Yesterday, former Louisiana congressman William Jefferson (D) was sentenced in an Alexandria, VA courthouse to 13 years of prison for a slew of corruption charges, including racketeering and bribery. A 2005 raid of his home in Washington found $90,000 in neatly wrapped bills in his freezer. A subsequent raid of his congressional office occurred in 2006.
Critics on both sides of the aisle denounced the raid as unconstitutional. Ironically, it was not the raid of his home and private residence that created controversy, but rather the raid of his congressional office.
This is hardly surprising or new. Civil liberties have been trampled in recent years by politicians of both parties while they allow themselves the protective cloak of "congressional independence" and "executive privilege". This sort of corruption and the tactics used to hide it from the public have a long history in politics. Corruption knows no borders and no party allegiance.
- Rep. Verne Buchanan (R, FL)- Allegedly coerced donations from employees of his car dealerships. Other allegations include shady business practices with his car dealerships and a printing company prior to that.
- Sen. Roland Burris (D, IL)- Perjured himself in regards to his dealings with impeached Governor Rod Blagojevich; was acquitted by the Illinois state prosecutor, but gave three conflicting statements on three different occasions while under oath.
- Rep. Maxine Waters (D, CA)- Arranged a meeting with treasury officials to acquire bailout funds for a bank to which her husband used to serve on the board of directors and owned a significant amount of stock for (in violation of House conflict of interest rules). She's also infamous for a slip of the tongue, using the dreaded "s" word during a congressional hearing on offshore drilling (video below).
- Rep. Ken Calvert (R, CA)- Pushed for earmarks, which have directly benefited a major campaign contributor. The earmark and other suspect real-estate dealings in the Congressman's history have raised allegations of bribery and even extortion.
- Rep. Pete Visclosky (D, IN)- Also under investigation for bribery in a contribution-for-earmark deal involving the now defunct PMA group.
This is far from an exhaustive list. This is simply an example of current representatives (meaning still in office) who have committed acts while in office that are either blatant forms of corruption or equitable to it ( a more complete list can be found here).
Also important to note is that America's rate of political corruption is far below that of many other countries. This, however, is not an acceptable excuse for such practices to continue. Further, the rate of corruption is not necessarily increasing (although it's certainly not decreasing), and much of the increased coverage can be attributed to ever increasing negativity in politics. This leads to increased exposure of "scandals" and wrongdoings which in turn blind us to those not in the spot light.
Our politicians need to learn that the government serves us, the people, and not the other way around. This should not be a party issue. This is an American issue.
Weigh In Below: Should our elected officials be held more accountable for their actions?
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Comments
is this all really that suprsing though? dirty politicians have been around for quite sometime. the only politican from va that i trust is frank wolf.
Agreed. I don't always agree with him (Wolf), but he is someone that has always done what he thought was in the best interest of his constituents and he has long been an advocate for greater accountability for government.
exactly & he is really nice too
NOTICE HOW THESE HACK JOURNALISTS DONT TELL YOU WHAT PARTY JEFFERSN BELONGS TOO?
HE IS A DEMOCRAT AND THE MEDIA ARE WORTHLESS.
IF IT WAS A REPUBLICAN IT WOULD HAVE BEEN BOLDED IN THE TITLE.
PATHETIC!
I'm sorry....what party is he from? Oh, yeah, right....he's a democrat. I wonder why the media forgets this little, itty, bitty, minor detail in their "reporting" Maybe cause their in the tank for the left?
He's so nice he cheated people out of money and he will still probably get a nice government pension when he gets out. They out to shoot politicians who are prosecuted and found guilty. Actually they should shoot all of them and start over.
You are coorect in that the media only reports the party when it's the Republicans. Of course, the we can't call them reporters any more because of it.
On the other hand, the difference between the parties is that the Democrats protect their crooks, Murtha, Dodd, Rangel, Frank, etc... The Republicans throw their crooks out. That tells you how slimy the Democrats are and you people that profess to follow these people really need to reflect on your own integrity and morals.
