Jefferson Violates U.S. House Ethics Rules, Just Days After Re-Election
By Christopher Tidmore
Last week, House Democrats were shocked to receive a letter from Congressman Bill Jefferson on his official Congressional stationery asking colleagues to donate money to help him retire his campaign debt. The letter, dated Dec. 29, 2006, began, "As you know, I recently won a grueling race for re-election. In order to get our message out and otherwise compete, we incurred over $200,000 in debt." "Therefore, Jefferson continued, "I would deeply appreciate it if you would assist me in retiring my debt by contributing $1,000 (or whatever amount you can afford) to my campaign." Unfortunately, the letter violated House ethics rules. Congressmen cannot use the franking privledge, free postage granted to every member of Congress for constituency services, to raise campaign dollars.
According to the Capital Hill newspaper Roll Call, "Some Democratic aides were downright aghast at Jefferson's audacity at using franked envelopes, official letterhead and the House internal mail service in a blatant violation of House rules. 'We were going to send him a check in a freezer bag,' joked one chief of staff to a Democratic Member of Congress who received Jefferson's solicitation." Another, only slightly snarkier, Democratic House chief of staff said, "He's got $90,000 in his freezer, why can't he buy some stationery and stamps?" Jefferson, who has not been indicted in the bribery scandal, sent out the letter by mistake, according to his office. His staff apparently meant to use campaign stationery, but instead used "Congress of the United States" letterhead, which, still lists Jefferson as a member of the House Ways and Means Committee. The Congressman was demoted to the Small Business Committee by now Speaker Nancy Pelosi four days after his re-election.
Jefferson's spokeswoman, Melanie Russell, said, "It was just a tremendous, tremendous staff error...We are contacting the appropriate committees to apologize and rectify the situation."
What an embarrassment-- and just think, this little snafu will pale in comparison to the bad press Jefferson will get when he is indicted this spring and eventually goes to trial, and damning testimony is aired, and he "honorably" refuses to heed calls for his resignation. If Dollar Bill thought his last campaign was "grueling", well, he'll have a whole new appreciation for the word after the next 18 months or so. And the media stormcloud which chronicles Jefferson's legal travails should help his district's recovery.... [Borat pause] .............. Not!
Well, like Cleo Fields says, "Public service does not mean perfect service."
