A Bling-Bling Bloody Mess for William Jefferson

AP

Just when you thought it was safe for Louisiana Rep. William Jefferson to peer around the corner, trouble once again kicks him right in his French Quarter.

This time it's the rough sea of African politics, and the embattled lawmaker has been linked to a scandal involving a former diamond executive in Botswana. The executive, Louis Goodwill Nchindo, who served as the managing director of Debswana, one of the country's most powerful diamond companies, is charged with illegally spending Debswana funds to host Jefferson and fraudulently trying to use his position to obtain public land.

At the time of Jefferson's trips in 2001 and 2002, he was fighting in Congress to knock off legislation against "blood diamonds," which are African gems obtained through conditions of war, torture or captivity.

Now you may remember Jefferson, who represents much of New Orleans in Congress, is in federal court over a corruption case in which he was allegedly keeping $90,000 in bribery money in his freezer. What's more is prosecutors say that money comes from bribes to support business ventures in both the U.S. and West Africa.

The thing about this is Jefferson has served as part of the Africa Trade Caucus in Congress, but he's trying to block anti-blood diamond legislation. If you ever get a chance to study this, blood (or conflict) diamonds, are among the most horrific phenomena in Africa. We're talking about children having their limbs hacked off so that you can walk around blinged out. We're talking about devastating regional wars being fought so that you can floss your ice.

Debswana is a joint venture between the DeBeers Company and the Botswanan government. But DeBeers has spent years trying to do PR (or maybe damage control), and distance themselves from the stones. That a former Debswana executive was trying to water down anti-blood diamond legislation in the states should raise at least a few red flags.

And after all this, Jefferson still keeps getting elected.

Check out his voting record over a ten year period and tell me if you think he should still represent the people of N'awlins, especially as vulnerable as they are these days.