The guy who won must have kidnapped or killed someone. No?

Bcoz Louisianians are known to pick the worst among the all-worst line up on the ballot.

congrats to Ahn Cao.

I think the Dems can take as much pride in keeping this one close as the Reps can take from keeping Stevens close in AK.

Eric, your third paragraph has an ugly racial slant that I don't like - "even under these circumstances." The teaser on the home page has it too. And you caught me on a bad night, so here goes.

In other words, you are pointing out that Jefferson is corrupt, but since he's black and lives in a black district, he should've won anyway, and even though he's a criminal it "shocks" you, because, you know, he's black, and black people should just vote for black people

Is that what you were thinking?

Commentary, as well as education about race, is a learning process.

As a Dem, I am glad we are rid of this scum.

The Dems could of easily retained LA-02(District), but Nancy Pelosi and the other house democrats were to chicken to force Bill Jefferson to step down.

No tears here... the s.o.b. is from the past... and considering it is LA... what can one expect? In fact, his defeat is a gain for progressives and further marginalizes the racist south from the majority of the country... There is much to be gained from isolating the hate-filled south from the rest of the country. White trailer trash will have to come to terms with voting for Repubs who have never been interested in their needs only in their anti-black, anti-woman, anti-gay biases... It's a new day in Washington, D.C., and there's no future for trailer trash bigots, aka, Reagan Republicans. Have to say I'm enjoying watching this. After 30 years of the ignorant controlling the country, finally the intelligent have taken control. It's 1932 all over again.

Look, all the whole Cacus should look to within their own and get free of their own Bad Apples...We as progressives need to demand that our candidates are cleaner than Ceasers Wife.

I don't live in Bill Jefferson's district, but I do live in the N.O. Metro area. I'm not normally for the Republican, but in this case I was.

Also keep in mind, that Louisiana now has the first Vietnamese congressman and an Indian governor. Many may consider us a backwater, but we're miles ahead when it comes to diversity.

Good riddance to Jefferson.

We netroots railed against the GOP in 2005 & 2006 for their corrupt Congress people so we should do the same for the Dems. I say get rid of THE STINK whether it is a Democrat or a Republican from the House and Senate. Jeffereson definitely was one of the stinkiest.

I am glad he is gone.

DON'T YOU THINK THE REAL QUESTION, NOW, IS:

Is the IRS keeping tabs on this (just another) crook?

Barack Obama is the President of the United States of America. George Bush is in epoch all over the world. These people like Condeleeza Rice, Barbara Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumself, Karl Rove, and all the racist masons are getting kicked around enough that you really don't know what you'll get pulled into the gas chamber trial for all those skull and bones type deaths, sigma epsilon deaths, and and PIKE retards. On the other hand, if you're greek why go greek and sift around through something. The crips slipped, and I can't see one person in the USA not getting crunked in an Indiana prison chamber. So much sensual seduction from jews that can't near a dick if they're life depended on it.

The second article (in a row) which isn't even interested in so much as *asking* whether the de-black-ification of NO had any effect. (The AP's was the first I saw: http://www.usatoday.com/news/topstories/2008-12...)

A priori, I don't see why a 3 point loss can't be *partially* explained by the 12 point demographic swing away from black folks and toward white folks in NO, whose population was halved. (Source: http://www.wwltv.com/topstories/stories/wwl0806...)

Of course, Jefferson being a scumbag would *also* be part of the reason (and almost certainly larger in effect). I just don't see the justification for the implicit suggestion that Jefferson's being a scumbag was the ONLY significant reason for his loss.

I also with the national party had found the means -- or the intestinal fortitude -- to keep Jefferson from running again this time.

But did you notice: Congressman-elect Cao is not only a Republican, he's also a community organizer! Makes me wonder if the local Republican establishment didn't pay much attention to the 'sacrificial' candidate that was willing to run against Jefferson, and may have gotten something different than the national party expected.

It's hard to imagine, after all, that a self-made Vietnamese-American Congressman is going to buy into the 'Southern strategy' and a lot of other Republican memes, even if he is very conservative and very loyal. There's been a lot of racism directed at Vietnamese Americans, along with African Americans, on the Gulf Coast, after all.

So let's congratulate the Congressman-elect, and hope that he's a serious, responsible and worthy representative of his district who feels little obligation to play along with Republican extremism and obstructionism!

Good riddance to bad rubbish. No matter what party you support, there should be no room in Congress for crooks of the ilk of Jefferson.

We Democrats seem to have a lot fewer out and out criminals elected to office, but why should we tolerate any? Why isn't the party leadership forcing Rep. Rangel to step down from his chairmanship until (or if) he clears his name?