From today’sNY Times:

“WASHINGTON, May 23 — After years of quietly acceding to the Bush administration’s assertions of executive power, the Republican-led Congress hit a limit this weekend.

Resentment boiled among senior Republicans for a second day on Tuesday after a team of warrant-bearing agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation turned up at a closed House office building on Saturday evening, demanded entry to the office of a lawmaker and spent the night going through his files.

The episode prompted cries of constitutional foul from Republicans — even though the lawmaker in question, Representative William J. Jefferson of Louisiana, is a Democrat whose involvement in a bribery case has made him an obvious partisan political target.

Even our own Zach Wamp (R, TN) has concerns, “”When I first saw [reports of the search], I thought: ‘Wonder if the federal government needs to be reined in.”

It’s interesting that this is the issue causing Republican congressional leadership apoplexy. Could it be that it’s because they fear whose office will be next? Or is it because this is the first time in our history that a congressional office has been searched?

Regardless, this is just another example of the executive branch expanding its powers and Alberto Gonzales believing that all he has to do is say that the Department of Justice has “a great deal of respect for the Congress as a co-equal branch of government” for it to be true.

Don’t misunderestimate me, “No member is above the law,” as Representative Steny H. Hoyer of Maryland explains, and even congressional leaders must be held accountable. But if the information needed is subpoenaed but not produced in a timely manner, where are the contempt charges?

And keep a keen eye on the hypocrisy of ordering an FBI raid because the info from Rep. Jefferson was requested 8 months ago without result. The Justice Department’s Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) waited for months but was ultimately denied security clearance to advance an inquiry aimed at determining which administration officials authorized, approved and audited NSA surveillance activities.

OPR Counsel H. Marshall Jarrett wrote to Representative Maurice Hinchey (D, NY), the most vocal Congressional advocate for investigation of the spying program, that he had closed the Justice Department probe on May 9, because his office’s requests for security clearances to conduct the investigation had been denied.

“I am writing to inform you that we have been unable to make any meaningful progress in our investigation because OPR has been denied security clearances for access to information about the NSA program,” Jarrett explained in his letter to Hinchey. “Beginning in January 2006, this Office made a series of requests for the necessary clearances. On May 9, 2006, we were informed that our requests had been denied. Without these clearances, we cannot investigate this matter and therefore have closed our investigation.”

Too bad Congress doesn’t have a civilian investigative organization at its disposal.

This post was written by Mary Mancini