I have no idea what's going on anymore, but I am somehow strangely fascinated.
Posted by Toby Petzold at May 27, 2006 11:59 AMsorry son.
There are no constitutional issues here.
Seth, I don't believe there are either, which is one reason I doubt the spin on this from the Post's story.
But then, you can sell VandeHei on anything.
Posted by Steve Soto at May 27, 2006 12:30 PMIt's Bush Vs. Gonzales ! Who would have thunk it? How cool is that!
p.s no hard feelings toby, but why add the "anymore".
Posted by T2 at May 27, 2006 12:32 PMIs it just me, or is there a vast loophole in this deal to freeze Jefferson's documents? The National Journal posted the reputed executive order to Gonzales, which contains the following directive:
The Attorney General, acting through the Solicitor General of the United States who shall for this purpose be subject to no supervision by any officer of the Department of Justice other than the Attorney General...
There would be no way anyone would know whether Solicitor General Paul D. Clement - A Bush appointee - obeys Bush, the law - or the Eleventh Commandment.
Posted by pessimist at May 27, 2006 12:35 PM"Hastert staged this as a proxy fight to box in Justice over the upcoming investigations of the House GOP. Gonzales feels apparently (and correctly) that Hastert was trying to cut off DOJ’s legs in future searches and seizures of Republicans by raising a fuss here on a Democrat unconnected to the bigger GOP culture of corruption."
This is the NY Times, WaPo analysis, but I think it is exactly backwards. This was staged by Abu and Bush to undermine the Abramoff investigation. By raiding a Dem's office, Hastert and company could stand on "principle" and pretend to defend the constitution. The FBI will be thrown off course here, establishing a precedent for Abramoff later. The little Kabuki play about threatened resignations is little more than a smokescreen.
Have to agree with Seth. There is no common law, case law, black law or Constitutional law that exempts Congressional offices from search. Only a tradition.
The tradition is that the appropriate investigative body, in this case the FBI, issues a subpoena, and the member complies, or appeals the subpoena. In this case, the FBI issued the subpoenas nine months ago. Jefferson has neither complied with the subpoenas, nor exercised his right to appeal. For the nine months until his office was searched, he has done nothing.
I have no fondness for law enforcement, and though I have never had so much as a moving violation, I now consider law enforcement a bigger threat than the other, nongovernmental criminal element. But, what was the FBI supposed to do? If there is any "crisis" here, then it is completely being made by Jefferson. He was given an extraordinary amount of time to comply or appeal. He did neither.
If Bush had a hand in this, and that is certainly not necessarily so, then I would have to think that it was to establish a serious precedent that members offices could not be searched. For the purposes of protecting the Republican Congressional crime syndicate. And, in Rovian fashion, to make the Republicans look like bipartisan people of honor in defending Jefferson. They get a double win. Democrats are now scurrying to defend the indefensible.
Corruption is corruption. The main difference seems to be that Jefferson is a single lone wolf, while the Republicans are acting in concert, a genuine crime family.
Posted by m at May 27, 2006 12:49 PMAt least the Washington Post did not use the description of the process (which made me giggle when I read it in the NYTimes): "Mr. Bush devised the 45 cooling-off period...."
Posted by TeddySanFran at May 27, 2006 04:21 PMWhat is all the fuss about. There is no law barring warranted searches of legislator's offices. This Jefferson guy may or may not be a crook but when I get a safe haven place to hide things from the law then he does too. But me first! Follow the money and then jail the bum if he's guilty. Way too many officials stealing and lying. Hooray for the Justice Dept.
Posted by Russ7 at May 27, 2006 05:11 PMI really enjoyed the thrust of this topic.
"Let 'em have it!" I ejaculated.
You got 'em both going and COMING.
Alas, if I could only be a member, too!
Spare the rod, spoil the pundit.
Takes balls to tell it like it is.
It's OK to get angry, or crotchety.
When the going gets tough, the media gets groin.
Great, penetrating analysis.
Righties are not gonna' let it slide, though.
Broder is such a Con (dumb, too).
Methinks the press corpse are getting testy.
Mr.Broder, Mr.Matthews:
Genital-men, start your engines!
Hold on, I'm going...
Posted by nikto at May 27, 2006 05:17 PMThe whole point of this activity is to convince the voters that all of congress is corrupt so you can still vote for your local Repug. Scamming a sting on a weak Democrat get corrupt Dems in the news cycle. Anything that gins up the story is good. "Tell everyone that Gonzales, McNulty, and Mueller are willing to resign!" This is an IMPORTANT story about CORRUPT DEMOCRATS!
