RSSHow the Mighty Have Fallen
Gene Lalor | November 17, 2009
Dynasties, much like indigestion or honesty in the Obama administration, tend to come and go.
Egypt recorded no fewer than 31 dynasties, China a paltry 13, and even Somalia, Tonga, Myanmar, and dozens of other nations and regions have weighed in with their minimalist dynastic periods.
The United States, by virtue of our democratic republican form of government and sense of political values, has always looked askance at the concept of one family exercising prolonged rule, except maybe on the local level of late.
What some call America’s first family and others call America’s royalty, the Kennedys, epitomized by patriarch Joe and his three sons, 
are the closest we’ve come to anything approximating a national dynasty with various members in politics countrywide.
The Clintons would love to follow suit but needed more progeny, and more class, to get anywhere, dynastic-wise.
A local dynasty founded by former Democratic Congressman William Jennings Jefferson rose out out of the New Orleans Bayou to become a Jeffersonian dynasty which recently has met its Waterloo on the Bayou.
That Jeffersonian Dynasty was never much of a dynasty by Egyptian and Chinese standards, enduring a quarter century and encompassing just five individuals, all of whom are in various stages of disrepute and/or in process of being toppled.
Outside Louisiana, few noticed or cared about its rise to power and although its ongoing collapse has attracted more attention, that crumbling was less than Earth-shattering, except to the Jeffersonians themselves.
As one observer commented in an article, “How a Political Dynasty Fell into Disgrace,” it “rose from humble beginnings and showed some of the best aspects of American politics, but ultimately the worst: “power for power’s sake, power for personal gain.”
That observation is very charitable.
The Jefferson Dynasty Rogues’ Gallery:
William J. Jefferson: The grand old man of the clan, who isn’t very old at 62, was caught with his hand in the cookie jar, more precisely with some of his huge ill-gotten bribes secreted in frozen food containers inside his congressional office freezer, was busted in 2006.
After the House closed bi-partisan ranks to condemn that invasion of Congress’ citadel to no avail, and after the usual charges of a race-motivated persecution, Jefferson was finally convicted of 11 counts of corruption and sentenced to 11 years in a federal slammer.
Apparently, dynastic nuts don’t usually fall far from dynastic trees and with the sticky-fingered Jefferson extended family it seems a genetic trait.
Andrea and Mose Jefferson: Respectively, Bill’s wife and brother, were named as “inindicted co-conpirators” in husband and brother Bill’s multi-million dollar bribery scams. They probably won’t do time but will have to live with the ignominy of it all.
Alan Green: Bill’s brother-in-law and a Louisiana state judge “was convicted of bribery in 2006 and sentenced to 51 months in prison as part of Operation Wrinkled Robe, a wide FBI probe into judicial corruption at the Jefferson Parish Courthouse.”
Betty Jefferson, Brenda Jefferson, Angela Coleman, and Mose (again): Bill’s sisters, niece and brother await trial “on [dastardly] charges of skimming more than $600,000 from three charities they controlled.”
Jalilah Jefferson-Bullock and State Rep Renee Gill-Pratt: Bill’s youngest daughter and Mose’s girlfriend are accused of having, also dastardly, “steered millions of dollars over the course of a decade or so to the three charities in question.”
The family that steals together either squeals together or goes to prison together.
Dynasties just aren’t what they used to be.
Instead of simply wielding repressive power, the Jeffersons of the Bayou chose also to rip off their own people and use the proceeds to send Bill Jefferson’s girls to the country’s most prestigious and expensive colleges, all on the backs of ignorant taxpayers.
As the aforementioned article concludes, ”The [William Jefferson] political dynasty is not only dead, but you need a scorecard to track who in the family is off to prison and who is awaiting trial.”
This is the way a corrupt dynasty ends, not with a whimper but with a big thud.
Bill will be out before he’s 73 with more than enough time to re-establish his bribery empire before he moves on to that great congress in the sky.
Contributor's website: http://www.genelalor.com/
Content posted by users from other sites is posted for commentary and news purposes under fair use and each author is responsible for their own postings and a particular posting should not be construed as being endorsed by this site or its owner.
Leave a Reply
Loading ...Recommended Reading:
