Pod Elephants

When I first saw the story this morning on the unshirted hell being raised by House Republican leaders about the FBI search of Congressman William Jefferson (Crook-LA) Capitol Hill office, my gut reaction before I had read anybody else's was, "What's all the hubub about?"

I mean, seriously, what's the big deal? Jefferson has been under investigation for some time now. He's on the take. He'd be the poster child for his party's "culture of corruption" meme if not for the fact that he's in his party. The feds, in a different "raid," found ninety thousand smackers in his refridgedeezer - yes, yes, "cold, hard cash," and all of it ill-gotten. The wonder would be if the FBI didn't take a look at his offices, especially given the nature of the alleged crimes.

Furthermore, the feds had a duly authorized, federal court-ordered search warrant to go in there. So everything was legal, very-very and to-to, with every t crossed and every i dotted.

Annnnnd you have to figure in the fact that Jefferson defied federal subpoenas for nine full months, which is why the FBI had to resort to paying his congressional cubbyhole a visit. Think Tom DeLay could have gotten away with such brazen nose-thumbing?

So what in blazes explains this reaction?

House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-IL) complained directly to President Bush yesterday about the FBI raid, while House Majority Leader John A. Boehner (R-OH) predicted a constitutional showdown before the Supreme Court.

"My opinion is that they took the wrong path," Hastert told reporters after his meeting with Bush in the White House. "They need to back up, and we need to go from there."

Wrong path, my fanny. Courtesy of Big Lizards comes this piece of sublimely straightforward constitutional analysis:

United States Constitution ~ Article I ~ § 6 ~ ¶ 1:

The Senators and Representatives shall receive a compensation for their services, to be ascertained by law, and paid out of the treasury of the United States. They shall in all cases, except treason, felony and breach of the peace, be privileged from arrest during their attendance at the session of their respective Houses, and in going to and returning from the same; and for any speech or debate in either House, they shall not be questioned in any other place. [emphasis added]

Congressman Jefferson hasn't been convicted of a felony yet, but neither did the FBI take him into custody over the weekend, either. They simply searched his offices, and took "extraordinary care not to confiscate legitimate data relating to his legislative responsibilities." If Majority Leader Boehner gets his wish, the House Republican poobahry will be made a national laughingstock.

And the hell of it is, they HAVE to know this. So why in the world are they doing it? Why are they defending a member of the same DisLoyal Opposition that has not stopped trying to smear them as "corrupt"?

Two suggestions abound. Rush Limbaugh thinks it's "white guilt." The rest of the center-right is going with arrogant stupidity.

Andy McCarthy:

The congressmen and others making it are conducting themselves abysmally. At a time when Americans' regard for congress is at an all-time low, why would anyone want to get behind such low-life criminality?

Cap'n Ed:

Congress already has enough problems with corruption and scandal without adding even more arrogance to top it. If the leadership wants to argue that their status as elected officials somehow gives them the ability to disregard subpoenas and court orders, then the American people may want to trade that leadership to ensure that Congress understands that it operates under the same laws as the rest of us. Hastert and Boehner do not argue against an imperial presidency, but rather they are arguing for an untouchable political elite, where our elected officials risk nothing by taking bribes and selling their votes to the highest bidder. After all, the evidence of those transactions will almost always reside in their offices - and if they can ignore duly executed subpoenas and search warrants, then they can sell themselves at will.

Hastert and Boehner had better reconsider this fight. Not only is it a loser legally, but it's also political suicide. They shouldn't need the Supreme Court to laugh them into oblivion to comprehend the magnitude of this mistake."

John Podhoretz:

There is every reason to believe that a member of the House of Representatives was using his physical office on Capitol Hill to hide evidence of massive bribe-taking — bribe-taking that has been caught on tape, by the way. That Congressman is a figure in the Democratic party. The Republican party has been reeling from bribery and corruption scandals of its own. So the Speaker of the House, the leader of Republicans in the House, actually complains to the President that the raid on the Democratic congressman's office is an unconstitutional violation of the separation of powers. In so doing, he reinforces the image that Congress, which almost never polices itself, cares less about corruption than it does about its prerogatives. It also steps on the very important political story that might help diffuse the image of specifically Republican corruption. I don't know how to put this any other way, and I'm sorry if it sounds insulting, but: Whether you consider him the leader of an institution whose standing among the public is at historically low levels and in need of drastic moral renovation or a leading partisan official whose team is in pretty bad shape and could use a bit of a boost, Denny Hastert is a blithering idiot.

An evident fact the Speaker went out of his way to flaunt again today alongside his possible successor.

Makes me wonder anew whether the GOP is trying to take a dive in this mid-term election.

UPDATE 5/25: Here's NRO's conclusion:

This is delusional. Congress had a chance to come out swinging against corruption—to demonstrate, amid a slew of tawdry scandals, its recognition that public officials are subject to the same laws as ordinary citizens. The Republican leadership in particular should have seen an opportunity to redirect attention from its caucus’s lapses to a Democrat’s crude criminality. They chose, instead, to rally around an apparent swindler. We can think of 100,000 reasons why this will be remembered as an unparalleled blunder.

Hopefully it won't be any more than $10k per lost House seat.