Yet Another Brain Trust Makes Things Worse

You've got to hand it to the Republicans: at least when they're involved in major bribery schemes, they're not this stupid about it. And their damage control is second to none. Thanks for the additional damage to the party, pal. (Bolds mine)

Congressman Caught on Tape, Documents Say

ALEXANDRIA, Va. - Allegedly scamming a Virginia businesswoman could prove to be a major mistake for a Democratic congressman from New Orleans.

The FBI revealed Sunday that Rep. William Jefferson, under investigation for bribery, was videotaped accepting $100,000 in $100 bills from an FBI informant whose conversations with the lawmaker also were recorded. Agents later found the cash hidden in his freezer, according to a court document released Sunday.

At one meeting captured on audiotape, Jefferson 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,'" he told the businesswoman, who was wearing an FBI recording device.

D'oh!!

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.

All but $10,000 was recovered on Aug. 3 when the FBI searched Jefferson's home in Washington. The money was stuffed in his freezer, wrapped in $10,000 packs and concealed in food containers and aluminum foil.

Two of Jefferson's associates have pleaded guilty to bribery-related charges in federal court in Alexandria. One, businessman Vernon Jackson of Louisville, Ky., admitted paying more than $400,000 in bribes to the lawmaker in exchange for his help securing business deals for Jackson's telecommunications company in Nigeria and other African countries.

Additional details are in the article... but here's the part that really annoys me:

The Jefferson investigation has provided some cover for Republicans who have suffered black eyes in the investigations of current and former GOP lawmakers, including Tom DeLay of Texas, the former majority leader.

Republican Randy "Duke" Cunningham of California, a Vietnam-era jetfighter ace, was sentenced in March to more than eight years in prison for accepting bribes on a scale unparalleled in the history of Congress.

So, in other words, this little scandal is equivalent to the DeLay money orgy. *sigh*

I'm not saying that what Jefferson did was right; if he's guilty (and at least from this article it sounds like he is), he should be punished. It's the equivalency that's bothering me. Democrats, the moment you're caught with your fingers in some dirty pies, the Republican party will be all over you like a bad suit. The Republican talking heads will be crowing about your wrongdoing and making sure to keep your name in the public mind. It doesn't really matter who you are or what you did, it's more important that people know that a Democrat is dirty.

Yes, the Republican party is innundated with crooks and liars. (sorry) Yes, their elected leaders, Bush, Rove, Cheney, Rummy, etc. are so incredibly horrible that it seems absurd that any American would ever trust the Republican party again. But the upcoming elections are not a slam dunk. If the Democrats seem as dirty as they are, they can easily snatch your landslide away from you using good 'ol Fear Of Brown People or pictures of two men kissing.

Get with the fucking program. They know the only way they're going to stay in power is by making you look as dirty as they are. Stop giving them ammo.

(There's always something there to cross-post me...)