Hell has not frozen over, and your eyes and ears are not deceiving you. Important members of the Congressional Republican leadership have actually called for the suppression of evidence of corruption against a Democratic member of the U.S. House of Representatives. In doing so, they have also publicly attacked the Bush administration for its role in investigating the Democrat.

     Here is the background. About nine months ago, FBI agents investigating corruption allegations against Democratic Congressman William J. Jefferson of Louisiana served him with a subpoena for the production of certain records. Congressman Jefferson refused to produce the records for nine months. So, the FBI got a search warrant from a federal judge, and conducted an 18-hour search of the Congressman’s Washington D.C. offices starting the evening of May 20. The FBI apparently took a lot of records with them when they left.

     Some of the leadership in Congress is livid over this raid. They claim that the search is a violation of the “speech and debate” clause, found in Article I, Section 6 of the U.S. Constitution. They also claim that the items seized in the raid should be returned to Congressman Jefferson. Many of the angriest members of Congress are Republicans, even though the target of the investigation is a Democrat.

     I have no idea whether the Congressman is guilty or innocent. The government certainly claims to have some damning evidence against him. Yet there are many examples of high profile cases that started with strong allegations, but where it turned out that the accused was innocent. I prefer to reserve judgment on that issue until the case is decided by an impartial tribunal.

     Right now, I am much more interested in the motivations of the Republicans who are suddenly so interested in obscure legal doctrines like the separation of powers, the speech and debate clause and other provisions of the Constitution. It is not as if they have exhibited a strong interest in these topics over the last five years.

     When President Bush decided to usurp Congress’ constitutional power to declare war, that was fine with the Republican leadership in Congress. When Bush authorized massive warrantless wiretaps on phone calls involving American citizens, and lied about it, Congress was happy to give retroactive approval. The Patriot Act? Congress passed that without even reading it. There have been tons of constitutional violations committed by the Bush administration, and it is hard to think of any which the Republicans in Congress have challenged.

     Why then, when a Democratic Congressman is searched pursuant to an apparently valid warrant, is it suddenly so important for Republicans to express outrage over the violation of the search and debate clause by a marauding Bush administration? They want us to believe it is based on principle, but that claim makes no sense. There is a much more logical explanation for this sudden appreciation for constitutional limits on the executive branch of government.

     The Republicans know perfectly well that there are ongoing criminal investigations into many Republican members of Congress, arising out of the Jack Abramoff scandals. They also know that if the raid on Congressman Jefferson’s office withstands legal challenge, there are likely to be more raids in the future, with Republicans as the targets.

     Regardless of the issues of guilt or innocence in particular cases, corruption threatens to be a huge issue in the November elections. The Republicans who run Congress want to keep the evidence of corruption down to the minimum level possible. The more evidence they can hide behind the speech and debate clause, the more likely it is that they can hang on to those very lucrative seats in Congress.

     Sure, it would be fun to help burn a Democrat in a corruption scandal. But the Republicans have decided they need to hang together in order to avoid hanging separately.

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