It might not work as a campaign slogan, but it gets your attention.
Facing stiff competition in a runoff election just nine days away, Rep. William Jefferson (D-LA) has begun running an ad in which he asserts, “I have never taken a bribe from anyone.” Jefferson, under FBI investigation for taking bribes, is trying to hold onto his seat representing Louisiana’s 2nd District. But Democratic state Rep. Karen Carter is giving him a run for his money. No pun intended.
In the ad, Jefferson disputes Carter’s claim that he was videotaped by the FBI taking a bribe. “Her newspaper source got the facts wrong,” he says. You can watch the ad here:
Though the laundry list of damning quotes captured by FBI wiretaps do include such gems as “I make a deal for my children” and “I’m gonna get your deal out of the way… and I probably won’t last long after that,” we do have some sympathy for Jefferson here.
On the videotape to which Jefferson is referring, the FBI informant actually is captured giving Jefferson the briefcase filled with $100,000 in cash as an intended bribe for the Vice President of Nigeria — not Jefferson himself, so he does have a point.
Of course, despite the fact that Jefferson subsequently told the informant that he’d passed on the cash (which he cryptically referred to as “African art”) to Nigerian VP Atiku Abubakar as discussed, a FBI raid of Jefferson’s home found $90,000 of the intended bribe in Jefferson’s freezer.