Posted on 05/26/2006 7:46:49 AM PDT by Reagan Man
For centuries monarchs defended the doctrine of the divine right of kings, a concept that vanished with the development of parliamentary systems limiting royal powers.
That doctrine is now being reasserted; this time by an heir to the parliamentary system—the U.S. Congress—whose leadership is up in arms over the FBI acting on a search warrant to enter the office of a member of the House caught taking a bribe.
Although evidence exists that Rep. William Jefferson (D.-La.) was accepting bribes, and had defied a legally issued subpoena—an action that led a federal judge to issue a warrant authorizing the FBI to search his office for the material—the royal members of the congressional leadership are ranting that the search has violated their alleged constitutional rights.
They base their contention on Article 1, Section 6 of the U.S. Constitution that states: “The Senators and Representatives shall receive a Compensation for their Services, to be ascertained by Law, and paid out of the Treasury of the United States. They shall in all Cases, except Treason, Felony and Breach of the Peace, be privileged from Arrest during their Attendance at the Session of their respective Houses, and in going to and returning from the same; and for any Speech or Debate in either House, they shall not be questioned in any other Place.”
Note that it makes no mention of any constitutional privilege extending to the offices of members, or granting them immunity to investigations of wrongdoing by agencies of the executive branch charged with the enforcement of laws.
In short there’s not a damned thing in the Constitution that states that the offices of members of congress are immune from lawful searches authorized by members of the judiciary.
To claim otherwise is simply arrogance, a characteristic now common to members of Congress, regrettably from both parties. It wasn’t just the Democrat leader in the House making the specious claims about the separation of powers. Standing with the pitiful Nancy Pelosi was the Republican Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert, and GOP Senate leader Bill Frist.
Doesn’t Denny Hastert understand that he is being suckered by Pelosi? Doesn’t he recognize that by raising a ruckus about poor Rep. Jefferson being abused by the FBI he’s playing right into Pelosi’s hands by helping her transform Jefferson—evidently caught red-handed by the FBI of taking a $100,000 bribe—from a lawbreaker into a martyr persecuted by a GOP Justice Department?
Doesn’t he realize that he’s allowing the best defense the GOP has against Democrat charges that his party is nurturing a culture of corruption is the corruption of Democrats such as Jefferson? Is he blinded by the arrogance of power?
Arrogance, it seems, is contagious. We have Sen. John McCain, for example, haranguing his colleagues and members of his party about the outrageous immigration reform bill he and “Chappaquiddick” Teddy Kennedy are championing against the wishes of the majority of Republicans, and the 59 Republicans who voted a week ago to kill a bill that would have allowed offshore drilling for natural gas exploration in the midst of an energy crisis, and the eight Republicans voting to block an amendment that would have stopped illegal aliens from getting Social Security benefits they would receive as a result of having used false social security cards.
A minority of Republicans are making a majority of Republicans look like fools. Moreover, they have formed a majority by hooking up with the Democrats who want nothing more than to drive every single conservative Republican out of office.
The Senate majority is now a DemoRino majority—part Democrat and part RINO—Republicans In Name Only.
If this keeps up, a lot of Republicans are going to be job hunting after November. They are going to discover that it is not wise to go against the base that put them in office, and is up in arms over the flawed Senate immigration reform bill.
My Dad, Ronald Reagan, proclaimed the 11th Commandment—thou shalt not speak ill of another Republican. He couldn’t have foreseen what a minority of arrogant Republicans would someday do to his party. So, as his oldest son and conservative political heir, I feel entitled to now repeal the 11th Commandment.
Should have known the conservatives have a death wish they plan on inflicting on the rest of the country.
His position has not changed since he ran in 2000, but he has agreed to put troops on the border, albeit, too low in number to suit me.
If Bush brings pressure on the house to accept the senate's version than it will be official Bush is a Rino just like his father and no better than McCain or Specter.
Wrong again. If the House GOP cave, it will be the fault of those House members who abandon their constituencies and principles.
It's 1976 all over again.
On most things I give Bush the benefit of the doubt. Not on this. He is badly mistaken if he thinks this will give him a boost in his approval ratings. Think 37% approval is bad, wait a couple of weeks, we should start seeing 25% range. Without conservative support where would Bush be??? Its high time Rove inform the Prez on the polling on this matter. Can't believe we are surrendering to Kennedy again on immigration. Remember it was Kennedy and the great society that gave us this gift of illegals. Now he has a fix.
I'm increasingly of the belief that Rove's true genius was in fooling conservatives.
I applaud you guys for having so much energy for being so pissed off constantly. I'm too old and tired, I guess.
Did Denny also make that deal with the presstitutes and other various moonbats? No matter; Pelosi will break that deal no later than the Thursday after Labor Day (say, the exact timing of the Pelosi re-slam of Pubbies as the "party of corruption" would make a great contest).
Events that have occurred under the recent stewardship of our government by the GOP:
Passage of CFR, free speech takes one hell of a hit
Kelo Decision, property rights take one hell of a hit
Current attempt to assert that Congress is immune to investigation, rule of law is under fire, will take one hell of a hit if our Speaker gets his way. So far, no series objection from GOP.
Two of the above are the direct result of actions by our party, the other they made no attempt to counter.
I could never have imagined such things happenning even under the Dems, who actively seek to end the rule of law. However, the GOP, apparently because it has no solid guiding principles of its own, has now paved the way for the Dems to do more damage than they would ever have dreamed of, should they regain power.
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