What Constitutional Crisis?

I normally agree with Dennis Hastert and Newt Gingrich but I can't when they're raising constitutional issues on the raid of William Jefferson's office. Here's Hastert's latest 'contribution' to the debate:
The FBI's raid on a Democrat's office rippled through Capitol Hill Wednesday, with Republicans demanding that the bureau surrender documents and other items its agents seized under what lawmakers said were unconstitutional circumstances. "I think those materials ought to be returned," said House Speaker Dennis Hastert, adding that the FBI agents involved "ought to be frozen out of that (case) for the sake of the Constitution."

A day earlier, the Illinois Republican complained personally to President Bush about the Saturday night raid of Rep. William Jefferson's legislative office, saying it violated the Constitution's separation of powers doctrine. Other House officials have predicted that the case would bring all three branches together at the Supreme Court for a constitutional showdown.
If Hastert thinks that the FBI raid is unconstitutional, then what does he think is the appropriate course to take? I know that he isn't saying that Jefferson should have a safe haven to hide incriminating evidence. That leads me to wonder what remedy is available to collect this evidence.

Furthermore, what remedy would be effective? If the FBI were to contact Hastert's office about gaining Jefferson's documents, would the Capitol Police then enter Jefferson's office and retrieve those documents?

Frankly, I doubt that the American people give a rip about this. And while I'm not worried about the constitutional issue either because a judge issued a search warrant.



Posted Wednesday, May 24, 2006 10:21 AM

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