DarrylS

Followup to yesterday's thread about the raid on Jefferson's office, Saturday nite, not sure if there is more to the story, however there is some stuff of concern...Republican Leader Frist& Hastert are concerned about how it took place along with the Republican Stalwart Newt Gingrich... apparently there is another firestorm brewing in our Capitol, and looks like it will boil down to the whole separation of powers issue, but what the hell the "Constitution is just a piece of Paper" (GWB 2005).

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...2201080_2.html

The Saturday raid of Jefferson's quarters in the Rayburn House Office Building posed a new political dilemma for the leaders of both parties, who felt compelled to protest his treatment while condemning any wrongdoing by the lawmaker. The dilemma was complicated by new details contained in an 83-page affidavit unsealed on Sunday, including allegations that the FBI had videotaped Jefferson taking $100,000 in bribe money and then found $90,000 of that cash stuffed inside his apartment freezer.

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."

Former House speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.), in an e-mail to colleagues with the subject line "on the edge of a constitutional confrontation," called the Saturday night raid "the most blatant violation of the Constitutional Separation of Powers in my lifetime." He urged President Bush to discipline or fire "whoever exhibited this extraordinary violation."

Many legal experts and defense lawyers agreed with Gingrich. Charles Tiefer, a University of Baltimore law professor who served as solicitor and deputy general counsel of the House for 11 years, called the raid "an intimidating tactic that has never before been used against the legislative branch."

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PatsFanInEaglesLand

These f-ing politicians must actually think they are untouchable.

Term limits, NOW!

Get rid of the congressional pension.

No more per diem.

All_Around_Brown

Suddenly the slovenly fatbodies are concerned about the constitutionality of raiding bribery schemes? Hello? Where's you voice on the constitutionality of circumventing FISA and data mining millions of citizens?

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wistahpatsfan

Holy crap, PFIEL! I totally agree with you!

Pujo

Indeeed. Speaking of which, how did Congress like it when the courts enforced the seperation of powers against them in the Shiavo case?

All_Around_Brown

Notice how fast that bombshell went down the media memory hole? That would be a great piece of a platform for an independant resurgence (in addition to the opposition of emerging theocracy in general of course).

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Harry Boy

Politicians are the lowest form of life on this planet, ALL OF THEM, NOT JUST THE NEO CONS.

Patters

There are two issues:

(1) Jefferson certainly appears to be completely corrupt and should get whatever is coming to him. I can't imagine he has a good defense.

(2) The separation of powers is extremely important.
- Recently, Scalia blasted Congresspeople for proposing legislation to urge the Supreme Court not to consider foreign court rulings. Though Scalia is as against the use of foreign court rulings as anyone, he believes the separation of powers is important and the matter needs to be decided by the court itself.

- There is a real danger when our Executive Branch, which in the opinion of many, already abuses its power, sends its forces into the halls of Congress. One could easily imagine a corrupt administration, low in the polls, using all sorts of strong-arm tactics to force the hand of Congress.

The separation of powers is crucial to our system of government. Bush's violation of this principle is just another example of his callous disregard for our Constitution.

Pujo

I call BS here. The seperation of powers is pretty clear that conduct on the Congressional floor, or related to official congressional business is privileged. It's not a blanket immunity against criminal activity while in office. As I understand the constitution, the Executive Branch is responsible for enforcing the law and I don't see anything in the constitution barring them from doing that here.

Patters

I don't agree, Pujo. The Executive Branch already has a lot of power that it uses to protect itself and to attack others. Is it any coincidence that in the last couple of days the Executive Branch has gone after a major Democratic law firm and has broken 220 years of precedence in the way they've gone after Jefferson? Surely, the Executive Branch could have either worked with the Republican leadership or found other ways to pursue the case against Jefferson. The balance of power is extremely important; otherwise, there is too much power in the hands of the President...like in Russia.