A Tale of Two Hasterts

President Bush, right, shakes hands with Speaker of the House Rep. Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., before delivering his speechat the Arie Crown Theatre in McCormick Place, in a Monday, May 22, 2006 photo in Chicago. House Speaker Dennis Hastert demanded Wednesday, May 24, 2006, that the FBI surrender documents it seized and remove agents involved in the weekend raid of Rep. William Jefferson's office, under what lawmakers of both parties said were unconstitutional circumstances. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

When I first saw this Yahoo News story, I just about rolled my eyes at Dennis Hastert. The story was titled, House leaders demand FBI return papers:

WASHINGTON - In rare, election-year harmony, House Republican and Democratic leaders jointly demanded on Wednesday that the FBI return documents taken in a Capitol Hill raid that has quickly grown into a constitutional turf fight beyond party politics.

"The Justice Department must immediately return the papers it unconstitutionally seized," House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., and Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said in a statement.

After that, they said, Democratic Rep. William Jefferson (news, bio, voting record) of Louisiana must cooperate with the Justice Department's bribery investigation against him.

Rep. William Jefferson, D-La., makes a statement upon his arrival at Washington's National Airport, Monday, May 22, 2006. (AP Photo/Alex Lorman)

The leaders also said the Justice Department should not look at the documents or give them to investigators in the Jefferson case.

The developments capped a day of escalating charges, demands and behind-the-scene talks between House leaders and the Justice Department that ended with no resolution, according to officials of both parties.

This whole fracias has come about because the FBI has searched William Jefferson's congressional office for evidence regarding a bribery investigation. According to the Washington Post, Jefferson was videotaped taking $100,000 in bribes "from a Northern Virginia investor who was wearing an FBI wire. A few days later, on Aug. 3, 2005, FBI agents raided Jefferson's home in Northeast Washington and found $90,000 of the cash in the freezer, in $10,000 increments wrapped in aluminum foil and stuffed inside frozen-food containers..."

FBI agents load the back of a minivan at the Rayburn House Office Building 'horseshoe' entrance Sunday, May 21, 2006 on Capitol Hill in Washington after contnuin their of the offices of Rep. William Jefferson, D-La. (AP Photo/Lauren Victoria Burke)

There is not much to say here about Jefferson--if he was caught taking bribes, then he deserves a trial and, if convicted, the full punishment the law allows. The big news here is that the FBI raided Jefferson's office. And Congress went into an uproar over it. According to the Arizona Republic:

House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., complained directly to President Bush on Tuesday about the FBI raid, while Majority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, predicted a constitutional showdown before the Supreme Court.

"My opinion is that they took the wrong path," Hastert told reporters after his meeting with Bush in the White House. "They need to back up, and we need to go from there."

According to one Justice Department official, the White House is sympathetic to Hastert's complaint and is pressing Justice officials to figure out a way to placate Congress.

So that's the fracias in a nutshell. Denny Hastert is finally stepping up to what he believes are unconstitutional searches by law enforcement officials. It is amazing that he is willing to go along with the Bush administration's illegal NSA domestic spying program, or the Patriot Act's allowing police and FBI to do "sneak and peeks" in American citizen's homes and their library records, or even to allow the big telecoms to provide American citizen's phone records to the NSA for spying. But when the FBI decides to raid a congressman's office--Oh NO! That's unconstitutional! That's destroying the delicate system of checks and balances--does Dennis Hastert really understand the process of checks and balances, considering how little he and his Republican cronies have provided almost no congressional oversight to the multitude of scandals this Bush White House is embroiled in?

So we'll admit that House Speaker Dennis Hastert is a hypocrite! That's understandable. But now here's another little story from ABC News, titled Corruption Investigation: Hastert 'In the Mix:'

Federal officials say the Congressional bribery investigation now includes Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert, based on information from convicted lobbyists who are now cooperating with the government.

Part of the investigation involves a letter Hastert wrote three years ago, urging the Secretary of the Interior to block a casino on an Indian reservation that would have competed with other tribes.

The other tribes were represented by convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff who reportedly has provided details of his dealings with Hastert as part of his plea agreement with the government.

The letter was written shortly after a fund-raiser for Hastert at a restaurant owned by Abramoff. Abramoff and his clients contributed more than $26,000 at the time.

The day Abramoff was indicted, Hastert denied any unlawful connection and said he would donate to charity any campaign contribution he had received from Abramoff and his clients.

And there is more to this story:

Despite a flat denial from the Department of Justice, federal law enforcement sources tonight said ABC News accurately reported that Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert is "in the mix" in the FBI investigation of corruption in Congress.

Speaker Hastert said tonight the story was "absolutely untrue" and has demanded ABC News retract its story.

Speaker of the House, Rep.Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., talks with reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington Wednesday, May 24, 2006, about a report by ABC News claiming he was that he was under investigation by the FBI. The Justice Department said it was not investigating Hastert. (AP Photo/Lauren Victoria Burke)

Law enforcement sources told ABC News that convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff has provided information to the FBI about Hastert and a number of other members of Congress that have broadened the scope of the investigation. Sources would not divulge details of the AbramoffÂ’s information.

"You guys wrote the story very carefully but they are not reading it very carefully," a senior official said.

One focus involves a letter Hastert wrote in 2003 urging the Secretary of the Interior to block an Indian casino that would have competed with tribes represented by Abramoff.

ABC’s law enforcement sources said the Justice Department denial was meant only to deny that Hastert was a formal “target” or “subject” of the investigation.

"Whether they like it or not, members of Congress, including Hastert, are under investigation," one federal official said tonight.

I think the problem here is that Hastert and the Department of Justice believes that Hastert is being investigated under the William Jefferson bribery case, whereas the FBI is investigating Hastert under the Jack Abramoff probe.

Dennis Hastert involved in the Jack Abramoff probe? If Hastert wrote a letter to Norton on behalf of Abrmaoff and his Indian clients, well, the next question would be what did Abramoff give Hastert for this letter? And it would not be good for Hastert if the FBI decided to raid his congressional office for evidence regarding the Abramoff scandal. No wonder Hastert wants the FBI to return those papers seized from Jefferson's office--Hastert certainly wouldn't want the FBI to go through his papers on the Abramoff scandal!

Now, I know there is a constitutional issue regarding an agency of the executive branch searching an office of a congressional branch. And I will agree that it is an issue. If you are a government official, or congressman, who was caught committing a crime, then the Justice Department has every legal right to investigate you--and that includes issuing search warrants. Actually, I think it should go both ways, regarding searches for evidence of crimes committed by our government officials. You see, I'm also more than happy to have Justice Department officials search through the executive branch for evidence of crimes committed by the president. I'm even open to having congressional officials search through the White House papers for evidence of crimes committed by the executive branch--as long as search warrants are issued by the judicial branch.

I want the criminals out of our government.