Joe McKeever

Showing Mercy, Becoming Diversified

For the past several months, a controversy has bubbled slightly beneath the surface in New Orleans society (I started to say it had "raged," but that suggests a forest fire whereas this is more of a bonfire that won't go away) over whether President Bush should pardon four-time former Louisiana Governor Edwin Edwards who is serving a long sentence at a federal pen for racketeering. In the early 1990s when he led our state, Edwards asked for and received kickbacks from those seeking to be awarded licenses for casinos. A vigorous investigation and prosecution by the U.S.Attorney nabbed him and sent him up for, I think, twenty years.

Former Republican Governor (for one term) Dave Treen is leading the effort to get the president to make Edwards one of his last minute pardons. This is rather bizarre because Treen was always the sole of integrity in his political career and Edwards was anything but; they were political enemies for decades. Now Treen points out that Edwards is old and has already put in eight years (I think it is) on his term, and "more years won't accomplish anything." He urges us all to have mercy on Edwards.

That has generated a number of pro and con letters to the editor. One said, "So, if you're old, go ahead and break the law because we'll let you out of jail early because of your age. What kind of sense does this make?"

Other writers plead for mercy for Edwards, say he has suffered enough, and wonder about the Christian charity of those who say he ought to serve every day of his term. More than one writer has pointed out that Edwards is as responsible as any human for the sordid reputation for politics in this state.

To date, I have refrained from writing the editor and chiming in with my point of view -- although I have one, as you will see -- and doubt if I've mentioned the "cause célèbre" here.

My main thought is this: "I'm ready to forgive Governor Edwards just as soon as he confesses." Until he admits his crimes and owns up to his misdeeds, no mercy. Sorry. That, I insist, is not hard-heartedness but just good old-fashioned common sense.

Twenty years ago, we were living in Charlotte, North Carolina, when the PTL empire imploded because of the sexual (and later, it came out, financial) shenanigans of founder Jim Bakker. A lasting memory I have of that event is that no sooner had it come out that Bakker had "done something bad" and was being relieved as head of that ministry, than signs went up on Interstate 77 proclaiming, "FORGIVEN!" Mr. Bakker was forgiven for whatever it was he had done. We were all forgiving him without knowing what we were forgiving him for!

I found myself struggling with the concept of forgiveness that erases from the record anything that has been done without knowing what exactly had been done. At no point had Bakker owned up to anything, but here we were -- gullible Christians, the same kind he had duped and fleeced all those years -- ready to turn over the keys to the hen house once again to that fox.

No sir. Something about that is not right.

We have had our own version of this scenario playing out in New Orleans the last couple of years. Congressman William Jefferson has been indicted by the feds for soliciting and taking bribes to work deals with an African country on behalf of a telecommunications company in this country. It involved kickbacks to officials in that country (Nigeria, I think) and required that members of his household be put on the payroll even though they would not actually do anything to receive the money. This is the Congressman whose Capitol Hill offices the FBI raided and in whose fridge they found some $90 thousand in zip-loc bags or foil.

Congressman Jefferson -- known not affectionately around here as "Dollar Bill" -- promised an honorable explanation to all this, but none has come. Instead, his team of lawyers has devoted itself to stalling and postponing, to asking the courts to exclude certain evidence and to rule the FBI was out of order in its raid. Meanwhile, Jefferson has run for re-election this year and -- this is the part that stuns me -- a large number of ministers have gone public urging everyone to support him. To hear them tell it, he's being hammered because of his race (he was the first African-American Louisiana congressman since Reconstruction) and abandoned in spite of all the great things he has done for this area.

This summer, Jefferson rallied his supporters for his re-election. A number of people filed to run against him, which has rarely happened. I think there were 6 Black men running against him, and then there was blonde, petite TV anchorwoman Helena Morena. In the primary, Jefferson pulled 25 percent to Morena's 20 percent. In the runoff -- which was held on the November Tuesday when America voted on the president -- Jefferson easily bested her. So, he was the Democratic nominee for Congress.

Now all he had to do was beat a Republican on Saturday, December 6, 2008, which has always been like Muhammud Ali fighting his grandmother, a pushover. However, this time the Republicans found the right candidate: Joseph Cao, a Vietnamese lawyer in our city. When the counting was all over Saturday night, Cao had beat Jefferson 50 percent to about 43 percent.

What happened, we're told, is that enough people were fed up with Jefferson's legal antics and the shame he has brought on this state for disaffected Democrats to join with the Republicans to oust him. Maybe so, but one more thing more than anything else worked against Jefferson's re-election: Hurricane Gustav.

Originally, the primary election was to come at the time when we ended up evacuating from this hurricane. The runoff was originally planned to occur a few weeks later and then, the general election would come the same day as the presidential election in November. When Gustav pushed everything back a few weeks, it made the runoff come on the day as the presidential election and pushed the general election for this office to Saturday, December 6. What's significant about that is that THIS WAS THE ONLY ITEM ON THE BALLOT. Which guaranteed a low voter turnout.

Mr. Jefferson admits that his supporters had grown weary by now. He said they felt they had him elected after he won the Democratic position, a fact that was always true until this time. My guess is 10 percent of the voters turned out Saturday. Jefferson's supporters just quit too early.

So, now, Louisiana is in an interesting position. We have the only Indian (i.e., "India") governor in the USA in Bobby Jindal and will have the first Vietnamese congressman in Joseph Cao--this at a time when America will be inaugurating its first-ever African-American president in Barack Obama.

Personally, I like the fact that these are all giant steps forward in the never-ending battle against racial and ethnic prejudice.

Showing mercy is always a good thing to do. Jesus promised that the merciful shall receive mercy (Matthew 5:7), which is all the incentive I need.

I'm fully ready to be merciful to Governor Edwards and Congressman Jefferson. Just as soon as they do their part and confess.