Current View
The Jefferson Affair: Impeach the Attorney General NowWhat he said.
Rush Limbaugh's substitute, and many others, seem pleased with the latest court ruling that Congressional Offices aren't sanctuaries and Members of Congress are not above the law.
Put that way, everyone should be happy: but that's not what's at stake here. Apparently this radio host substitute has no idea that there may be larger issues here.
First, no one has ever said that Congressional Offices are sanctuaries. This substitute radio host says "What if he'd committed a murder in his office? Would he be exempt then?" He says that is if it somehow cleverly makes the whole matter clear; proof by reductio ad absurdem.
Of course it does no such thing. No one has said that Congressional offices are exempt from the law; the dispute is over who shall enforce it. The Capitol Police and the Sergeants at Arms have jurisdiction, and the Congress itself has jurisdiction. If the FBI really needed more evidence against Jefferson -- and really, what more did they need? -- they could have gone to the Speaker. The Speaker could have called in the Minority Leader. They consult and instruct the Sergeant at Arms to conduct the search. All is well.
But the Attorney General decided to expand the power of the executive and end this nonsense about Congress being a co-equal branch of the government, and having control of its own house.
The House ought to be considering bills of impeachment for the Attorney General, the FBI Director, the judge who issued the warrant, and the judges who have ruled in this case. What's at stake here is far more important than having yet one more charge against a crooked Member of Congress who is doomed in any case, and would already have been indicted if the executive hadn't decided to use this as a means of eroding the independence of the Legislature. The judge who issued that warrant has attempted to expand the power of the court over the Houses of Congress. He ought to be turned out to private practice.
In the movie "Advise and Consent" Hollywood decided to end the movie by having the Secret Service agents flood the Senate chamber: the President had died, and the Vice President, presiding over the Senate and about to rule on an important matter, was now President, and the Executive came into the Senate. It was one of the most chilling scenes I have ever seen in movies, most chilling because no one I know of remarked on it at the time. The notion that Presidential bodyguards belong in the Senate seemed to be utterly acceptable to all. Chilling indeed.
Of course Mr. Jefferson ought not be exempt from the law; but once this precedent is established you will find far less unambiguous cases giving the executive and judiciary power to intimidate the Members. I may not live to see Secret Service agents on the floor of Congress when the President is speaking there, but you will.
