This weekend, New Orleans Representative William Jefferson (D) lost a bid for a tenth term in Congress. About time. I wrote last month he was one of eleven Congressmen running for election while under investigation. He’s now the second name to drop off that list, with Uncle Ted Stevens being the first. Jefferson, of course, was found hiding $90,000 of cash in his freezer.
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) list their report of the 20 most corrupt members of Congress. Here they are:
- Rep. Vern Buchanan (R-FL)
- Rep. Ken Calvert (R-CA)
- Rep. John T. Doolittle* (R-CA)
- Rep. Tom Feeney* (R-FL)
- Rep. Vito J. Fossella* (R-NY)
- Rep. William J. Jefferson* (D-LA)
- Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA)
- Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-CA)
- Rep. Daniel Lipinski (D-IL)
- Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY)
- Rep. Gary G. Miller (R-CA)
- Rep. Alan B. Mollohan (D-WV)
- Rep. Timothy F. Murphy (R-PA)
- Rep. John P. Murtha (D-PA)
- Rep. Steve Pearce* (R-NM)
- Rep. Charles B. Rangel (D-NY)
- Rep. Rick Renzi* (R-AZ)
- Rep. Harold Rogers (R-KY)
- Sen. Ted Stevens* (R-AK)
- Rep. Don Young (R-AK)
*Doolittle, Fossella, and Renzi retired; Pearce lost a Senate bid; and Feeney, Jefferson, and Stevens were defeated in their reelection bids.
Looks like with these deletions, we’ll be adding some more names to this list (or could it be that these were the only corrupt Congressmembers and there are no more to add to the list? Yeah, right, sadly). I was going to write we can now add NY Rep. Charlie Rangel to the list, but he’s already on there.
