So this is draining the swamp, huh?

So trying to create trust in Congress means assigning accused criminals to one of the most sensitive positions in Congress, I guess. Blinky the Botox Queen has appointed William Jefferson to the House Homeland Security Committee. From The Hill’s Susan Crabtree and Jackie Kucinich;

In an interview with CNN’s Larry King, which aired Tuesday night, Pelosi said that after learning about the $90,000 Jefferson stashed in his freezer, she stripped him of his Ways and Means seat.
 
  “What I said to my colleague is, you have $90,000 in your freezer, whatever the explanation, you have a problem with me,” she told King.
 
  Pelosi then said she named Jefferson to the Homeland Security panel because it has jurisdiction over his storm-ravaged district and because the tax-writing panel deals with some of the business and financial issues involved in the allegations against him while the Homeland Security Committee does not.
 
  “But Mr. Jefferson’s district has been New Orleans, greatly affected by Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita. And the committee of jurisdiction there, Homeland Security, is an appropriate place for him to be,” she said. “But I removed him from the Ways and Means Committee, [which] had something to do with the accusations made against him. Homeland Security does not.”

Um, aren’t the agencies investigating his bribery case also under the aegis of Homeland Security, Nan?

At least Republicans are speaking up this time;

“You gotta wonder where Jefferson’s gonna store all those homeland security secrets,” said Rep. Patrick T. McHenry (N.C.), a deputy Republican whip. Other Republicans said Pelosi’s decision contradicted her promise to create “the most ethical Congress in history.” Said King: “It shows hypocrisy. Before the election, they made a big point of pulling him from Ways and Means and after the election, they put him on Homeland Security.”

Yeah, well, the election’s over and Democrats have saved their jobs one more time. In two years the mush-heads who voted for Democrats won’t care what happened two years ago.

A spokesman for Pelosi said she opted to place Jefferson on Homeland Security because the panel oversees the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Jefferson had been a vocal critic of FEMA’s performance during Hurricane Katrina, which affected thousands of his constituents.

Those dipshits in Louisiana don’t deserve representation; they keep sending the same incompetent morons and criminals back into the same offices that inflicted that 2005 mess on the area. At least Republicans are forcing Democrats to go on record with their vote;

“House Democrats and their leaders should immediately reconsider this baffling and troubling decision,” said Minority Leader John A. Boehner, Ohio Republican.
    “The Democrats previously determined Congressman Jefferson is unfit to serve on the Ways and Means Committee, which oversees the nation’s finances and trade, so it is difficult to comprehend how they can approve of Congressman Jefferson’s fitness for a seat on the Homeland Security Committee, with access to America’s most sensitive and closely guarded intelligence information,” Mr. Boehner said.
    The threat is likely to prompt Democrats to ratify Mr. Jefferson’s seat in a late-night voice vote, but a senior House Republican aide says Republicans will monitor floor proceedings day and night to block the unanimous-consent measure.

I just wish the FBI would hurry up and charge the guy, actually.

Category: Politics