Given the partisan circumstances, you’d think congressional [tag]Republicans[/tag] would be thrilled that the [tag]FBI[/tag] [tag]raid[/tag]ed Rep. [tag]William Jefferson[/tag]’s (D-La.) House office as part of a serious corruption investigation. As it turns out, just the opposite is true. It’s not the federal investigation GOP lawmakers mind — it’s the trespassing.
After years of quietly acceding to the [tag]Bush[/tag] [tag]administration[/tag]’s assertions of executive power, the Republican-led [tag]Congress[/tag] hit a limit this weekend.
Resentment boiled among senior Republicans for a second day on Tuesday after a team of warrant-bearing agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation turned up at a closed House office building on Saturday evening, demanded entry to the office of a lawmaker and spent the night going through his files.
The episode prompted cries of constitutional foul from Republicans — even though the lawmaker in question, Representative William J. Jefferson of Louisiana, is a [tag]Democrat[/tag] whose involvement in a bribery case has made him an obvious partisan political target.
This is no minor disagreement. House Speaker [tag]Dennis Hastert[/tag] reportedly yelled at the White House yesterday and said in a statement, “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.” [tag]Bill Frist[/tag] said he is “very concerned” about the incident and would ask the Senate counsel to review it. Former House speaker [tag]Newt Gingrich[/tag] suggested the raid was “on the edge of a constitutional confrontation,” adding that the incident was “the most blatant violation of the Constitutional [tag]Separation of Powers[/tag] in my lifetime.”
[tag]John Boehner[/tag] is talking about taking the issue to the Supreme Court and told one reporter, “When I raise my right hand and swear to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States, I mean it. They [at the Justice Department] take the same oath, so somebody better start reading the Constitution down there.”
In other words, after nearly six years of constitutional abuses, now congressional Republicans are worried about Bush administration [tag]overreach[/tag]. Welcome to the party, guys.
As Kevin noted, it’s interesting timing.
After six years of signing statements, domestic surveillance, habeus corpus violations, torture of prisoners, and secret overseas prisons — all done with no oversight from Congress — what finally woke them up was a raid on a congressman’s office. That can’t be tolerated. Not for one second.
Well, maybe not. But at least the FBI got a search [tag]warrant[/tag] signed by a judge. Congress should feel lucky they were treated with such sensitivity.
There is also, of course, the question of partisanship. Duke Cunningham was caught, dead to rights, in a massive corruption scandal, but the FBI never felt compelled to raid his congressional office. The FBI is still investigating other Republicans of the House Appropriations Committee for alleged corruption, but officials haven’t come with subpoenas for an over-night document-collecting get-together. But when it came to Jefferson, 15 FBI agents raided his office.
Dems can’t help but be a little suspicious.
Asked why Justice raided the office of Jefferson, a Democrat, but has not raided any Republican offices during the current wave of corruption investigations, [House Minority Whip [tag]Steny Hoyer[/tag] (D-Md.)] said: “It certainly raises questions as to why the Republican Justice Department acted here. … There certainly has been disparate treatment between Jefferson and others.”
Stay tuned.