Perhaps they will home in on the half-million dollar bribe, offered to an African official "to motivate him real good". An alternative could be the note, bearing the word "cash", written to avoid Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) listening devices. Or there is the small matter of the $90,000 (£48,000), carefully wrapped in aluminium foil and hidden in plastic food containers within Congressman William Jefferson's freezer. Unfortunately for the Democratic Party as it struggles to seize back power on Capitol Hill, these are not plot choices being debated by scriptwriters for the Mob drama The Sopranos. They are options being considered by Republican strategists for use in an advertising attack campaign for November's congressional elections which they believe will blow a hole in Democrat plans to expose a "culture of corruption" within President George W Bush's party.
The FBI searched Mr Jefferson's Washington office last week, the first time that federal officials had raided a congressman's headquarters. To justify its actions, the bureau unsealed an 83-page affidavit that had gleeful Republicans cracking jokes about "frozen assets".