As Rep. William Jefferson, one of the CAFTA 15, continues to wrap himself in the constitutional fight over whether the F.B.I. improperly raided his offices, more details emerge about the way he conducted business. The Washington Post had a front-page story today detailing how Jefferson built a web of all-in-the-family firms to funnel money for deals he cut:

For Deals, Jefferson Built Web Of Firms
By Allan Lengel and Jonathan Weisman
Washington Post Staff Writers

On May 12, 2005, over dinner with business partner and FBI informant Lori Mody, Rep. William J. Jefferson (D-La.) furtively scrawled the letter “c” on a sheet of paper, and next to it wrote some numbers indicating that he was demanding a much larger personal stake in an African business deal than previously agreed to.

“The ‘c’ is like for ‘children,’ ” the congressman told Mody, as an FBI tape recorder rolled. “I make a deal for my children. It wouldn’t be for me.”

As court records, sworn affidavits, plea agreements and search warrants attest, it was quite a deal, one of several involving at least seven business entities, nearly a dozen family members and hundreds of thousands of dollars sloshing through bank accounts, all for Jefferson’s personal benefit.

An FBI raid on Jefferson’s congressional office last month triggered a constitutional showdown between the White House and congressional leaders from both parties over separation of powers. But as that controversy subsides, the focus has shifted back to Jefferson and the corporate labyrinth that federal authorities say he erected to secretly receive illegal payments for promoting high-tech ventures in Cameroon, Ghana and Nigeria.

For Jefferson, 59, the money-making schemes were supposed to be all in the family, involving his wife, two brothers, five daughters and two sons-in-law. As a member of the House Ways and Means trade subcommittee, Jefferson has traveled repeatedly to Nigeria and other western African countries and met with their leaders.

Jefferson’s secretive business negotiations have already yielded guilty pleas from one business partner, Vernon L. Jackson, and a former top aide, Brett M. Pfeffer. Both have confessed to conspiring to bribe the congressman. Jackson admitted giving Jefferson more than $400,000 in exchange for using his official position to promote high-tech business ventures in Africa.

Read the rest here. As I said a few days ago, the Democrats are now in a bind–they have to come up with something new because the “we’re not the corrupt party” won’t wash with Jefferson (not to mention Sen. Harry Reid’s questionable receipt of free boxing tickets) in the limelight every day trying to wrap himself in the cloak of virtue as a victim of an encroachment of the executive branch on the legislative branch (that would be when the FBI raided his office and found $90,000 in cash in a freezer…).

So, now the Dem actually have to produce a vision for the country. Oppppssss…