‘Mystery lawmaker’ in Jefferson case revealed.
‘Mystery lawmaker’ in Jefferson case revealed.
Buried in last week’s 16-count indictment of Rep. William Jefferson (D-LA), it describes how Jefferson introduced one of his alleged bribers to “a Member of the House Of Representatives, who was a prominent member of the Subcommittee on Telecommunications, Trade, and Consumer Protection, for the purpose of garnering support” for the briber’s company. Today, Roll Call has revealed that the “mystery lawmaker” is former Louisiana Rep. Billy Tauzin (R), who ended up penning a 2002 letter praising the company, iGate, Incorporated.
UPDATE: The Hill adds:
The choice by federal prosecutors not to name Tauzin in Jefferson’s indictment suggests that he is not a target of their investigation.
“You can be part of an overt act of a conspiracy, but not part of the conspiracy itself,” said Roscoe Howard, a former U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, when asked about the practice of not identifying individuals in charging documents.
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Jefferson needs to resign!!!
June 11th, 2007 at 1:32 pmAll the politicians in Lousiana are corrupt, so flush them all out including Jefferson and Sen. Landrieu too.
June 11th, 2007 at 1:33 pmTa-daaa!
(Yes, Jefferson should resign… but so many times the won’t. Remember the Torch? Kept vowing to run for re-election from his CELL…)
June 11th, 2007 at 1:34 pmEvidence of the bipartisanship of the corporate ethics of the DLC? maybe…
June 11th, 2007 at 1:43 pmWhat’s truly the news here?
a. There are corrupt democrats (Jefferson)?
b. There are corrupt republicans (Tauzin)?
c. The corrupt democrats and corrupt republicans are in cahoots?
The answer is obviously “c”, though many here will just use this as an excuse to throw mud across the aisle.
The lesson here, I believe, is that Americans need to stop electing corrupt scoundrels and needs to run the corrupt scoundrels out of town as soon as they are identified.
Or, you can stay in denial and just blame one team or the other, which seems to be the method of choice for most intellectually lazy Americans when they choose to do nothing.
June 11th, 2007 at 1:44 pmSo, are the hounds also on the hunt for Tauzin? The statute of limitations hasn’t run out on his possibly-illegal actions, have they? If Tauzin is implicated, it will be a black eye for the Blue Dogs, as he founded the organization.
June 11th, 2007 at 1:46 pm“All the politicians in Lousiana are corrupt…”
Comment by Jay Randal — June 11, 2007 @ 1:33 pm
I really wish you would stop making such generalizations.
What if I were to say, “everyone in Georgia is in the KKK?” Would you like to take exception to that?
June 11th, 2007 at 1:48 pmYes, Jefferson should resign, but it’s now obvious that he was led astray by the evil Republican.
/joking…or not?
June 11th, 2007 at 1:50 pmRoboTroll 3100 reports:
Wiliam Jefferson (D) is obviously corrupt and should resign.
If Nancy Pelosi (D) had any integrity, she would kick Jefferson out of Congress.
Billy Tauzin (R) is clearly the victim of The Criminalization of Politicsâ„¢ or else an Out-of-Control Prosecutorâ„¢.
June 11th, 2007 at 1:53 pmcorrupt greedy people—-you are heading for a needle eye/camel moment
June 11th, 2007 at 1:54 pmIf Nancy Pelosi (D) had any integrity, she would kick Jefferson out of Congress.
Uh, does Nancy have the authority to kick him out?
June 11th, 2007 at 1:55 pmOver and over, you hear the meme that the Democrats are just as corrupt as the Republicans. This is strange, since it’s easy to prove otherwise.
The most corrupt Presidential administration—before this one—was Ronald “Death Squad” Reagan’s, with more convictions and forced resignations BY FAR than any other administration in U.S. history.
The Reagan gang were the first in history to have over 100 their members charged with crimes. They were the first to have a sitting cabinet member indicted, the first to have an Assistant Secretary of State indicted, the first to have an Assistant Secretary of Defense sent to prison, etc., etc.. More members of the Reagan Administration were charged with crimes than the cumulative total of all other presidents in the twentieth century. Now that’s corruption!
