Makes you wonder what they would have found in Tom DeLay's office if they'd violated the Separation of Powers to find out?

You know this "as if" is totally deserved...

FBI Raid on Lawmaker's Office Is Questioned

The Saturday raid of [Rep. William] Jefferson's [D-Louisiana] 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."

Two issues here:

1) Highly suspect Democratic lawmaker.
2) The most partisan "Justice Department" in history.

Mix in that trademark Bush administration disregard for the Constitution, with a dash of desperate GOP scandal deflection, and there's plenty of shame to go around on this one. The lesson is that although preponderance tells its own story right now, people on both sides get fat and corrupt on the power you give them every two years. What was it News Gingrich said? Throw all the bums out. The outcome of that doesn't worry me, if you know what I mean.

And isn't it cool how miffed Dennis Hastert gets about his precious office building, while telling you how great it is that the NSA wiretapping your phone without a warrant? But that's for another blog.