And what about Jefferson, the Democratic Black Senator caught with frozen stolen cash in his freezer?

Question

Why are we not hearing about that in the news. New Orleans was blamed on Bush, and you have the Senator Jefferson, a Democrat from that district, running away with the cash to his freezer? Why are we not in an uproar about that?

Answer 1

Jefferson deserves to be in jail if convicted. And from what I have seen, he will be. How exactly daes that have anything to do with the lack of response in Hurrican Katrina? People died, and our government sat back and did nothing for days. Wal-Mart and harry Connick jr. were in New orleans before our government, National Guard and FEMA were.

Confirmed Katrina death toll: 1,836

• Approximate number of people displaced: 1,100,000

• Approximate number of adults & children STILL listed as missing: 1,500 plus**
(Many feared dead & washed out to sea.)

• Homes completely destroyed by Katrina: 284,000

• Businesses shut down by Katrina: 81,000

• The total damage cost is estimated to be $75 billion,
making Katrina the most expensive natural disaster in U.S. history.

Answer 2

As a prior answer pointed out, William Jefferson is a representative, not a senator.

In general, a news cycle on the indictment of anyone that isn't a celebrity (and a congresscritter isn't high enough on the food chain to be a real celebrity unless they they have a higher position in the House of Representatives—a party whip or majority leader or Speaker, or head of an important committee. Alternately, they have to commit a pretty significant crime—preferably, one involving sex, that always "sells"—to keep the attention span of the rather jaded and increasingly unprofessional media outlets.

Finally, he was but one congresscritter caught being blatently bribed, so the media's attention was spread over several cases.

I do find it significant, though, that the Democratic house leadership immediately removed Rep. Jefferson from his committee positions as soon as he was indicted, which is pretty much the maximum punishment that a party in Congress can quickly impose on one of its members. (They can't just throw him out, the voters of his district have to do that, or he has to be convicted in a court of law.) Conversely, none of the Republican representatives indicted in the Abramoff scandal—a much more destructive sinkhole of corruption and bribery—was forced to give up their committees. Indeed, Tom Delay, the former Republican majority leader and speaker, instead tried to change the ethics rules so they didn't have to apply to him.

For that matter, we don't hear all that much about the Abramoff scandal, even though we are far from the bottom of the barrel of that bunch of bad apples. The main stream media tends to prefer sex and glitz to substance and they are easily distracted. Politicians know this, that's why the current administration is careful to release bad news they can't simply hide during busy news days or on Friday evenings.

Answer 3

It has been in the news. It was all over the Washington Post when they were conducting the sting and arresting him. However, there has been no new information since then so there is nothing to report on. There will be nothing to report on until it goes to trial.

Jefferson was a relatively weak Member of Congress anyway. He also did not appear on television talking about what a great job FEMA was doing when they were really not doing a great job.

Answer 4

This will be ignored until the trial and then it will not be front page news. I would not be surprised if the trial does not take place until after the 2008 elections. Write you congressmen for a update and force the issue. We need to do this more on issues that are important to us.

Answer 5

It is Representative Jefferson. Charges have been filed against him. In time he will have to go to trial. The news media will have to report on it.

Answer 6

I think there will be more coverage as it gets closer to trial.
And it just goes to show, there is corruption in both parties.