Cold money

At JSB we like to concede our elected officials a certain level of corruption. A couple hundred thousand dollars here or there is really nothing when compared to the cost of the war in Iraq. And the war in Iraq is really nothing when compared to the size of the national debt.

So we don't get too fired up when we learn a congressman named William Jefferson has been videotaped receiving 100,000 in 100 dollars bills from a FBI informant. Nor does it faze us to hear that when the FBI searched Jefferson's home they found said 100,000 dollars neatly stuffed in the congressman's freezer.

It should surprise no one that the representative hails from the state of Louisiana, and, taking into account the plot to defraud's low level of sophistication, no one who's been reading JSB should need more than one guess as to Jefferson's party affiliation.

We've argued before political malfeasance knows no party label -- It was telling that Republican Congressional leaders Bill Frist and Dennis Hasert jumped to the Democrat's defense, citing "constitutional issues" with the way the FBI handled the search.

But if Frist and Hasert had really wanted to aid their fellow politician they would have told him how the correct way to hide money from those pesky, constitution trampling Fed's would be the utilization of tools such as Swiss bank accounts, luxury boxes and Scottish golf vacations.

Money in the freezer? Come now.

Granted an ice box is larger than a bread box, but bills start taking up a lot of space once you get up in the six figures.

And where are you going to keep your steaks?

Democrats have been losing ground with the working man for decades. A good way to win him back would be to demonstrate their party representatives are not afraid of a little elbow-grease.

So next time there's a need to hide money, dig a ditch .

Democratic leaders are worried this episode will make it harder for them to paint the Republicans as the party of corruption in the 'O6 elections. That may well be, but they also still have a competence hurdle to climb in the opinion of this blogger.

But I'm willing to give them a chance, and will remain on the look for any and all evidence of effective Democratic corruption.