Pre-Hurricane Katrina, in early August, I noted how CBS's The Early Show ignored the FBI raid on the home of Louisiana Democratic Congressman William Jefferson. Over a month and a week later, Jefferson is at the center of another controversy, this time involving the National Guard. The Early Show so far has ignored this story as well.
Apparently Rep. Jefferson used National Guardsmen to help him retrieve some belongings from his New Orleans home:
WASHINGTON -- A Louisiana congressman being escorted by National Guard troops removed personal items from his home in flooded New Orleans while military helicopters and emergency workers raced to save thousands of victims.
Rep. William Jefferson, D-La., said he had planned to check on his house Sept. 2 after traveling with President Bush to survey the damage across the Gulf Coast. He said he accepted the Louisiana National Guard escort only after his staff and Capitol police warned him it was unsafe to travel alone because of looting and lawlessness.
After touring the flood-damaged city from the air and visiting evacuees at the Louisiana Superdome and the city's Convention Center, Jefferson said he asked his National Guard escorts to drive him to his Uptown neighborhood, several miles from the Superdome.
"I was intending to go to my neighborhood for sure if I could get there. I didn't know what the condition was," Jefferson said Wednesday. "I was curious to know and everybody in my family was curious to know: What was the condition of our house? Was it underwater? Was it looted?"
While Jefferson was checking out his house, the military truck that brought him there got stuck in the mud and a second truck had to be sent to rescue the congressman and his National Guard escort, said Maj. Ed Bush, a spokesman for the Louisiana National Guard.
