Blanton over at Redstate signals the Assphants in Congress to wake up in a hurry:
You have said that the NSA program is not a violation of our civil rights.
You have said the Patriot Act is not a violation of our civil rights.
You have said the detainment of prisoners in Gitmo is not a violation of their civil rights.
What exactly now gives you the right to tell the American people that the FBI has violated your rights?
Regardless of the merits of your legal argument (which is crap), this is not the political argument you want to be making.
As of this day, the conservative grassroots' motto should be Hastert Delenda Est.
A SPECIAL NOTE TO GOP MOC's: We are your allies. Do you really think the left is going to be more supportive of you? If you do, you are really screwed.
Related Posts (on one page):
- Leadership talking points and fisking
- A post to warm the cockles of Ara's heart
- A prediction
R.I.P. Steven Malcolm Anderson
Minion
of the Week
See, I have mixed feelings about this on so many levels.
Historical: I can't believe that the Executive branch stepped on 200 years of tradition (if not the law) to investigate a corrupt Congressman -- from Louisiana! Duh.
Political: It's pretty shameful that THIS is the event that suddenly wakes up Hastert and the Republicans. Can you say "rubber stamp Republicans?" If not, the Democrats will.
Democratic Party loyalty: There is a way to handle this and it does not involve "acting like a Republican." It involves:
1. (re)swearing your allegiance to the US Constitution and tying this back to the NSA, the Patriot Act, Gitmo, torture, signing statements, and on and on and on.
2. It means (at least) paying lip service to the the fact that Jefferson is innocent until proven guilty -- and simultaneously making a retroactive rule saying if you are under investigation, you must relinquish all power except that given to you via the ballot box.
3. And/but it means that the Congressional Black Caucus needs to get right with Jesus and stop fighting the leadership on this.
That's all I can think of right now.
It seems like the parties are in a race to the bottom. Not my preference. I want both to be strong, principled and ethical.
I would settle for less boneheaded.
Yours,
Wince
There is no legal, nor traditional, impediment to the executive investigating the legislative. To say so requires not just profound stupidity but also profound ignorance. There has never, in the entire history of this Republic, been any such policy, tradition, principle, or law.
There have been efforts in recent years to promulgate such a phoney-baloney, totally unconstitutional, and flat out dumb notion. It should not be just resisted, but flat out opposed with full-throttle force and by every means necessary. The President should have told Hastert to go screw himself, and Hastert ought to be removed from the speakership as an embarrassment for suggesting something so stupid and so breathtakingly arrogant.
What is actually being suggested here is that members of Congress are basically a privileged class that's above the law. Which ought to infuriate anyone who hears it. Check your Constitution, children: the only such immunity members of Congress have is that they can't be arrested while travelling to or from a legislative session, nor for statements made during a legislative session.
The executive branch has been conducting investigations on legislators, and on judges, since the founding of this republic. And the legislators and judges have been conducting investigations on the executive all along too. And that's a good thing, not a bad thing.
Fire Denny Hastert. Immediately.
P.S. Hey, Dean -- be careful. You don't want to pop a blood vessel or anything, you know?