The raid on the office of Rep. William Jefferson has the nerves of Congress rattling like maracas in hyper hands.
First, the Louisiana Democrat was videotaped accepting a $100,000 bribe from an FBI informant; his home was raided; $90,000 was found in his freezer; then his congressional office was raided. Until the latter, Congress was relatively indifferent to Jefferson’s frozen assets.
For the first time in history, a federal lawmaker’s office was raided. Yes, the first time in history. Think of all the scumbags, crooks, cheats and liars who have occupied Congress throughout the course of history, and none of them have had their offices subjected to a raid?
As a result of this unprecedented enforcement of the law on the heretofore untouchable self-perceived monarchs, members of Congress from both sides of the aisle are circling the wagons – or at least crashing them into security barriers while trying to circle them.
Oddly enough, it appears, at least on the surface, to be Republicans who are most loudly questioning the raid on Democrat Jefferson’s office. Speaker Dennis Hastert, John Boehner, Bill Frist and others have complained about the ”unprecedented raid on the office of a sitting member of Congress.” At least we’ve finally discovered what it takes to achieve true bi-partisanship in Washington.
Republicans would have also defended Democrats James Traficant, Dan Rostenkowski and others busted for everyday wrongdoings, but only if their offices were raided. They weren’t, so off to jail they went.
Capitol Hill reaction to the raiding of Jefferson’s office demonstrates just how separated-by-design Congress is from the laws they construct for the rest of us. A congressman’s office is way off limits to search and seizure, but what if those of us who don’t have the luxury of congressional immunity were taped accepting a bribe and police found $90,000 in our freezer? Not only would our office be raided while investigators ate the fish sticks they found next to the money, but they’d raid our storage shed, safe-deposit box, impound our boat, motorcycle, car, dog and cat, and then we’d be thrown in jail to await our trial a year from now.
Congress is on thin ice with this one, and they know it. In the world you and I live in, searching the office of a lawmaker suspected of taking huge bribes would be a no-brainer, but in congressional la-la-land this is an unforgivable invasion of privacy. The odds that a congressional investigation finds that the raid and seizure of material from Jefferson’s office was justified are about the same as the likelihood that Anna Nicole Smith’s baby will turn out well-adjusted.
Complicating matters were top officials at Justice and the FBI who threatened to resign if President Bush ordered them to return material taken from Jefferson’s office during the raid. Bush never gave such an order, and now the congressional squirming continues.
Congress is ticked at Jefferson, the Justice Department and Bush because they may have helped set a precedent that could endanger the glass house in which all members of Congress live. There are those who want to impeach Bush for all sorts of things related to the war, wiretapping, etc., but when he refuses to protect the august congressional body from a warranted frisking, he may have signed his own impeachment warrant.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Republican James Sensenbrenner is conducting a probe into whether or not the raid on Jefferson’s office was justified.
James Sensenbrenner is the proper ”go to” guy as far as Congress is concerned when it comes to an investigation of the investigators, since he has a proven track record of ensuring the survival of Congress. Remember the Sensenbrenner sponsored “Continuity in Representation Act”? The Act ensures that, in the event of almost any disaster, Congress will be one of the two things certain to survive. After dust settles, Congress would then debate exactly how to go about taxing cockroaches.
The Continuity in Representation Act ensures the survival of Congress in the event of everything except raids on their offices. If the latter is allowed to continue, before you know it, Congress will be treated almost like – gulp – their constituents.
Anger over the raid of Jefferson’s office may have less to do with law and procedure and more to do with a case of ”there but for the grace of God” syndrome showing it’s ugly, nervous head.
Watch this debate carefully. Could it be that some of the members of Congress who are sweating over the raiding of Jefferson’s office are the ones who have recently ”defrosted” their own freezers?
Related special offer:
Sen. Tom Coburn’s “Breach of Trust: How Washington Turns Outsiders into Insiders”