Thank you for your comments everyone, although I am a little shocked I'm being accused of "hack journalism" for not putting Jefferson's political affiliation in the title. I do hope, however, that you read the article and saw the amount of corruption that exists in both parties. Also, his affiliation is clearly marked in both the article (as well as three other Democrats compared to just two Republicans)and the slide show.
I could have gone down and listed every single corrupt member of Congress, but then I guarantee the list would be 350+ names. My point in writing the article was to point out that corruption exists in both parties, and also my disgust at the lack of outrage over the home raid while there was a massive outrage from both sides at the congressional office raid.
He was under suspicion, and if they had a warrant they had every right to pursue it.
But I digress. My point is corruption is rampant in government, and our elected leaders need to be held accountable.
i dont get some of these comments! i see a lot of democrats on here! but i really dont understand what's so bad about nationalizing the oil industry.
great article. pretty evenly handed to I might add, but I have to say that video made me laugh. a nervous laugh because we all know it's true, but a laugh nonetheless.
on a side note, as a traditionally right leaning man myself, I don't understand some of these comments. the writer is a libertarian, which is not a liberal, and not a conservative but has more in common with conservatives then liberals. you're upset he didn't bold the guy's party affiliation in the title?
I suggest you either completely read the article before commenting next time or at least count the breakdown of the bullet points.
your divisiveness is what's wrong with America these days.
end.
good job, justin.
There is an easy to cut down on corruption. As these "lawmakers" are leaning towards communism anyway, we should implement the communist way to deal with corruption.
In China, many corrupt officials when caught, wind up leaving their position, going on "vacation", and never heard from again. Those found responsible for causing harm to the public (melamine in milk, etc) wind up in front of a firing squad. This applies to those at the top that knew about it and could have done something about it, instead of just counting the profits.
In 1999, China guaranteed Y2K would not be a problem. For the airlines industry, all top airline executives (including presidents/CEO's) were ordered to be in flight between 12/31/1999 and 1/1/2000 somewhere over China, in one of the regular passenger planes, no excuses.
Very well put- and sad really- amazing that so many people are so willing to look the other way while OUR lawmakers BREAK the law...
Jesse- thank you for your comment. The part that truly dumbfounded me was the outcry over the raiding of Jefferson's congressional office, when no such outcry existed for his personal residence, and the whole "congressional independence" idea.
Not that I necessarily condone it, but I do believe in making the government more accountable for their actions. I strongly believe that if you are a public servant, your activities (with exceedingly few exceptions)need to be done in the public. If they're not, chances are you are hiding something from the public. As a public servant you can't claim the right to privacy in your business dealings. There needs to be transparency. And REAL transparency. Also, if they had a search warrant for his personal residence, then they clearly had enough evidence to suspect he was committing a crime, and thus raiding his office was the responsible action.
There is an easy to cut down on corruption. As these "lawmakers" are leaning towards communism anyway, we should implement the communist way to deal with corruption.
In China, many corrupt officials when caught, wind up leaving their position, going on "vacation", and never heard from again. Those found responsible for causing harm to the public (melamine in milk, etc) wind up in front of a firing squad. This applies to those at the top that knew about it and could have done something about it, instead of just counting the profits.
In 1999, China guaranteed Y2K would not be a problem. For the airlines industry, all top airline executives (including presidents/CEO's) were ordered to be in flight between 12/31/1999 and 1/1/2000 somewhere over China, in one of the regular passenger planes, no excuses.
good read.
i always knew we had crooks in office but...dang
don't forget rep mckinney, who assaulted a police officer among other things...
also look into rep. buyer and his "frontier foundation" scholarship setup
pretty good article but i feel like there should be a lot more republicans on that list.
Thanks for all the comments!
that guy- believe me, there are plenty more to be name from both sides. I just had to decide where to cut it off, and five seemed like a good number to give some indication without being totally overwhelming.
Great article, dude. We should defffffinitely find a way to get rid of these corrupt individuals. Get out of here!
Jerome- thank you for your comment. I totally agree. I also think that term limits should be imposed on congressmen and senators both. I think if Reps. were limited to 4 consecutive terms and senators to 2 would get rid of a lot of these career politicians and help with corruption a great deal, as would decreasing congressional pay.I reiterate, the "leaders" of this country are supposed to serve the people, not the other way around.
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