Jefferson's Bribery: Grasping Defeat from the Jaws of Victory

The Republican's would have had a hard time scripting it any better. With Duke, Ney, DeLay and Abramoff hanging over their heads, they were in desperate need of a Democrat hiding a $90,000 bribe in his freezer.

So Rep. Jefferson decides to help them out and do this. Allegedly. And instead of jumping on the opportunity to jump on corruption as a bipartisan issue to be dealt with harshly, the Republican in Congress decide it's time to take a stand on executive power? A stand which it is pretty much unanimously agreed has no legal standing. And a stand which provides political coverage to their opponents on an issue they could use a lot of help with. Not to mention that it would seem like the right thing to do to encourage a strong investigation of colleagues corrupting our democracy.
Congressional Republicans have spent the last couple of years poo-hooing pansified concerns over Presidential power concerns over NSA wire taps, detaining of US citizens and such. But when it comes to getting a warrant and performing a legal search on the office of a cash hiding congressman - then they're up in arms?

A little more than a decade ago the first plank of the Republican's Contract With America was "require all laws that apply to the rest of the country also apply equally to the Congress." Times have changed.