Home > Congressman Jefferson Must Resign

Congressman Jefferson Must Resign

by Open-Publishing - Thursday 15 September 2005
7 comments

Governments Catastrophes USA

Editorial/Op-Ed

by Jennifer Monroe

NEW ORLEANS, LA — (OfficialWire) — 09/15/05 — On September 2-five days after Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast - Congressman William Jefferson (shown here), who represents New Orleans and is a senior member of the powerful Ways and Means Committee, asked the National Guard that night to take him on a tour of the flooded portions of his congressional district. A five-ton military truck and a half dozen military police were dispatched.

According to Lt. Col. Pete Schneider of the Louisiana National Guard, during the tour, Jefferson asked that the truck take him to his home on Marengo Street. According to Schneider, this was not part of Jefferson’s initial request.

While many of Jefferson’s constituents and fellow-citizens were dying, the water unfortunately reached to the third step of the Congressman’s house and so the vehicle pulled up onto the front lawn of his home so he wouldn’t have to walk in the water. The eight-term Democratic congressman then went into the house alone, while the soldiers waited on the porch for about an hour.

According to an ABC News report, Jefferson emerged with a laptop computer, three suitcases, and a box about the size of a small refrigerator, which the enlisted men loaded up into the truck.

Jefferson must resign immediately. There is simply no excuse for any elected official to have used public resources (intended to save lives), to retrieve personal possessions, while people he is supposed to represent suffered and died.

– http://news.baou.com/main.php?actio...

Forum posts

  • If the congressman should resign over this, then it follows that we should lynch Bush from a tree on the White house lawn......things being equal and all.

    • Sounds like a good idea to me. Anyone got a rope handy?

    • Oh I agree. That man should have been taken out of office a long time ago. While I am clearly not a Republican, I level blame evenly regardless of political party. I think Bush should face criminal charges for what he has done.

    • Glad to see politicians are as highly regarded in the States as here in USS Great Britain. There was a recent poll that revealed people are much more likely to disbelieve politicians than any other person -even lawyers and Estate agents.

      Correct me if I’m wrong but is this because they’re all a bunch of lying cnuts ?

  • Congress has clearly become the body that represents BIG BUSINESS and not the people. One would be doing well to find a couple of honest representatives in America. Congress has shown over the last 20 years (blatantly the last 10 years) that the people come last and that they don’t represent the will of the people. Congress is as responsible for the probelms that America is experiencing as is the President and his cabinet.

    • I don’t think this congressman should resign or be forced out. Sure, what he did was not exactly right, but he wasted only an hour of the rescuers’ time, not days. A heartfelt apology would be in order, or at least an explanation. Surely many of us in his position would have done the same - get some needed things from his house.

      As for the president, FEMA, the Congress, most state and local officials - a more worthless bunch of opportunists I have never seen in my life. Cut their pay in half and maybe they’ll resign. Stop voting at all and protect your self-interest. Make officials, politicians and the media aware that your contempt for the government and our hopelessly corrupt election process is absolute.

      Save cash, buy gold. Resist.

    • It required 2 trucks with their crew, a hellecopter and numerous others---he was in his house almost one hour but how long did it take to get there and get back