Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist came down on the right side of the issue over whether the FBI's search of Representative Jefferson's offices were constitutional. They were.
In a break with his counterparts in the House, the Senate's leader said Sunday the FBI was within its right to search the office of a congressman under investigation in a bribery case.
"No House member, no senator, nobody in government should be above the law of the land, period," Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist said.
Frist, R-Tenn., was responding to the search conducted May 20-21 in the office of Rep. William Jefferson, D-La. FBI agents carted away computer and other records in their pursuit of evidence that Jefferson accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars in exchange for helping set up business deals in Africa.
I think that's a good position. I'm still watching this issue to see if there is a deeper reason for some members hot button reaction to the search.
In the Abramhoff scandal there were several congressmen implicated (Ney most directly). In addition, there might be more implicated in the Cunningham scandal. The public integrity section of the FBI has added many new agents.
With so many republicans possibly implicated, perhaps the Jefferson case is a convenient venue to draw a line in the sand with the Justice department.
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