Stinking Up The Hill

This fishy little tidbit showed up wrapped in the New York Times this morning:

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.

The first thing I thought when I heard of the FBI raid on Mr. Jefferson’s office was, “Hmmm. I don’t remember the FBI crashing into any Republican Congressional offices in connection with the Abramoff scandal…”

That’s why this little story piqued my interest. It certainly smells like the hold of a crab boat. The Republican Congress objecting to being eclipsed by the Bush Administration’s power grab? Please don't make me laugh.

Most likely, this is just some good theatre designed to downplay the obviously partisan skullduggery in play here. “The President has gone too far. We can never let this happen again.” Just in case a Republican congressional office is next on some FBI list. As if.

I’m pretty sure that’s something they don’t have to worry about, as long as the criminally partisan Bush Administration draws breath. Mr. “Uniter-not-Divider” strikes again.

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