So, by contradiction, it doesn’t not bug me, or in other words, it bugs me. Proof complete. Sorry, I am doing math homework at the same time as this.

  • SIConservative

    I’m definitely a fan of asking Dems to contribute to Republicans, and if this post gets any of them to do so, great.

    For those of us Republicans with a limited money supply (and those who don’t fall into this category may well soon), we’ve got to pick our battles. The Democrats don’t actually fight in every district, as much as they’d like to believe otherwise. They’ve been picking and choosing, and they have chosen wisely. They’ve cast a wide, but not infinite, net and they’ve brought in more seats than anyone expected in the process. They’d have failed to win many of those, though, if they also wasted money in districts in which they had *no *chance. We’re facing an incredibly difficult cycle in the Senate in 2010, made no easier by the fact that we still have Senators who think that the reason we lost is because we didn’t spend enough when we were in power.

    What’s more is that “safe Republican” and “safe Democrat” districts are totally different animals. In most of our safe districts, we’re expecting 55-65% of the vote. In the Democrats’ safe districts, they often garner upwards of 90%. It’s a helluva lot tougher to swing an extra 5-10% of voters than it is to convert over 40%, many of whom probably don’t even know any Republicans. Now, if you want to change the redistricting to make Republican seats less safe and Democrat seats more competitive, then I would suggest you shift your focus to state legislative races, which don’t get nearly the attention they deserve. (Please don’t take this as a slight on you or the site, as the blame is evenly distributed to all, including me, for not giving them that attention.)

    Finally, I think that this would have had more strength had the Directors stuck with their original endorsement of Mark Begich rather than just offering a non-endorsement of Sen. Stevens. To be sure, I don’t know on which side of that issue you fell, and I can certainly respect the views of those who did not feel comfortable endorsing someone who supports abortion, but if we’re going to ask Democrats to actively oppose their own on account of corruption, it’s only fair that we should do the same.

  • Sport

    I’m a Kossack and can vouch for the fact that there are more negative diaries over there concerning Jefferson than positive. I don’t think it’s fair to say that we don’t care if we don’t donate to Cao. It’s not like most of us have extra money sitting around earmarked for out-of-state Congressional donations.

    All the same, if anyone can produce a stub or screencap of a confirmation that they donated to the Begich or Martin campaigns, then I’ll gladly donate to Cao.

    Sorry for being untimely, but I had to go through the wait period.