It’s All About Me

by digby

I realize that quite a few people are upset with the Democrats for joining Hastert in condemning the Justice Department for raiding William Jefferson’s capitol hill office, but I think this may be a blessing in disguise.

First of all, it really does look suspicious to me that Jefferson is the first one out of all these crooks they’ve done this too. The didn’t raid Cunningham’s office and they haven’t raided Delay’s. I can’t for the life of me think of why that would be. But regardless, this is a very dicey subject because we are dealing with an administration that has absolutely no respect for the co-equal branches of government. They believe in this unitary executive theory (aka elected monarchy) and they are not afraid to use that power against the legislature.

Now we can all say that the legislature deserves it in these corruption cases, no doubt about it. But then you have to ask yourself why of all the GOP crooks in the congress, and they are legion, the Bush justice department has only taken this unprecedented step with the one outright crook we know of from the Democratic party? The danger of the executive branch using its power for partisan purposes is one of the prime reasons why we are all so suspicious of the illegal wiretapping and the rest of this power grab. And here we have it staring us right in the face.

Which brings us to Denny. This news tonight that he is under scrutiny certainly explains why he is suddenly so all concerned about the separation of powers — something he and the rest of his boys didn’t give a damn about when the president was asserting the right throw out any pieces of the Bill of Rights they find inconvenient. That’s the silver lining. Hastert and others on the GOP side are probably just covering their asses, but this may just cause the congress as a whole to wake the hell up and recognize that the administration is out of control. There is value in that, even with the GOP Eunuch Caucus in charge.

This is one of those typical cases where until the politican actually experiences something personally, he could give a damn. You know the type: the free market privatizer who suddenly becomes concerned with government funding for Hodgkins disease when his wife gets it. Or the rightwing moralist who gets all relativistic when his son is arrested for drug dealing. It happens all the time.

Today, the congress had a taste of what it is like to have its constitutional rights walked on by this imperious executive branch and they didn’t like it. Good. Maybe they’ll get some religion on this checks and balances thing.

Update: To be clear, I’m not defending Jefferson. He’s a scumbag on many levels and he should resign. I’m also not defending the Congressional Black caucus, but I do understand that they tend to get a little defensive when their members are singled out all the time — especially during close elections when the rightwing rednecks are having problems turning out their base. They are probably wrong in this case, but I understand it.

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