Rep Renzi, You belong to the wrong political party. Your party will not stand beside you. They are dropping away from anyone who they think will effect their re election, hense $$$ signs. Ask Rep Jefferson how he handled his situation and maybe you'll come out OK.

Last time I checked, the FBI has a videotape of Democrat William Jefferson accepting a $100,000 bribe.

Why aren't you writing a story about how a Congressman who is caught on tape taking a bribe just won a seat on an important Congressional Committee?

Actual crime = Committee Seat
Accusation = Guilt

You guys wonder why you have no ratings.

As an Arizona resident Iam fed up
with crooked elected public officials turning out to be crooks
or kooks like Ric Renzi and Senator
Amensty John McCain and Jeff The
Flakey Flake all of whom are so
totally out of touch with reality
and the people that they and that
two face Jon Kyl all deserve to
thrown out of Congress as proof of
their incompetence and to end their
crooked dealings and corruption so
Arizona can prove the state is not
full of loser like these Republican
Politicians Disgraces to Arizona!

Bye Bye Ricki, it was fun while it
lasted.

Mayhap that if the good folk of AZ manage to clean up their political mess, the slower moving folk of Idaho will finally come awake and do the same...but I sure ain'ta gonna bet on either coming to pass!

I certainly hope the house cleaning doesn't end. Whether it be a Republican or Democrat......I don't care. I am neither. The scams, peddling influence, pork barrell projects all suggest the politicians behind the activities are dishonest. Seems to me I remember seeing something several years ago where one pork barrell project was in support of studying ketchup and the length of time it took to run out of the bottle, or something like that. (seriously!) I'm not smart enough to make that one up.

I have no idea if Rick Renzi is guitly of anything or not. I do know, however, that about 90% of everything written about politics these days is shot full of the author's political biases. I urge everyone to take a deep breath, sit back, and wait for some facts before making any judgments.

Right now, all you have are political hacks trying to spin rumor and innuendo into gold.

I just love the double standards in this country. If your Democratic William Jefferson who DID accepted a bribe (taped on video, money wrapped in foil found in the freezer of his house) is NOT asked to resign but is re-ELECTED???????????. If your Democratic crook your not guilty ‘until proven guilty’ in a court of law. But should you be a Republican crook, you’re GUILTY without the court of law. Period! Just listen to the liberal media; they’ll give you an ear of pure left wing blah blah. A Republican crook should resign while Democratic crook gets re-elected and is put on Ethics’ committee???? Doesn’t anyone else see a problem here? And Don’t’ you editors of this blog edit my statement as you have done in the past. Not to post my statement as is…makes me the Victim!

I don't know why it's taking so long for William Jefferson to be indicted, but I do know what I suspect. Given that the Republicans have held the levers of justice all this time, maybe they're leaving him hanging so they have somethign to use against the Democrats. As one GOP congressman after another after another after another gets caught, Republicans can hit back with "what about Jefferson"
?" Once Jefferson is finally gone, they have nothing to use against the Democrats. Well, don't give up guys. The US attorneys Gonzales didn't fire might be able to find another Georgia Thompson for you.

Why is it that conservative/republicans always defend their own by pointing to a liberal/democrat who did something wrong?

A crime is a crime. Period.

Unfortunately, it's similar to exposing a crooked cop; because members of the law enforcement community hold a special position of trust in society, when he or she commits a crime, it is all the more disturbing.

Likewise, when a member of a party that portrays itself to John and Jane America as the party of fiscal responsiblity and high moral standards is caught out in a scandal involving money, ethics and morality, they must expect to be held to a higher standard and harsher treatment.

The moral? If you live in a glass house...

This is a sad situation for America. But I find it ironic that when scandal includes sex and bribes, people get all up in the air and the news rooms start reporting with great enthusiasm. But a far greater scandal is that of the President of the United States along with Vice President Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowits,Richard Pearl and some others deliberately starting an illegal war against a country that was absolutely no threat to the United State, and yet some citizens just don't get it. 3,340 and counting American soldiers have died, between 355,000 and 655,000 inocent Iraqi civilians have died and the countless wounded, plus the contamination of water and land that will effect generations for decades to come. No one wants to talk impeachment. War crimes have been committed and there is absolutely no accountability. No criminal should be untouchable by the law no matter what office they hold. We are still a country of law!!

Rep. Rick Renzi (R-Ariz.) failed to disclose a $200,000 payment he received from a business partner in 2005 in apparent violation of House ethics rules. Prosecutors could use the omission as evidence that Renzi intended to conceal a transaction he knew to be controversial or even improper.

