Nancy Pelosi to Appoint William Jefferson to Homeland Security?

William 'Dollar Bill' Jefferson, the Democratic Louisiana Congressman allegedly found with $90,000 in alleged bribery money stuffed in his freezer, has not only thus far escaped significant punishment… he is set to serve a key House committee position.  House Democrats, led by Speaker Nancy Pelosi, reportedly are planning to appoint Jefferson to a seat on the Homeland Security Committee. 

Nancy Pelosi to Appoint William Jefferson to Homeland Security Post

“This is a terrible mistake by the Democratic leadership, to take someone with serious ethical allegations against him and put him on one of the most sensitive and important committees in Congress," said Rep. Peter T. King (N.Y.) in a Washington Post article.

Obviously, Speaker Pelosi has a concern or two about Jefferson’s unethical past as she removed him from the House Ways and Means Committee in June after the bribery money was discovered by FBI agents in his home.  (Jefferson allegedly was given the money after brokering a corrupt deal with a Nigerian communications company.)  After losing his seat on the Committee, however, Jefferson faced no further consequences or charges.

The Speaker of the House, after a lot of talk about cleaning up a corrupt Capitol Hill, is failing to live up to her word.  She vowed to clean up corruption, but supported scandal-ridden John Murtha as House Majority Leader and even considered placing the impeached and indebted Alcee Hastings as the Chairmanship of the House Select Committee (she backed away from Hastings after intense Judicial Watch and other public pressure).  She also promised to end abuses of power by the majority party in the House, but demanded a taxpayer funded military luxury jet to shuttle her between D.C. and her San Francisco district.  All this smacks a bit of hypocrisy, don’t you think?

Tom Fitton is President of Judicial Watch, a nonpartisan educational foundation that fights government corruption.