William Jefferson

I supppose I should say what ought to be obvious. If the bribery allegations against William Jefferson -- a Democratic congressman from Louisiana -- are true, then he deserves something worse than removal from office. Something worse than jail time. He deserves to be kept in a public stockade and spat upon by every decent Democrat. And the same fate should await any other Dem who asks for or receives a bribe.

Especially now. We are trying to make the case that the Republican party is the party of corruption. Meanwhile, the G.O.P. spin machine has fallen back on the "everyone does it" line. The rightwingers keep repeating their Big Lie about Democratic involvement in the Abramoff scandal, even though Jack Abramoff paid nothing to any Democratic causes. That lie has been heard so often, a large segment of the American population has come to believe it, despite the total lack of evidence.

And now we have these ghastly stories about William Jefferson. Although the allegations against him seem small in comparison with the charges brought against Cunningham and his comrades, Jefferson's crimes -- if and when they are proven to be crimes -- add to the wrongheaded perception that political perfidy crosses party lines on a roughly equivalent basis.

If Jefferson cannot offer a real good explanation real damn fast, he must go.