FBI Raid Divides GOP Lawmakers, WH (Boehner: will go to Supreme Ct.)

[DeepModem Mom]

NYT: F.B.I. Raid Divides G.O.P. Lawmakers and White House
By CARL HULSE
Published: May 24, 2006

WASHINGTON, May 23 — After years of quietly acceding to the Bush administration's assertions of executive power, the Republican-led Congress hit a limit this weekend.

Resentment boiled among senior Republicans for a second day on Tuesday after a team of warrant-bearing agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation turned up at a closed House office building on Saturday evening, demanded entry to the office of a lawmaker and spent the night going through his files.

The episode prompted cries of constitutional foul from Republicans — even though the lawmaker in question, Representative William J. Jefferson of Louisiana, is a Democrat whose involvement in a bribery case has made him an obvious partisan political target.

Speaker J. Dennis Hastert raised the issue personally with President Bush on Tuesday. The Senate Rules Committee is examining the episode.

Representative John A. Boehner of Ohio, the House majority leader, predicted that the separation-of-powers conflict would go to the Supreme Court. "I have to believe at the end of the day it is going to end up across the street," Mr. Boehner told reporters gathered in his conference room, which looks out on the Capitol plaza and the court building....

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/24/washington/24cong.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

[corkhead]

1. Is it finally a bridge too far for chimpy?

repukes standing up for principle? I'll believe it when I see it.

[leesa]

10. Nope. They're protecting THEIR asses from investigation and using

a Democrat for cover so they can pretend they are 'non-partisan', the favorite word of thugs.

[Tiggeroshii]

2. Is Hastert afraid of becoming implicated by Jefferson?

It seems really funny that they would all of sudden be concerned about their civil liberties? Is it really a breaking point for them or are they just afraid of getting caught for something? :shrug:

[Supersedeas]

3. Congressmen meet Justice Alito and his supreme executive philosophy

that you ignored earlier.

[AnOhioan]

4. Boehner has his own ethics issues

Methinks he also has a penchant for seeing his name in the paper. That is all this is.

Constitutional issues mean nothing to him.

[TheCowsCameHome]

5. Haha. RW food fight. Let them tear each other apart.

I love it.

[rucky]

6. Finally, a cause Congress can really get behind!

"don't investigate us"

[MissWaverly]

7. they always protest loudly then DO NOTHING!

How many times have they said they would push back against the White House, this is just the
latest outrage out of many, by next month it will be business as usual.

[shockingelk]

8. This is the crux of what's wrong with the outrage:

"John A. Boehner of Ohio, the House majority leader, predicted that the separation-of-powers conflict would go to the Supreme Court."

IT'S NOT A SEPARATION OF POWERS ISSUE - the courts issued a warrant and the executive branch executed it. Balanced.

There was already overwhelming evidence of Jefferson's criminal behavior.

Say Jefferson had been busted for manufacturing and selling meth. There's no difference between searching a congressman's office for supporting evidence of a crime, be it taking bribes or making speed.

[Thor_MN]

9. GOP looking ahead? Can't be....

Could it be that they are wooried about setting a precident that will bite them in the ass in a few years?

[hatrack]

11. The "Unitary Executive" displays how it will control an uppity Congress

Well, guys, you voted for a dictator, and now you get to live with the results.

In other words, FUCK YOU, CHUMPS. Now you get to know how the rest of us feel - and besides, if you didn't do anything wrong, you don't have anything to worry about.