Congress Finally Stirs Itself Over Separation of Powers
A while back, I lamented that all three branches of government seemed to be conspiring to weaken Constitutional limits and separation of powers.
The good news is that Congress has finally gotten worked up about protecting separation of powers. The bad news is that the issue at hand is the justice department's investigation of Congressional bribery. Unbelievable. These guys are totally lost. More on the Jefferson bribery charges. Glenn Reynolds comments and has a roundup.
Ed Morrissey provides a bit of Constitutional analysis, as well as this excellent point:
This can't be the same Congress that issues subpoenas for all sorts
of probes into the executive branch and the agencies it runs. Does
Congress really want to establish a precedent that neither branch has
to answer subpoenas if issued by the other, even if approved by a judge
-- which this particular subpoena was?The FBI had a valid subpoena for the information in Jefferson's
office. He refused to provide it. The FBI had little choice but to go
in and take it, and from the description given in the Washington Post,
they took extraordinary care not to confiscate legitimate data relating
to his legislative responsibilities.
