Posted on 05/27/2006 12:18:17 AM PDT by Roberts
Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales, the F.B.I. director, Robert S. Mueller III, and senior officials and career prosecutors at the Justice Department told associates this week that they were prepared to quit if the White House directed them to relinquish evidence seized in a bitterly disputed search of a House member's office, government officials said Friday.
Mr. Gonzales was joined in raising the possibility of resignation by the deputy attorney general, Paul J. McNulty, the officials said. Mr. Gonzales and Mr. McNulty told associates that they had an obligation to protect evidence in a criminal case and would be unwilling to carry out any White House order to return the material to Congress.
The potential showdown was averted Thursday when President Bush ordered the evidence to be sealed for 45 days to give Congress and the Justice Department a chance to work out a deal.
The evidence was seized by Federal Bureau of Investigation agents last Saturday night in a search of the office of Representative William J. Jefferson, Democrat of Louisiana. The search set off an uproar of protest by House leaders in both parties, who said the intrusion by an executive branch agency into a Congressional office violated the Constitution's separation of powers doctrine. They demanded that the Justice Department return the evidence.
The possibility of resignations underscored the gravity of the crisis that gripped the Justice Department as the administration grappled with how to balance the pressure from its own party on Capitol Hill against the principle that a criminal investigation, especially one involving a member of Congress, should be kept well clear of political considerations.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Good for the Attorney General and his colleagues for threatening to resign rather than compromise their own integrity.
Obligatory, 'now if he'd just take the same stance on current immigration laws...'
WOW!! My respect for these guys has jumped a hundred fold.
given a viable third option...
The conservatives bought themselves Republicans, which unfortunately doesn't buy much these days.
I've been hard pressed to figure out what kind of a compromise would be indicated here. Is the FBI supposed to warn members of Congress before a raid like this, so evidence can be removed prior to the search?
We could be talking treason, espionage, transfers of industrial technology, felony counts, murder, conspiracy to commit any of the above and more.
Frankly, I'm glad to read that some top level officials stood their ground. I am however quite unhappy that evidence of possible crimes was sealed, putting the investigation on hold while criminals scatter like roaches.
Imagine the brass heavos it would take to overrule your own attorney general and others over this matter. Wow. It makes me wonder what the hell could be this important, that it had to be hidden for 45 days.
I agree completely. I am a lifelong Republican (though have trended more libertarian in philosophy for the past 5+ years), and am thoroughly disgusted with virtually the entire lot of Congressional Republicans.
I've wondered the same thing.
My guess is that it probably is no more complicated than the Republicans being worried that they'll be next (when a Democrat is in the White House) with no power to fight back unless they establish favorable procedures now.
A pox on all of their houses.
If this stands, politicians are going to have a hard time trying to find a another safe place to hide the money they get from bribes. This could put a crimp in the "culture of corruption" involving both parties in the Congress.
"When the Republicans lose one or both houses of Congress this November, they'll have no one to blame but themselves. "
Another Machiavellian thought ...
THIS HAS MANAGED TO PUT A CASE OF A DEMOCRAT ENGAGED IN BLATANT BRIBERY ON THE FRONT PAGES.
Dean will have to put all his 'culture of corruption' attack ads in the can. he he he.
I don't think that is why Hastert et al raised a stink, there really is a constitutional issue, but dont be so qick to assume this is a bad thing.
That's an interesting point. It also reveals just how ugly it has gotten in W., D.C. If a person is guilty of a felony, it shouldn't matter what party he's in. He should be investigated like anyone else. In today's climate, that just isn't possible. It's a sad indictment of the corrupted system.
Like you I am very disturbed over events at our federal level. I hold out hope that the House will show the backbone the White House and the Senate have demonstrated they don't have.
If it doesn't, I could frankly care less if someone shipped the whole lot of them to Mexico City, where they could live out their days in exile.
If there actually were a valid Constitutional issue here, then the Members of the Senate and Congress could commit any crime and be untouchable as far as prosecution. I can't imagine that's a possibility.
A Republican is President, and all of a sudden Congresscritters are concerned about the Constitution. Xlinton pulled FBI files, among other things, on Congresscritters and not a peep was made from Hastert and other Congressional hypocrites. Friggin' unbelievable.
Good points.
I don't expect any of them on either side to act for any reason other than self-interest any more. It is sad and pathetic.
My question is, have they all always been this way?
I hate to be so naive, but I'll admit to having been fooled by confusing ideology (with which I agreed, in large measure) with integrity.
It is a bitter irony that the Republicans have demonstrated just how correct the basic principles of libertarianism really are in practice. Libertarianism of the kind the Founding Fathers espoused was nothing more than the idea that government would screw the population any way it could get away with no matter who was in control, that it is an intrinsic property of government. Hence their desire to severely restrict government.
I have always leaned libertarian, but honestly, I have never been more disgusted with the Republicans. I despise the Democrats, but the difference between them and Republicans is only a matter of degree any more.
The Republicans are desperately begging to get taken to the woodshed at the polls. At some point, a person of principle has very little motivation to not vote their conscience, which these days rarely has either a (D) or and (R) next to their name. A ruined country is a ruined country no matter who makes the mess or what it looks like.
And it is not just me. I know a *lot* of people who have seen their limit for bullshit from DC. I swear, for most of the folks in DC, I would sooner light a cigar from their burning corpse than put the fire out these days. My patience with them is spent, and there is little they can do at this point to earn back my trust.
You expressed my own thoughts in that post than I have been able to do. I agree completely.
We, the citizens of the United States, need to put some teeth in the Constitution regarding separation of state and federal goverment, much less separation of the branches of government.
No lobbyists for one thing, no interpreting the Constitution, just the enforcement thereof. I believe it is written somewhere that we the people can throw a red flag down on the playing field and call a start over any time we decide to, make more clear the amendments so they are not open to "interpretation" only to enforcement, add amendments banning treaties and trade agreements unless they are put to public vote. And it doesn't have to be a civil war, just a legal one.
When do you ever see a rat coming to the aid of a Republican?
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