And is anyone talking about the Police have locking down the nation's Capitol building after "shots" were fired? A convenient way to search and plant more bugs and key-loggers.
Posted by Duke at May 27, 2006 05:28 PMShazam!
Great piece.
As a "constituent" of Hastert's I sincerely hope this is a preview of real investigations to come.
Posted by raisin at May 27, 2006 07:21 PM"And is anyone talking about the Police have locking down the nation's Capitol building after "shots" were fired? A convenient way to search and plant more bugs and key-loggers."
Duke, bingo.
Posted by Judith at May 27, 2006 08:12 PMMaybe we can get a named process out of this: Jefferson Seizure, Brady Material etc.
BTW how can a guy who represents some of the poorest people in this country claim that he's looking out for his constitutents' interests when he votes for both the estate tax extension AND the bankrupcy bill? Until redistricting in 2000, Jefferson was my congresscritter, now I've got the reprehensible Jindal; but, when I was keeping track of Jefferson's voting record, I don't recall his having been so blatently agains the interests of his own constituents
Why would Hastert, a republican, want to protect Jefferson, a democrat? Why would Cheney and Addington step in? Jefferson have something in his office that can't come out? What does Nigeria have to do with it? Cheney only comes in when there is a foreign affair issue involved or money is on the line, or both. Jefferson/Hastert/Abramof/Cheney/Addington have they ever been together or met? Unlikely anyone will ever look into it but it makes for a helluva whodunit.
Posted by come on at May 27, 2006 10:43 PMCheney might have an interest in this; while it hasn't been in the news for a while, there is a Halliburton-Nigeria-bribery story:
http://www.halliburtonwatch.org/shareholder2004.html
What do the FBI search of Rep. Jefferson's office and the war in Iraq have in common??
Both reflect Bush administration actions in defiance of American tradition.
First, during the entire history of our Democracy, no executive branch has ever violated a congressional office's sanctity...even though there have been a whole bunch of crooked politicians in Congress through the years.
Scratch that tradition.
Second, America, as the first and foremost Democracy in the world, has had a general tradition of not launching pre-emptive strikes against other sovereign nations...that is, until Bush started the Iraq War in 2003.
Scratch another American tradition.
How many other "American traditions" have the neo-con fools in the Republican Party trashed in pursuit of their monopolisitc, fascist-hell agenda for America?
Traditional separation of church and state?
The tradition of a non-partisan federal bureaucracy?
The tradition of an independent judiciary?
I'm certain I can come up with even more examples, but these are enough to illustrate how utterly dangerous the present Republican Party is relative to our traditional "American values," the U.S. Constitution, and the Bill of Rights.
I didn't believe pure evil was possible in America, until Bush/Cheney/Ashcroft/Gonzales came along. In the past five years, the insidious Bush administration, with the help of their Republican puppets both in Congress and on the federal bench, have done more damage to our democratic institutions and traditions than the Nazis or Communists or al Qaeda could have ever imagined doing.
Oh well, all this time I thought the conservative Republicans were the "traditionalists" in our Democracy. Unfortunately, the only "tradition" that they seem to honor and uphold is power-mad, power-hungry monopolism. Poor, poor fools.
heh. "GOP Fissures" - reminds me of
Bob the Anal Fissure.
I like to believe Hastert and Frist are nervous at the idea of having their own files confiscated by the Gonzo Gestapo, but the whole thing is fishy. Gonzales is loyal to the Chimp. Chimp knows it.Gonzo owes it. No way is anybody going to believe Gonzo or anyone in his organization will resign over anything. The only thing that makes sense here is the Chimp decides to freeze the situation because he simply doesn't know what to do with the apparent ire of Congress. Now, does Congress really feel threatened by this? I think the reports of Hastert's "white hot" anger need to be examined with a view toward the sources who report it. He strikes me as someone without strong convictions about anything at all, so to suddenly develop them over the Separation of Powers seems inordinately out of character. Mr. Jefferson appears to be in big trouble, but the jury has not even been convened, so maybe we should suspend judgement about him.
Posted by gtash at May 28, 2006 05:08 AM
I don't know about you, but I'm getting ever more nervous with each passsing day that these goons will find a way to declare that Bush serving a 3rd term is God's will.
Abu caring about the Justice Department more than bush?
Hard to believe.
I think the DOJ was just doing their job, and the thugs are reacting with their usual deviousness to try to cover their asses after the horse left the barn.
And I don't think it's going to work.
Posted by Duckman GR at May 28, 2006 08:12 AM