Compare this sorry record with the much-maligned Clinton Administration. Despite all the sliming, the Clinton people wound up with fewer convictions and forced resignations than any two-term administration since Herbert Hoover.
The Reagan administration would sometimes rack up more convictions and forced resignations IN ONE DAY than the Clinton Administration managed in its entire eight years.
A look at corruption in Congress reveals a similar profile. In September, the Center For Responsibility And Ethics In Washington released its second annual survey of the twenty most corrupt members of Congress:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2006/09/20/20-most-corrupt-members-o_n_29863.html
The results are clear. 17 of the 20 most corrupt congress people were Republicans—quite a significant differential. If Democrats were equally corrupt, the numbers would tend to be equal.
June 11th, 2007 at 2:00 pmthe “iGate” caught my eye… a google search found lots, this in particular:
In the 1990s, Jefferson made a name for himself on Capitol Hill as an ardent promoter of Africa as a huge new market for trade and investment. In 2000, that caught the attention of Jackson, whose company, iGate Inc., sold technology to deliver high-speed Internet access over ordinary copper wires. Jefferson saw the technology as a way for poor West African countries to skip the huge investments needed to install fiber optic cables or wireless relay stations, court records show.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/04/AR2006060400816_2.html
at first, i was wondering if this igate was related to another
June 11th, 2007 at 2:05 pmspike in the attempt to attack NET NEUTRALITY …
not quite… maybe…
but i’m sure SOMEone’s toes were getting stepped on…
igate was a threat to the telecoms ?…
…
RoboTroll 3100 responds:
#11 The Republic of Stupidity: thank you for your input. Unfortunately, my transmissions follow the protocols and guidelines programmed into me at RNC Headquarters.
Please refer any further questions to that office.
Thank you.
June 11th, 2007 at 2:08 pmThe Republic of Stupidity sez:
No. Expulsion would require a two-thirds majority of the House voting in favor.
June 11th, 2007 at 2:09 pmNo. Expulsion would require a two-thirds majority of the House voting in favor.
Comment by TripMaster Monkey
Uh, riiiiight… that’s what I thought. Just checking to make sure I got my facts straight.
June 11th, 2007 at 2:17 pmGuilty or not, why does the media never mention that the $90K in the fridge was provided by the Feds?
June 11th, 2007 at 2:21 pmThe FBI claims they gave him $100,000, and that they recovered only $90,000 from the freezer.
Some people think Jefferson was running his own counter-sting and he has caught the FBI holding the missing $10,000.
June 11th, 2007 at 2:29 pmNo. Expulsion would require a two-thirds majority of the House voting in favor.
Comment by TripMaster Monkey
Uh, riiiiight… that’s what I thought. Just checking to make sure I got my facts straight.
Comment by The republic of Stupidity — June 11, 2007 @ 2:17 pm
Jeez, you guys. RoboTroll is only trying to do its job, and here you are wrecking a perfectly good talking point by harping on actual facts. Give a robotic troll a break, can’t ya?
June 11th, 2007 at 2:36 pmI’m sorry. I won’t do it again. A lifetime of bad habits is hard to break away from. I just like a little “fact” mixed in w/ my “pulped fiction”.
June 11th, 2007 at 2:39 pm“Birds of a feather”……Jefferson need to take a friggin hike NOW!!!!!!
June 11th, 2007 at 2:56 pmThey are both crooks, HOWEVER, notice the double standard between the two men. You have clear indication Tauzin acted in support of someone offering bribes, so where is his indictment? Where is all the mainstream media outrage and reporting about the Republican involved in the same scandal as Jefferson? And no, I’m not defending Jefferson in any way. I’m simply pointing out the total double standard in the reporting and Justice Department indictments.
June 11th, 2007 at 3:11 pmBienville post 7 > KKK is no longer in Georgia, but still big in Alabama. All of the GOPer politicians in Georgia are as corrupt as those in Louisiana. The big difference our Democrats here are pretty good, but in your state horrible, like Jefferson and Landrieu.
June 11th, 2007 at 11:46 pm