Taxpayer-subsidized sanctuary for crime? Where do they think they are - Albany?

    CONGRESS EARNS A SLAP

    No one is above the law.
    Not even members of Congress. That should be obvious - but Rep. William Jefferson (D-La.) and the leadership of both parties in the House of Representatives had to be reminded of it last week.

    On Monday, U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Hogan declared that the FBI’s search of Jefferson’s Capitol Hill office in May was indeed constitutional.

    Jefferson had claimed that the raid - conducted with a valid search warrant in hand - violated the Constitution’s speech-and-debate clause, which prevents a member of Congress from being subject to arrest while in the course of official business.

    That privilege, he claimed, extends to documents.

    The search sparked angry responses from both House Speaker Dennis Hastert and Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi. While citing the speech-and-debate clause, they also decried the raid as violating the constitutional doctrine of separation of powers between the branches of government.

    President Bush had the documents sealed for 45 days until the constitutional issues could be decided. Judge Hogan added his own seal on the material.

    Jefferson has been the target of a federal investigation for more than a year. Two months ago, a videotape was released that showed him accepting $10,000 in cash in an alleged bribe involving telecom contracts in Nigeria. A raid of his home in Louisiana turned up $90,000 hidden in a freezer. Two Jefferson business associates have already pleaded guilty to bribing him.

    Noting that the FBI had a legal, court-approved search warrant, Judge Hogan threw cold water on the separation-of-powers argument.

    He said that the arguments by Jefferson - and the House leadership, which filed a friend-of-the-court brief - “would have the effect of converting every congressional office into a taxpayer-subsidized sanctuary for crime.”

    Surely, now, the folks on Capitol Hill wouldn’t want that to happen, would they?

    After all, where do they think they are - Albany?


Instantly the mantra touted constantly by the Senate and House Democrats “the Republican culture of corruption” just jumps out at me… It is not, never has been the Republican only culture of corruption..

I was so outraged when Dennis Hastert started whining about the seperation of powers, at the same time I expected it from Nancy Pelosi… after all they are the ones accusing only the other side when both are guilty.

Now, Albany, that is a different story altogether. We don’t even have the opportunity to see what they are doing, even though they say it is an open process. That is not even close to the truth. Freedon of Information requests are ignored and any move to correct that is shut down at the door of the legislative chambers. Could you imagine what we could learn if we had access to records of committee meetings, records of debates, oh wait, there is no debate in Albany, the dictators tell their houses how to vote and nothing comes out of committee or hits the floor with out the outcome being already decided.

nevermind