Culture of Corruption?Follow

Ok. Since apparently a Dem getting indicted doesn't provoke a response on this forum (and I've given it a couple weeks), what do you all think of Congressman William Jefferson and his indictment for bribery?

We're not talking about shifting money around from one campaign donation fund to another. We're not even talking about a "I'll scratch your back if you scratch mine" real estate deal. We're talking about bundles of cash in a freezer. Straight up money for favors. What does this do to the Dems promise to clean up Congress? How does this damage their position on the so-called "culture of corruption" issue?


Another interesting point. Why did this *not* become big news during the last election cycle (when it actually occured), but magically got delayed until about the best time possible for the Dems (late enough after the start of the year not to impact their "first X days" stuff, and early enough that it'll all have blown over for the election in a year and a half.

Ok. I find it interesting anyway. But then I'm already pretty convinced that most of the mainstream media essentially shill for the Dems already...

I currently have a running bet with my father that Jefferson will do about as much time as Scooter, (assuming Bush doesn't throw at out a pardon for some reason) maybe more. Pops doesn't think he's going to serve any time at all. To be honest, I'm worried about this one, I might have taken a sucker bet...

I feel it's already been established that most of the mainstream media tends to have a leftist leaning viewpoint. You;ve just got to accept that it's impossible to remove the human tendency to skew stories whichever direction the writer chooses (whether he consciously makes this choice or not).

It's nice knowing that big media has been somewhat relegated from the center of the news world by the internet though.

Can we agree that purchasing less then 500 grams of coke with the intent to "distribute" it to some friends at a party is nowhere near the level of "90 grand in the freezer" in terms of "things politicians shouldn't be doing"?


Hell. I almost died laughing when I read that article you linked. I'm not aware of any other case in which sharing drugs with some friends results in a "intent to distribute" charge. You can see that the book was thrown at him because he's a Republican, right? If this was a Dem, they'd have just sorta shrugged and remaked that he always did throw good parties...

Valid point. Except for two things:

1. Investigations of Dems for corruption outnumber those of Republicans by somethilg like a 3 to 1 margin.

2. Dems ran on a ticket of fighting against the "culture of corruption" that Republicans had created in Washington.

You want to compare the number of minutes of air time and/or lines of story the mainstream media has put into this as compared to say the Delay case (which was purely about corruption)? More intestingly *when* that time is devoted. There was literally more time devoted to Delay and his whole attempt to back out of the election in the months leading up to the election then Jefferson being caught taking bribes and with 90k in his freezer. That story was in the news literally one day, and then disappeared. The Delay thing dragged on for weeks, and that's just the time tossed in immediately before the election.


I'm deliberately leaving out the Foley mess, since you'd have a point about it being sensationalism. But then again, which is worse? A guy who it turns out didn't actually do anything inappropriate with anyone either underaged or employed in the Page program, but was gay? Or a guy who had 90k in his freezer? Hard to nail that one as a Rep vs Dem issue, but c'mon...


There's a huge double standard, not just in our legal system as it ends up being applied, but in the very manner and degree to which our media reports these things. It's pretty darn obvious. Unfortunately, those who *should* be poiting it out to you are the ones involved.


Oh. And Joph? Yeah. We had one thread that lasted a day or so. Which is about how long the story stayed on the news. Strange that...



Edited, Jun 20th 2007 7:43pm by gbaji

Or it shows that there wasn't much to say about it except "What a dipshit" and a brief discussion on the legality of the raid on his office.

If no one defends him, which no one did, there isn't much conflict to keep a thread going.

I'll say that, from the media, I know more about the Jefferson case than I knew about the Cunningham case in Ohio.

Gbaji, couldn't you have just condensed this all into one thread for me to not read?

Even the media isn't as overtly obvious as refusing to cover presidential impeachment + oral sex. Shocking.

I'm not sure that the people here are ready for level headed rationale, you should go.

I never quite understood why you (I.e all the major political commentators on the forum) even bring these thigs to notice, to find that a politicial ISN'T corrupt would be note worthy not the other way around.

Then you are utterly clueless and shouldn't even comment.

top tip: If you are caught with any drugs on you never under any circumstances say "I am just holding it for a friend." If you are planning to give any drugs in your possession to another person you are supplying.

Possesion of drugs will probably lead to a slap on the wrist.

Possesion with intent to supply is possible jailtime.

Most probably.