Jefferson is marginal (because he's eminently explicable - for reasons that really don't need spelling out); Mollohan is huge.

Let's suppose Mollohan is completely exonerated.

The question still remains, What did Pelosi know (or suspect), and when did she know (or suspect) it?

The inference that folks will draw (with a little GOP help, I shouldn't be surprised!) from her heroic efforts in support of the ethics truce is that she suspected Mollohan was dirty, and, just in case, wanted to keep any GOP complaints about him off the table.

So the ethics truce had to be preserved at all costs.

There was also the matter of the Ethics Committee staffing brouhaha; to what extent was that a means of putting a spoke in the Committee's wheel to ensure that, truce or not truce, Mollohan would not be facing any ethics complaint?

Even if the extent of the House Dems' exposure on ethics stops there - and we've no assurance that it does - that would be reason enough for them not to have embarked on the honest government tack.

primary him already.

Don't limit it to Pelosi.
Roll Call 5/4

House Democrats will not publicly call on Rep. William Jefferson (D-La.) to leave office, despite a guilty plea in federal court on Tuesday by Vernon Jackson, a Kentucky businessman who allegedly paid Jefferson and his family more than $450,000 in bribes.

Behind the scenes, Democratic insiders said that everyone from Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on down would love to see Jefferson resign from Congress, although they won't make an open declaration about Jefferson because of internal party politics.

Among other things, the Democratic leadership does not want to alienate the Congressional Black Caucus by calling for Jefferson's ouster. Several CBC members -- including Reps. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), Kendrick Meek (D-Fla.) and Charlie Rangel (D-N.Y.) -- have donated to a legal defense fund set up by Jefferson in 2005, and African-American politicians have been concerned for years that law enforcement unfairly targets minority lawmakers for official scrutiny.

"There is a lot of sensitivity on the issue of African-American lawmakers being the subject of criminal investigations" by the FBI or other agencies, said an aide to one CBC member. "The leadership knows this and wants to step gingerly."

Pelosi's office would not comment directly on Jefferson's political future, other than to say that each lawmaker has to take personal responsibility for his or her own actions.

Those members of the CBC who are helping Jefferson should receive some attention when it comes to Jefferson, too.

It's always been clear to me that there were dirty democrats benefiting from the truce. And I'll bet they got really out of hand because they felt immune. It would be hard to believe that Pelosi didn't know a lot of the details, and should need to testify. it would be nice to get this out of the way well before the elections, but unlikely....

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