It appears that the only thing that can bring the two political parties together is corruption. No, I am not suggesting that a bipartisan effort is taking shape to open scores of ethics investigations, I think we know better than that.
This has to do with Representative William J. Jefferson. The FBI is, according to CNN, “investigating allegations that Jefferson, who represents flood-ravaged New Orleans, took hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes in exchange for using his congressional influence to promote high-tech business ventures in Africa.” Sounds just like a republican right? Well no, actually this guy is a Democrat. He probably did it, and if so, he should go to jail. Bribery's not cool.
Everybody was ready to throw Jefferson to the hounds. Republicans wanted to fry him as an example of Liberal hypocrisy, and Democrats wanted to kick his ass for screwing up what was otherwise a straight sweep of Republican corruption.
Then the FBI did something stupid. They busted into Jefferson's office and carted off boxes of computer files, paper records, and other assorted bits of potential evidence. (By the way, I find it interesting that amid the many Congressional corruption cases the FBI is batting around, they chose to raid the only Democrat involved.)
CNN said it best: ”The raid on Jefferson's office last weekend was the first time that the FBI has executed a search warrant on the Capitol Hill office of a sitting lawmaker.”
Everyone agrees that the FBI seizing the records of House Members is a bad idea.
I happen to agree. The congress, when it is working properly, has methods of policing itself. There are committees to handle things like this, and if the FBI wants something for an investigation it usually just subpoenas whatever it is. By raiding a congressional office, the FBI has turned this into a whole Separation of powers thing now.
It's no secret that Republicans have all of a sudden developed an interest in civil liberties, as untold numbers of them are likely to face various grand jury investigations and want every criminal right coming to them. Everybody hates lawyers until they need one. Nothing new about that. The weird thing, and the reason that I think their behavior indicates a level of fear on the part of Republicans in congress heretofore unseen, is that their self interested attitude has not given way to their other favorite pastime, shitting on Democrats for crap they do every day. They want thoes files returned. PRONTO. Everybody is pissed. Dennis Hastert and Nancy Pelosi are on the same side of an issue for the first time in their professional careers. The whole thing is this HUGE controversy now. So big, that it has knocked the Republican Party's big Immigration push right off the news cycle. That immigration thing was important to them as it replaced Republican corruption as the news of the day. When people think corruption, they think Republicans, and that's no good heading into an election cycle. Thanks to Jefferson and the FBI, its back.
ENTER THE PRESIDENT. He has tried to avert the constitutional crisis by making the Justice department HOLD the files for 45 days. He uses this number all the time. It's his estimate for how long the attention span of the American people is. He is hoping this whole thing will go away by then, and he won't have to deal with it.
Nobody in congress will be satisfied with this of course, and unless the Justice department buckles, which it probably will, the congress will turn on the president and will amp up their bitching about how the executive branch has overreached its authority.
My point is this:
This President is always overreaching his executive authority. He does it ALL THE TIME. If his presidency has been about anything it has been about trying to expand the powers of the executive branch. That, apart for all the inept leadership and rampant corruption, is probably what his presidency will be known for. His party controls congress, and as a result he has been allowed to run buck wild: starting wars, spying on American citizens, holding citizens for years with out the benefit of due process, leaking classified information, and so on. Republicans have been game for all of it. But the minute the executive branch invaded CONGRESSIONAL privacy, the House of Representatives turns into the ACLU. Dennis Hastert turns into Dennis Kucinich. It took the threat of publicly exposed corruption to get congress to do its job.
There is something wrong with that, and I think that's something EVERYONE can agree on.