I know its almost impossible to have an honest government but if the people get more involved we could keep these animals on their toes and make sure they never get a second chance in their theft of our votes!
Renzi should not only resign and the Grand Jury should continue their investigation and indict him for all the stealing he is guilty of doing. HIs breaking the law as he accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes for his pay-to-play schemes! The $100,000. he accepted form the oil industries to protect them from being sued for contamionating our water with MTBE which causes cancer in little children. This alone should put him in jail for a long time. Then there are his votes to cut funds for the poor for paying their heating bills and cutting Medicare funding, and pushing to drill for an ounce of crude in the pristine lands of the ANWR. Yes Renzi needs to be indicted and sent to prison the same way Cunningham, Ney, Abramoff, Delay, and where Doolittle, Feeney, etc will be heading!

Does the name William Jefferson ring any bell?? Why is it when a Republican comes under scrutiny he is asked to resign?? The Democrats hang in there!! Remember Toricelli?? He was never asked to resign until the polls showed he was not going to win the election! The Republicans always kick out their own even before the verdict is in. Shame on them!!

Democrats are held to a different standard than the GOP.

Gee--if Renzi is claiming the money is "repayment of an old debt," then MANY "old debts" must have helped elect him.

He just should have put the money in the freezer. I think it's the best solution. But, we better get the White House-RNC emails before they find a freezer cold enough.

Another day, another crooked Republican. I used to be a fervent member of the G.O.P., but now I am embarrassed to admit that except in an anonymous forum like this one. Sad time for a once-great party. Time for a change!

Anything a politician does is geared toward acquiring and maintaining power. The next election is Job One.

There is no other goal for any politician. There's not a good one in a hundred.

I have been voting since I turned 21 in 1964, hardly ever missing. I am beginning to think it's a waste of time for one unfixable reason: there's hardly any difference from one politician to the next.

Shame on all who continue to say guilty before proven inocent.There is nothing on video tape here. Wait and see the facts, you do not know them.And did he really resign from all his committee? Or did someone do it for him?

I guess when people believe the benefit of the theft is worth the amount of risk, the benefit wins for many of these thieves. I think that going forward, there should no longer be "white collar" prisons. These people, if convicted, are felons and should be placed with other convicted felons. Maybe, just maybe then the risk will not be worth the benefit.

Okay, I'm a Democrat, and I hereby ask William Jefferson to resign. Are you out there Bill? Now, can Republicans respond to revelations of Republican wrongdoing with something other than, "Oh yeah, what about Jefferson?"

To "whataboutjefferson" your post should read DEMOCRAT+guilty=committee seat, REPUBLICAN+accussation=guilt. Donald you can ask William Jefferson to resign all you want but, as long as your democratic leaders think that a man with a freezer full of marked bribe money deserves to be an a top secret intellegence committee something is terriblly wrong. Especially when they do not think him compitence to sit on a committee governing taxation and then place him on a highly sensitive committee handling top secret and national defense issues.

What the liberals have chosen to conveniently ignore is that when Republicans do wrong, they are ostracized and left to prosecution if applicable, whereas, liberals circle the wagons and slay the accusers. Dianne Feinstein, for example, has yet to face any implications from the Justice Department, the Ethics Committee or the press (take note, ABC) for obvious influence peddling! She should not only resign, she should be indicted.
And I am certain that there is much more out there than, "What about Jefferson?" Ex: Kennedy, Byrd, Burger and on and on and on....

I suspect we will be having a headline on Diane Feinstein very soon, I mean come on 200K made against her husband and her making millions upon millions. When will the MSM start to tell the real news that covers all parties instead of the delight you take in hitting the Republicans. I also would ask do you really think the American public does not recognize your hypocrisy?

As an independent voter I feel congressional corruption is both endemic and ubiquitous. Anyone voter who approaches corruption from a party oriented standpoint is a disgrace to those of us who vote for principle and character over partisan pettiness. Renzi has been backed from the beginning by big money, real estate, and corporate interests. He outspent all other candidates in his electioneering and was never a champion for the people of Arizona. I for one, would not be upset over his departure. While he may not be the worst of the worst the people of this state could do far better!

William Jefferson would have had charges brought against him by now if there was any way possible to do so. Could it have been a set up by the republican party in LA. Jefferson was reelected and is serving in a very positive way for his state. So if and until things change, he is doing his job and no one is bringing charges against him. So there!!

I quess the 1.5 BILLION Dianne Fienstein directed towards her husbands business is small change? Wonder why the 4th estate does not consider that worth headlines? Maybe there too busy trying to get the Dems elected next year?

Everyone thinks we are playing a game, and the people have chosen sides. Here is how the game stands.
Dems: Draw
Reps: Draw
This Country: LOSER
I hope that the games will be over soon and that we still have a country to call our own.

Well, I suppose he is NOT in the wrong political party. He was in the party of his choice and it as his constituency that voted him in. Don't pass him over to us. He's but one of your many problems.