Corruption

Finally justice is served on another person whose power in Congress became a catalyst for greed:

Former Rep. William Jefferson was sentenced Friday to serve 13 years in prison for what the lead prosecutor described as "the most extensive and pervasive pattern of corruption in the history of Congress."

While the sentence by federal Judge T.S. Ellis III fell well short of the 27 to 33 years recommended by the government, it is by the far the stiffest jail term ever imposed on a member or former member of Congress for crimes committed while in office.

Jefferson, 62, was found guilty Aug. 6 on 11 charges, including soliciting bribes, depriving citizens of honest service, money laundering and using his office as a racketeering enterprise. 

I have heard that every time a corrupt politician goes down like this that an angel gets it’s wings. Given how rampant corruption is in American politics, there must be an awful lot of angels waiting.

Both parties suffer from corrupt members of their caucuses, but the Republican party seems to have a pandemic of corruption deep within it, even locally. Here is what’s happening here in Butler County, Ohio – the home of IntoxiNation and minority leader John Boehner:

Butler County is doing more than its share these days to keep the FBI and Ohio Ethics Commission busy.

Two of the county’s three commissioners are under investigation by the ethics commission on accusations of nepotism.

The most recent subject is Commissioner Gregory Jolivette, who admits to voting on the hiring of and pay for both his son and daughter as county employees in 2004 through 2006.

There is much more listed in the article, including details of our former county auditor who was arrested and had to resign last year. What the article fails to mention is that every single person listed in it is a Republican. The Republicans have had a lock on our county for years and this single party rule has opened the door to wider spread corruption.

I’m just waiting for the day they frog march the entire county administration out.

Another corrupt politician gets taken into custody:

Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich was arrested Tuesday on charges of conspiring to get financial benefits through his authority to appoint a U.S. senator to fill the vacancy left by Barack Obama's election as president.

According to a federal criminal complaint, Blagojevich also was charged with illegally threatening to withhold state assistance to Tribune Co., the owner of the Chicago Tribune, in the sale of Wrigley Field. In return for state assistance, Blagojevich allegedly wanted members of the paper's editorial board who had been critical of him fired.

This puts Obama’s Senate seat right at the center of the mess. David Kurtz points out that Blagojevich was apparently thinking about appointing himself to succeed Obama:

"I've got this thing and it's [expletive] golden, and, uh, uh, I'm just not giving it up for [expletive] nothing. I'm not gonna do it. And, and I can always use it. I can parachute me there."

What an asshole. This in no way reflects upon Obama, but you can bet the right is going to try to make the two into one.

Things look like they are going to get interesting next year:

“The Bush administration overstepped in its exertion of executive privilege, and may very well try to continue to shield information from the American people after it leaves office,” said Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, Democrat of Rhode Island, who sits on two committees, Judiciary and Intelligence, that are examining aspects of Mr. Bush’s policies.

Topics of open investigations include the harsh interrogation of detainees, the prosecution of former Gov. Don Siegelman of Alabama, secret legal memorandums from the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel and the role of the former White House aides Karl Rove and Harriet E. Miers in the firing of federal prosecutors.

The article says that Bush might try the same thing Truman did in 1953 to get out of testifying before Congress after his term. The argument was separation of power, even after a President leaves office. In that case the Congress just backed down, but if our Congress keeps pushing on it then maybe we can get the Supreme Court to decide once and for all what separation of power really is and when does it end.

Ted Stevens is trying to say he wasn't convicted of anything:

"I'm not going to step down. I have not been convicted. I have a case pending against me, and probably the worse case of prosecutorial ... misconduct by the prosecutors that is known," Stevens said.

How many people in jail awaiting appeals say the same thing? Perhaps we should go ahead and let all of them go. Or perhaps we should go ahead and lock Stevens up and he can wait like any other person for his appeal.

It looks like Roy Blunt's son is taking a page right out of the Bush Administrations book of administrative policies:

Gov. Matt Blunt was sued Wednesday by a former staff attorney who claims he was fired and defamed in retaliation for pointing out that Blunt's administration was destroying e-mails in violation of Missouri's open-records law.

The lawsuit by former Blunt attorney Scott Eckersley alleges that Blunt's top aides ordered staff to delete e-mails to avoid having to provide information to the media and public under Missouri's Sunshine Law.

Can we label the entire Republican Party as organized crime yet?