Until meaningful ethics reforms occur, our government will not act in the interest of the people. 

I agree in your call to remove Jefferson if he doesn't step down.  You did work hard to defeat Republicans.  Too hard for crooks like Jefferson to ruin it.

I agree completely.  As one who hails from New Orleans and has been embarrassed in recent years by the street crime and corruption of my former hometown, Jefferson epitomizes everything that's wrong in New Orleans.  He's a disgrace to his city and to the Democratic Party.  If he won't go willingly, then he should be expelled immediately, if not sooner. 

Look, there has always been corruption in politics and there is always going to be corruption in politics.  The difference between Jefferson and all the GOP corruption cases is that Jefferson is an INDIVIDUAL congressman who accepted bribes.  The GOP corruption (which keeps going, by the way, now evident in the U.S. attorneys scandal) is SYSTEMIC.  It comes from the top -- whether that be in the majority leadership of the last Congress or in the Attorneys General Office, or a lobbyist like Abramoff, whose tentacles reached everywhere in DC, all the way to Karl Rove and the use of USAs to manufacture a "voter fraud epidemic" which didn't exist, thereby causing voter suppression of Democratic voters (even soldiers in Iraq).  Rove also fired USAs who DID prosecute corrupt GOP politicians and USAs who REFUSED to bring about bogus voter fraud cases or RUSH corruption cases against Democrats.  We are still suffering one of the most corrupt eras in our history, and until the Bush White House is no longer, the GOP corruption won't be either.

We knew about Jefferson BEFORE the 2006 election, but Nancy Pelosi was very clear that this would NOT be tolerated.  However, there is a process for this, and I am assuming that now that charges have been brought against him, he will soon be gone.

I had to chuckle yesterday when Red State used this case to somehow infer that the Democratic leadership is as corrupt as the previous GOP one.  How quickly spinmeisters forget that it was, in fact, Dennis Hastert who blasted the FBI for raiding Jefferson's office.  I guess the Republicans were worried, being guilty themselves, of having THEIR offices raided.

Not every Republican member of the US House was using their position of authority to seduce and corrupt minors serving in the House as pages.  But it was known to be happening by leaders in the House Republican Caucus, and it was ignored and shushed up.  The American public was understandably furious.

When Jefferson was revealed to be under investigation, Pelosi sent a letter to Jefferson to demand he resign his committee positions, which Jefferson flatly refused.  I remember Pelosi taking the initiative on this, but I don't know if the public memory stretches back that far.  While it might generally set a bad precedent to demand a resignation of anyone indicted for a crime, I think we can safely assume that anyone who keeps bundles of cash in a lasagna tray in his freezer is up to no good.

Jefferson should resign by the end of the day, or the House should schedule a vote to expel him.  We can always find another democrat to fill that seat in a special election.