Ah, Dollar Bill, We Hardly Knew Ye’
One of the continuing mysteries of American politics is how William “Dollar Bill” Jefferson managed to keep holding on to his Congressional seat in Louisiana’s second district. After investigators located tens of thousands of dollars, neatly wrapped in tin foil, taking the place of burgers and steaks in his freezer, one might think Bill would have been shown the door. The Democrats took away some of his committee seats, but he remained in the lower chamber. Well, yesterday it seems that the good voters of his district decided that enough was enough.
(CNN) — Nine-term Democratic Rep. William Jefferson, who has been battling scandals and a federal indictment for the past three years, lost his bid for re-election on Saturday.
Republican challenger Anh “Joseph” Cao, an attorney and community organizer, defeated Jefferson in the 2nd Congressional district race. He will become the first Vietnamese-American elected to Congress.
With 100 percent of precincts reporting, Cao had almost 50 percent of the vote to Jefferson’s 47 percent.
Perhaps we truly are living in a post-racial, post partisan age. Jefferson’s district is heavily African-American and leans Democratic by a significant margin. Still, they chose to oust the embarrassing Dollar Bill and bring in a Vietnamese-American Republican and give that a try. Well done, Louisiana. You have closed the book on a nasty chapter of your history and chosen to move forward with a hopefully increased amount of integrity and pride.
Here’s a brief look at what some other pundits have to say on the subject.
Strangely enough, Patrick Ruffini sees this as a sign that Republicans can be competitive in all 435 districts.
Ed Driscoll doesn’t seem terribly interested in a post-racial society, but will take a win in the GOP column any day of the week.
So electing a Republican who mercifully escaped Vietnam after American liberals of the 1970s left the nation to be slaughtered by the Vietcong and who ousted one of the most infamously corrupt Democrats of recent years counts as a “more progressive New Orleans”?
Hey, fine with me! It’s rare that the Times sees a move to the right as progress, but I’ll take it.
Down With Tyranny provides the Democratic take.
Democrats are getting a good lesson from Anh Cao, a Republican attorney. In light turnout the overwhelmingly Democratic district– with a PVI of D+28– is telling Democrats that forced to pick between an honest moderate Republican and a crooked moderate Democrat, they’re going for the Republican. Things could change but right now, with 391 precincts reporting (out of 492), Jefferson is having his head handed to him. Cao is an anti-choice fanatic.
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12 Responses to “Ah, Dollar Bill, We Hardly Knew Ye’”
Mr. Cao will end up being a one term rep. who will quickly be voted out of office in two years when the Democrats can find themselves a black candidate who was not caught with $90K in his refrigerator. If Jefferson is acquited in the next year or two, he will certainly be returned to office in two years.
If it was not for LA odd voting laws and are meant to keep blacks from winning so many elections, Rep. Jefferson could have been returned to office.
SD- Don't you think the same thing happens in conservative districts when THEY are caught in a web of corruption?
If Sen Stevens was acquitted and young enough to run in 2014 he would win back his Senate seat in a landslide.
You should be congratulating N.O. residents in a black liberal district for looking beyond race and ideology.
Louisiana's “odd voting laws”? The guy flat out LOST, and you're blaming racism? If it weren't for racism, the presidential election would have been McCain defeating Clinton.
The main thing that differentiates LA voting rules is the runoff on elections that don't provide a 50%+ winner. That is more fair than having a Nader or Perot skew the election.
Besides, while there is racsim in Louisiana (as there is everywhere), the current trend in LA in the past decade has shown far more abuse of power among black politicians.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddie_Jordan_(atto…)
http://www.wwltv.com/topstories/stories/wwl1001…
So whine and complain and blame racism, but it is more demeaning to blacks to say that they're so pathetically racist that they will vote for a black crook over any non-black.
[...] first thoughts about Jefferson’s defeat? Obviously mine are good riddens, not so obvious with Republcan brain trust Ed Driscol, So electing a Republican who mercifully escaped Vietnam after American liberals of the 1970s left [...]
[...] Jazz Shaw congratulates New Orleans: Perhaps we truly are living in a post-racial, post partisan age. Jefferson’s district is heavily African-American and leans Democratic by a significant margin. Still, they chose to oust the embarrassing Dollar Bill and bring in a Vietnamese-American Republican and give that a try. Well done, Louisiana. You have closed the book on a nasty chapter of your history and chosen to move forward with a hopefully increased amount of integrity and pride. [...]
tigerclaw
A majority of blacks did vote for the black crook. It was the 25% of the district that is not black that showed up for a run off election and voted out the black crook by a very slim margin. The other Congressional run off election in LA had over 4 times the voter turn out.
[...] Michelle Malkin, The Next Right, Outside The Beltway, RedState, The Moderate Voice, Wizbang, Fausta’s Blog, Betsy’s Page, NewsBusters.org, protein wisdom,Townhall.com, [...]
“The prospect of a serious general election in the majority African-American and heavily Democratic 2nd district was all the more startling in that the last Republican to represent the district was Hamilton D. Coleman, who left the office in 1891.”
Tha'ts pretty amazing.
Also race, religion and corruption is pretty weird in Louisiana and whenever people comment on it nationally they normally miss the boat completely. Even political affiliation there is very fluid.
Look at his bio he's a civil rights attorney and “community organizer” for gosh sakes. The governor Jindal is pretty similar and really the binding thread between the two and why they can get elected as Republicans is that they are extremely religious. Otherwise on policy they are pretty much like the DLC.
Regardless, that doesn't make La's laws odd or biased against blacks. Besides, shame on anyone who values a person's skin color over their integrity. New Orleans is a political anarchy due to that mentality.
Note the loonier lefty critics — “choice” [sic] instead of “abortion.”
Because this guy is a Republican and isn't textbook loyal-Dem-minority material, he'll be ignored by most of the Left and hated (as we already see) by the loonier fringe. He's not a _real_ minority because he's not a _Democrat_ and he isn't properly liberal.
Of course the “racism” claim will be made if the Dem loses, even if he took some money out of his freezer and gave it to people to get them to vote in the traditional Dem multiple-vote tradition to make up for those who didn't make it to the polls.
OK…I admit that this news made me happy.
Look the major thing is that this shows blacks will vote against one of their own if he's seen as corrupt and unable to adequately represent his district. I see that as progress.
Doesn't anyone remember that the congressional GOP wanted Foley to run again even after it was known that there were concerns about his relationship with underage pages? That Tom DeLay was re-elected even after it was evident he was mired in corruption? That is just politics as usual. I am partisan, but not enough to vote for a corrupt official— so this makes me happy too.