I would like to congratulate Representative William Jefferson (D-LA) for his outstanding contribution to the Democratic party’s grand strategy to unseat the Republicans in the November elections. Singlehandedly, the New Orleans Democrat has simplified the Dems message enormously, allowing them to drop one of their major selling points – the corruption of Republicans – so that they can concentrate on their other equally fallacious talking points: “We’re not Republicans,” and “Did I mention we’re not Republicans?”

As for Jefferson, you may recall the last time the Louisiana Democrat was in the news. He shanghaied some National Guard troops who were in the process of trying to bring order to New Orleans and ordered them to take him to his house so that he could gather a few possessions.

“I did not seek the use of military assets to help me get around my city,” Jefferson told ABC News. “There was shooting going on. There was sniping going on. They thought I should be escorted by some military guards, both to the convention center, the Superdome and uptown.”

The water reached to the third step of Jefferson’s house, a military source familiar with the incident told ABC News, and the vehicle pulled up onto Jefferson’s front lawn so he wouldn’t have to walk in the water. Jefferson went into the house alone, the source says, while the soldiers waited on the porch for about an hour.

Finally, according to the source, Jefferson emerged with a laptop computer, three suitcases, and a box about the size of a small refrigerator, which the enlisted men loaded up into the truck.

Kind of makes you wonder what was in those suitcases after reading this from the AP about how Congressman Jefferson has been caught on tape with his hand in the cookie jar:

As for the $100,000, the government says Jefferson got the money in a leather briefcase last July 30 at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Arlington. The plan was for the lawmaker to use the cash to bribe a high-ranking Nigerian official the name is blacked out in the court document to ensure the success of a business deal in that country, the affidavit said.

All but $10,000 was recovered on Aug. 3 when the FBI searched Jefferson’s home in Washington. The money was stuffed in his freezer, wrapped in $10,000 packs and concealed in food containers and aluminum foil.

Needless to say, the Democrats are probably going to back into their majority as the Republicans in Congress continue to prove their stupidity. In fact, if I were a Democrat I would send Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, Ted Kennedy, and most of the high profile party members who appear regularly on national television some super glue so that they don’t forget to keep their mouths shut. Every time one of those worthies opens their yap they cost their party 50,000 votes.

I frankly don’t know what the answer is to political corruption. The problem isn’t that its more prevalent today than it used to be. I’m not sure that’s the case. It’s the sheer brazenness of it. Representative Cunningham and his “menu” of bribes. Abramhoff and his shameless hustling, legally bribing Congressmen with trips, meals, golf outings, and other perks. It’s almost as if these people are daring someone to catch them stealing money. It’s pathetic.

Public financing is not the answer although I’m terrified that since it’s the easy way, that’s what we’ll end up with. Public financing will make it even more difficult for a challenger to unseat an incumbent.

Term limits are unconstitutional. And if they’re not, they should be. We already have term limits – it’s called election day. I find it repulsive that people are willing to retire someone else’s Congressman and not take responsibility for their own. And if you think congressional staffs have too much power now, just wait until they get to break in some new guy every 6 or 8 years. It is a congressman’s staff, by the way, that most often meets with lobbyists and representatives of pressure groups. And there’s no law against “bribing” them (with obvious caveats) to put in a good word for some lobbyist’s pet project or bill.

The problem is incumbency, yes – but term limits are not the way to fix it. The fix is making the races more competitive.

These days, the political parties have become so adept at redrawing congressional districts that they can draw a district that makes it nearly impossible to defeat the incumbents – Democrat or Republican. And while their redistricting maps must pass certain legal tests to make sure they don’t dilute the black or hispanic vote, there usually is no reason to try and game the system that way.

This is because we Americans are pretty transparent about our voting preferences. You might be surprised to find out that Republicans tend to gather in the same neighborhoods, towns, and zip codes as do Democrats. The demographers who work with the parties to draw the lines have at their disposal literally thousands of pertinent statistics courtesy of the US Census Bureau. Hyper accurate surveys of household income, religion, race, education level, combined with the historical results precinct by precinct including turnout percentage, party affiliation (in states where it is listed), percent of voters registered, and other telling information are all entered into the matrix and after the computer chews on it a while, out comes your map, guaranteeing 92% of incumbents will win re-election.

We can’t go back to “at large” elections. The Supreme Court ruled those unconstitutional because they discriminated against minority representation. But that was back in the 1960’s and 1970’s when a black man in the south couldn’t get elected dog catcher if a majority of whites were voting. Yesterday, we saw Mayor Ray Nagin get re-elected largely as a result of white voters abandoning someone of their own race to vote for a black man. For someone who remembers the Freedom Riders, this truly is remarkable (even though I think Nagin is an incompetent boob.)

Have we come far enough in our development as a nation to attempt some kind of electoral reform that would allow generally for at-large elections of Congressmen? I personally think that this could be part of an answer along with computer programs drawing Congressional districts based solely on population disbursement. Politicians wouldn’t like it which is why it would take a grass roots movement of unusual size and energy to pull it off.

One thing is for sure. Unless Congress is able to start policing itself, the people will do it for them.