Saturday, December 9, 2006

He's a crook, but he's our crook

Even though the elections occurred last month, and the run off is between two Democrats, so no party change potential, my old Congressman "Dollar Bill" Jefferson has been re-elected. To recap, he is a New Orleans politician, so not what you'd call honest. During Katrina, he borrowed National Guard troops to secure his belongings, which is not crooked, but an abuse of power. More recently, he has been caught with $90,000.00 in his freezer, and was the only Congressman in Louisiana not elected with a majority last month. Today was the run off, and he was just declared the winner. The funny thing is that his opponent Karen Carter was more liberal, and he is essentially a moderate that Michael Moore lambasted, which is always a plus, but he's a crook who got caught with 90 grand in marked bills, and he's been stripped of seniority by Pelosi and the Democratic Caucus. Well, I guess voters in New Orleans decided to repeat the 1991 Gubernatorial election and voted for the crook. I guess the crooked politician you know is better than the one you don't know.

6 comments:

Mr. Smarterthanyou said...

Or it is just black racism. A large segment of black society would rather vote for a black crook than a undetermined white person.

Same sort of tribalism that is wrecking the ME.

Blacks are not the only guilty ones, we can look to Catholics voting for Kennedys, or Irish voting for Irish a century ago.

Red Tulips said...

I hate to say I agree with Smarty here...but I actually think I agree with Smarty and do think this is an example of black racism. Heh.

Thomas Forsyth said...

Karen Carter is also black. Both candidates are Democarts. Jefferson is a Clintonian New Democrat in many ways and he generally appeals to white voters by not being a "progressive" like say Cynthia McKinney, Maxine Waters, or Major Owens.

Incumbency is a very powerful thing in Louisiana and rarely is an incumbent defeated, with a few exceptions (one is the horribly embarrasing 1991 Governor's race and the other was a vote-based purge of crooked state Senators and it still required run offs to defeat them).

As for race, in the New Orleans mayor's run off election, conservative black Democrat Ray Nagin (he was a registered Republican until he ran for Mayor)won the white vote, while more liberal (but to the right of Kerry or the bloated tick) Democrat Mitch Landrieu had slightly more black votes than Nagin, but not enough obviously to win.

Well, the irony with Catholics voting for Kennedy is that he downplayed his religious views and generally frustrated the Catholic hierarchy. Actually, Reagan (who's father was Catholic, but was raised a "Disciple of Christ", a very blah faith) did more for Catholics and established an Ambassador to the Vatican. He was also the first Republican to win a majority of Catholic voters.

BTW, I wonder how many New Orleans politicians are honest..well of course the ones who graduated from my HS are ;)

Mr. Smarterthanyou said...

Wow. If they are both black, why on earth would they vote for the crook? Did he promise more welfare?

Red Tulips said...

I recant what I said earlier, Thomas.

Politics are an utter joke. I believe this guy was voted in just for being an incumbant. Devil you know.

Thomas Forsyth said...

SmarterthanJimmyCarter> Dude!! Jefferson won, because of his incumbency and for being to the right of Karen Carter. Michael Moore considers Bill Jefferson a disloyal Democrat. You completely got it wrong.

Red Tulips> This is Louisiana, and devil you know was the theme of the 1991 Governor's race, along with "vote for the crook". Nice to know we are consistent :)