Big Lizards:Blog:Entry “Culture of Oops...”

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May 22, 2006

Culture of Oops...

Hatched by Dafydd

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Haight Ashbury) must be beside herself with glee:

A congressman under investigation for bribery was caught on videotape accepting $100,000 in $100 bills from an FBI informant whose conversations with the lawmaker also were recorded, according to a court document released Sunday. Agents later found the cash hidden in his freezer.

Surely Ms. P. is giddy with excitement... the Kulture of Korruption! She can hang this around Republicans' necks like an albatross, and ride that puppy to the --

What? Oh. Half a mo', here:

At one audiotaped meeting, Rep. William Jefferson, D-La., chuckles about writing in code to keep secret what the government contends was his corrupt role in getting his children a cut of a communications company's deal for work in Africa.

As Jefferson and the informant passed notes about what percentage the lawmaker's family might receive, the congressman "began laughing and said, 'All these damn notes we're writing to each other as if we're talking, as if the FBI is watching,'" according to the affidavit.

Jefferson, who represents New Orleans, has not been charged and denies any wrongdoing.

Nancy "Litella" Pelosi says, "nevermind!"

As for the $100,000, the government says Jefferson got the money in a leather briefcase last July 30 at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Arlington. The plan was for the lawmaker to use the cash to bribe a high-ranking Nigerian official - the name is blacked out in the court document - to ensure the success of a business deal in that country, the affidavit said.

The feds recovered $90,000 when they searched Jefferson's house; they subsequently searched his office, probably looking for the rest of the cash as well as incriminating documents -- a horrific violation of Jefferson's civil liberties, sayeth his lawyer, calling the office search "outrageous." (Yes, they already had Jefferson dead to rights; why did they need to humiliate the criminal by searching his office as well?)

"The government's actions in obtaining a search warrant to search the offices of a United States Congressman were outrageous," Robert Trout, attorney for Jefferson, said in a statement. "We are dismayed by this action -- the documents [that the FBI sought] weren't going anywhere and the prosecutors knew it."

Heh, nowhere but the burn bag, I'll warrant.

The investigation heated up after a former aide to Rep. Jefferson and also Kentucky businessman Vernon Jackson both pled guilty to bribery; the latter admitted bribing Jefferson with over $400,000 to secure a telecommunications contract in Nigeria and elsewhere in Africa.

Both Jackson and "an unidentified [female] business executive from northern Virginia" have turned state's evidence (actually, United States' evidence, as this is a federal bribery case) against Rep. Jefferson; the female associate actually wore a wire and caught very incriminating conversations on tape.

And then there's that pesky videotape. Outrageous!

"Blacked out" or not, the ultimate bribee was identified as Nigerian Vice President Abubakar Atiku, who for some peculiar reason owns a home in Potomac, Maryland... possibly because he wants to live close to his best clients. But Jefferson didn't seem overly concerned about making sure Mr. Atiku got his dough; at least not once Jefferson himself got his mits on it. From the AP story:

When Jefferson and the informant had dinner at a Washington restaurant on May 12, 2005, the FBI was listening, too. Jefferson indicates he will need an increased stake in the profits of one deal, the affidavit said. Instead of the 7 percent stake originally agreed upon, he writes "18-20" on a piece of paper and passes it to the informant.

That is when negotiations move ahead and notes go back and forth, ending with Jefferson's laughter about the FBI watching it all. [Cue the creepy laughter.]

And so, by a commodious vicus of recirculation, we are right back where we started. The Democrats have more or less staked everything on this "Republican culture of corruption" meme, the idea that Republicans are running around stealing everything that isn't nailed down, while the hapless Democrats stand tall for "lawn order."

But as I noted some time ago, both parties are chock-a-block with crooks... actual thugs with their trousers stuffed with Franklins. To imagine that either party is immune to such temptation -- as evidenly Pelosi thought (or thought she could sell the country) -- is just utter folly.

Now that all the poison that lurks in the mud is hatching out, to paraphrase Robert Graves, the Democrats, who demanded an ethical standard so high that few in Washington D.C. could meet it, find themselves hoist by their own petards, to paraphrase Wm. Shakespeare (I'm just full of other people's good words today).

I guess that possibility never occurred to her, or to her equally bootless counterpart on the Senate side, Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Caesar's Palace).

Oh well; those who cannot remember George Santayana are condemned to repeat him.

Hatched by Dafydd on this day, May 22, 2006, at the time of 12:29 AM

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Comments

The following hissed in response by: Eg

You watch…our Democrat’s are so savvy we’ll probably learn the 400k was to grease the skids in Niger and some offshore banks to release the embezzled funds of a $400MM trust setup by the recently deceased Nigerian Minister of Communications and who had listed Jefferson as next-of-kin.

The above hissed in response by: Eg at May 22, 2006 1:29 AM

The following hissed in response by: Robert Schwartz

"The plan was for the lawmaker to use the cash to bribe a high-ranking Nigerian official"

From: RICHARD OKONEDO
To: William Jefferson
Date: May 20, 2006

Dear Sir,

I am Richard Okonedo a solicitor at law and the chief counsel of Nedo and Associates.I am the Personal Attorney to Mr.A Mark a National of your
Country, who has lived in Nigeria for the past twenty years,and whom herein after shall be referred to as my client.In April 2004, my client, was involved in a fatal car accident.All occupants of the vehicle unfortunately lost there lives, my client was one of them.

I am contacting you to assist in repatriating most especially,the money left behind by my client before they get confiscated or declared unserviceable by the bank where this huge deposits were lodged.Particularly,the Fidelity Bank Plc where the deceased had an account valued at about $12 million U.S. Dollars has issued me a notice to provide the Next of kin, or have the account confiscated. ...

The above hissed in response by: Robert Schwartz at May 22, 2006 8:21 AM

The following hissed in response by: Papa Ray

Ok, I admit to not being the sharpest tool in the bunch, but just what is exactly the point in this post?

You say, (like it was common knowledge, and it is,) "But as I noted some time ago, both parties are chock-a-block with crooks... actual thugs with their trousers stuffed with Franklins. To imagine that either party is immune to such temptation -- as evidenly Pelosi thought (or thought she could sell the country) -- is just utter folly."

So, other than highlight one of the latest crooks being caught, just what are you saying?

Or is that "all that there is."

Papa Ray
West Texas
USA

The above hissed in response by: Papa Ray at May 22, 2006 9:10 AM

The following hissed in response by: chsw

Jefferson solicited the money, using as an excuse that he would bribe a foreign official, and then pocketed all the money himself. You can't trust anybody these days.

chsw

The above hissed in response by: chsw at May 22, 2006 11:12 AM

The following hissed in response by: Dafydd ab Hugh

Papa Ray:

So, other than highlight one of the latest crooks being caught, just what are you saying?

That the Democrats were idiotic to base their entire 2006 campaign upon the idea that Republicans were crooks, so we should elect the Democrats instead.

The strategy depends upon a steady diet of Republican corruption scandals -- and none from the other side of the aisle.

Dafydd

The above hissed in response by: Dafydd ab Hugh at May 22, 2006 2:00 PM