So it's not that I think local Congressman William Jefferson is innocent of the corruption allegations against him; no, far from it, I think the New Orleans Democrat should be looking forward to a barbed wire lunch date with Tom DeLay, complete with armed chaperones, of course. The $90,000 in cash found in Jefferson's freezer in his Washington, D.C., home pretty much says it all. That revelation forces one to think back to the days immediately after Hurricane Katrina: was Jefferson worried about $90,000 in cash being looted from his home in New Orleans when he ordered National Guardsmen to take him miles out of their way on an unauthorized excursion to examione his property? Or was Mr. Jefferson merely very concerned about the condition of his vegetable garden?
All assumptions of guilt aside, I find it disgusting that the U.S. Attorney General's Office gave its full consent to the FBI to raid Jefferson's private office on Capitol Hill. The search warrant for Jefferson's suite in the Rayburn House Office building was the first warrant ever issued in the 219 year history of the U.S. Congress. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales explained the raid this way:
"We have an obligation to the American people to pursue the evidence where it exists."
I'm sure Mr. Gonzales meant to add, "Unless that evidence exists somewhere in the White House, of course." Or possibly, "Unless that evidence exists somewhere in Tom DeLay's office, of course." Or maybe, "Unless that evidence exists somewhere in Dick Cheney's office." I think you get the idea. Basically we are supposed to believe that the Attorney General's Office had no obligation to pursue evidence in the CIA identity leak case, the NSA illegal surveillance case, any of Tom DeLay's mulitple ethics violations allegations or any other of the large number of corruption cases involving Republican politicians, but suddenly did have an obligation to break a 219-year precedent of not searching the private offices of a U.S. Congressman to find eveidence against a Democrat from New Orleans -- in an election year, no less?!!? Surely you jest, Mr. Gonzales.
To the credit of -- or perhaps to the desire to protect evidence of their own corruption -- many Republican Congressman have criticized this unprecedented pursuit of justice. House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R - IL) in particular has been vocal about the problems created by the over-zealousness of the Justice Department.
None of these criticisms alters the fact that the search has been done. The precedent has been set by Mr. Gonzales; now he is obligated to "pursue the evidence wherever it exists," even if it exists in the toilet of a Republican Congressman's private bathroom on Capitol Hill. Does anybody else out there suspect that this relentless pursuit of evidence will somehow never find its way into that bathroom during Gonzales' tenure in office?
