William Jefferson, Denny Hastert, all the same?

The rush by Congress to cover up for Rep. William Jefferson’s alleged taking of bribes reveals the nearly dry reservoir of goodwill for either major political party.

Speaker of the House Denny Hastert, a Republican, scored what soccer teams call an "own goal" by demanding that the FBI return the bribery evidence it collected with a search warrant in Democrat Jefferson’s Capitol Hill office.

Just when a Democratic scandal gave the Republicans a wide open shot, Hastert kicks the ball the other way, past his own Republican goalie. SCOOOOORRE!

Broken trust. Suddenly, the Volokh Conspiracy, Instapundit, Murdoc and most of the bloggers who regularly sympathize with Republicans are broadcasting the new rallying cry of a corrupt Congress: "Warrants: Not good enough for us, too good for you."

Americans were willing to give their wartime government some leeway on search warrants. Maybe some wiretaps are reasonable without warrants, we’ve been guessing, if obtaining the warrants would interfere in the collection of information on al-Qaida and its deadly friends. But now we have to wonder whether we’ve put our trust in untrustworthy people.

I know Hastert’s argument. There’s a separation of powers, and Congress doesn’t want its legislative powers stepped on by the executive branch, represented by the FBI. But that’s all theoretical crap. Save that argument for when it matters.

Suspicious smoke. In this case, Hastert, House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi and most other members of Congress reacted like criminals, and the American people aren’t going to forget it. There’s smoke on Capitol Hill. There must be fire.

Frank Warner

Comments

[Murdoc]

Right on!

I am almost 100% totally in favor of NSA "spying", for the record, but this just takes the cake.