Republicans upset over Congressional bust
A Congressional Democrat gets busted for taking $100,000 from FBI narcs, and hardcore Republicans in the media start screaming and shouting about how corruption isn't a partisan issue (and they're right, for once).
Then, House and Senate Republican leadership gets all uptight about the Justice Department enforcing the laws against the Congress. You'd think they would be laughing about this, crowing all the way to Hannity & Colmes. Nope.
From this morning's Washington Post ...
Even House Democratic Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi [D-CA] seemed nervous.Republican leaders, who previously sought to focus attention on the Jefferson case as a counterpoint to their party's own ethical scandals, said they are disturbed by the raid. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) said that he is "very concerned" about the incident and that Senate and House counsels will review it.
House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) expressed alarm at the raid. "The actions of the Justice Department in seeking and executing this warrant raise important Constitutional issues that go well beyond the specifics of this case," he said in a lengthy statement released last night.
"Insofar as I am aware, since the founding of our Republic 219 years ago, the Justice Department has never found it necessary to do what it did Saturday night, crossing this Separation of Powers line, in order to successfully prosecute corruption by Members of Congress," he said. "Nothing I have learned in the last 48 hours leads me to believe that there was any necessity to change the precedent established over those 219 years."
"[M]embers of Congress must obey the law and cooperate fully with any criminal investigation," [she said]. [But] "Justice Department investigations must be conducted in accordance with Constitutional protections and historical precedent."Yet Hastert and Frist, along with all the House and Senate Republicans tug the line on the destruction of OUR freedoms. OUR liberties. OUR CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS. Of course I'm talking about spying. And what did the Justice Department do with the crook if not spy on him, then raid his office to make the bust?
A little further on in the article, we find these passages ...
Uh-huh.Legal experts were divided on the legality and propriety of the FBI's raid, but many said that it could raise serious evidentiary problems for prosecutors at trial. In scores of cases of alleged congressional wrongdoing, federal prosecutors and FBI agents have most commonly sought to issue subpoenas for documents rather than conducting an impromptu raid on congressional property, experts said.
At issue is the "speech or debate" clause of the Constitution -- language intended to shield lawmakers from intimidation by the executive branch. Historically, courts have interpreted the clause broadly, legal experts said.
And what about the Patriot Act provision granting powers of the Judiciary to the Executive in the form of "National Security Letters"? If I'm not mistaken (and I'm not), the NSL's are little more than an Executive Branch warrant, usurped from our courts. Only the target of the letter is not informed. They take your information. They tap your computer. They listen to your phone calls and archive them in the world's largest database. And SCREW the Fourth Amendment.
Yet they bitch and moan when the heat is on them?
HACK-OCRACY! Damn the incumbents.
Then again, what if this were all Bush's doing? What if the Justice Department (headed by Alberto "Torture Memos" Gonzales) was acting on behalf of the Executive in an attempt to create an aura of corruption around Democrats to score points leading up to the midterms? Well, Rep., Jefferson took the money and joked about how they'll never find out. Dumbass. He only proves what I've been saying for all too long: Corruption is not a partisan issue.
Abramoff, on the other hand, is. He's a Republican. And he corrupted other Republicans. But that is beside the point.
I'll be the first to admit, I am not familliar with the law cited by TWP, so there very well could be some constitutional concerns. But I promise you, their little quibbles are nothing compared to the loss of liberty we, the people, face today. The solution, just as it was with Nixon's spying programs, is impeachment.
The constitution is in serious jepardy. What are you going to do about it?
