Senate Leaders Profess Less Outrage on FBI Raid

[Rose Siding]

After a week of bipartisan outrage over an FBI raid on a congressman's office, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist weighed in yesterday, saying that he was "okay" with the search and saw no constitutional problems with it......

Frist (R-Tenn.) said on "Fox News Sunday" that he had studied the provision in the Constitution regarding the separation of powers, and consulted with Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales. He concluded that the FBI acted appropriately when it used a warrant to search the office of a sitting lawmaker for the first time in history.
...
Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.), assistant minority leader, also took a measured view of the raid, questioning whether the "speech and debate" protections in the Constitution were violated, as critics say. "I'm not sure you can stretch it to apply to this situation," he said. He noted that the action was not without precedent. He said that the FBI has raided the office of a federal judge before, so there is a history of branches of government crossing each other with regard to a search warrant. "In the next several weeks, we ought to take a hard look at it. I'm not going to rule it in or out at this moment."

House Judiciary Committee Chairman F. James Sensenbrenner Jr. (R-Wis.), who called a hearing tomorrow on the constitutionality of the search, said yesterday that the FBI overreached.

"This debate is not over whether Congressman Jefferson is guilty of a criminal offense," Sensenbrenner said on NBC's "Meet the Press." "He cannot use the constitutional immunity of Congress to shield himself from that or any evidence of that. But it is about the ability of the Congress to be able to do its job free of coercion from the executive branch."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/28/AR2006052800741.html

[IndianaGreen]

1. What can we expect from people that voted to confirm Gen. Hayden?

Historians will say that George Bush had a lot of bipartisan help when he proceeded to install himself as dictator.

[Rose Siding]

2. Durbin voted against Hayden

But too many Ds didn't.

[CdnObserver]

3. This should suppress any impeachment thoughts from rogue house GOP's

This should do nicely for them to make sure that Republicans in Congress don't get the idea that they can save themselves by banding together and impeaching Bush before the midterms. Jefferson was used as an example of what will happen to them if they try to make a move.

[Supersedeas]

4. this smells smells smells like a sham