Text 20328, 163 rader
Skriven 2006-05-23 06:04:00 av Jeff Binkley (1:226/600)
Ärende: Dems
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Just the first.  Not the last...

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http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/23/washington/23dems.html?_r=1&ei=5094&en
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May 23, 2006
For Democrats, a Scandal of Their Own 
By CARL HULSE
WASHINGTON, May 22 — Democrats' plans to make Republican corruption a 
theme of their election strategy this year have been complicated by 
accusations of wrongdoing in their own ranks, leading the party to try 
on Monday to blunt the political effects of the unfolding case against 
Representative William J. Jefferson. 

Democratic leaders sought to distance the party from Mr. Jefferson, the 
Louisiana Democrat who has been accused by the Federal Bureau of 
Investigation of taking hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes. In 
doing that, the leaders tried to draw a distinction between the 
accusations against him and what they said was a much broader pattern 
among Republicans of trading legislative influence for campaign 
donations, trips and other perks.

Mr. Jefferson appeared on Capitol Hill to deny any wrongdoing. Facing a 
bank of television cameras down the hall from his Congressional office, 
which was raided by federal agents on Saturday night, Mr. Jefferson said 
that he would not resign and that he expected to be cleared. 

In court documents made public on Sunday, the F.B.I. said Mr. Jefferson 
had taken bribes to help a small technology company win federal 
contracts and to help it with business deals in Africa. The F.B.I. said 
he had concealed $90,000 from the scheme in the freezer of his home in 
Washington.

"There are two sides to every story," Mr. Jefferson said, without 
providing any details.

For all the intense partisanship that has surrounded the wave of legal 
and ethical cases on Capitol Hill, the Jefferson case brought some 
Democrats and Republicans together on one point: that the all-night 
search conducted by the F.B.I. raised questions about whether the 
executive branch had violated the constitutional doctrine of separation 
of powers by carrying out a raid on the official office of a member of 
Congress.

Senator Bill Frist of Tennessee, the majority leader, said Monday that 
he had concerns about the constitutionality of the search and was 
seeking a legal opinion. Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, the 
minority leader in the House, said that "Justice Department 
investigations must be conducted in accordance with constitutional 
protections and historical precedent." Some House Republicans said they 
were also disturbed by the way the search was handled.

"I think it is really outrageous," said Representative David Dreier, the 
California Republican who is chairman of the Rules Committee.

The constitutional question aside, some Democrats acknowledged that the 
headline-grabbing case involving a colleague they know as Jeff had the 
potential to dilute one of their core political arguments against the 
Republican majorities in the House and Senate. 

No prominent Republican spoke out against Mr. Jefferson on Monday. But 
Democrats harbored no hope that Mr. Jefferson would not become part of a 
Republican counterattack against Democratic efforts to portray the 
Republicans as a party that had lost its ethical bearings.

"There is no doubt that the charges, the conduct of any Democrat, is 
going to be raised by those who question our attacks on a culture of 
corruption as a way to divert attention from that," said Representative 
Lloyd Doggett, Democrat of Texas and a vocal critic of Representative 
Tom DeLay, the former majority leader. 

Mr. DeLay stepped down from his leadership post and announced he would 
leave Congress after he was indicted in Texas on charges that he had 
used campaign contributions illegally and came under partisan fire for 
his ties to Jack Abramoff, the lobbyist who has pleaded guilty in a wide-
ranging public corruption inquiry.

Representative Rahm Emanuel of Illinois, the chairman of the Democratic 
Congressional Campaign Committee, said Mr. Jefferson's situation was 
that of an individual who had yet to be charged formally. The Democratic 
case against Republicans, he suggested, went to a pattern of trading 
influence for personal gain within an incestuous world of revolving-door 
staff members, lobbyists and campaign fund-raisers that Republicans 
helped establish.

"They are different scales," Mr. Emanuel said. "One is a party outlook 
and operation; the other is an individual's action. They have 
institutional corruption."

Even before the case against Mr. Jefferson became public, Republicans 
were pointing to ethical questions about the activities of another 
Democrat, Representative Alan B. Mollohan of West Virginia, who is under 
F.B.I. scrutiny for his personal finances and his efforts to steer 
millions of dollars to nonprofit organizations that he helped control. 

On Monday, Democratic leaders were considering steps to isolate Mr. 
Jefferson, including the possibility of removing him from his seat on 
the Ways and Means Committee. Ms. Pelosi had already endorsed the idea 
of an ethics inquiry against Mr. Jefferson, and one was initiated last 
week.

Mr. Jefferson said he intended to "continue to represent the people who 
have sent me here to try to respond to their needs and their issues." He 
said he expected to seek re-election, though potential challengers were 
emerging in New Orleans.

Mr. Jefferson also called the search, evidently the first ever executed 
at an official Congressional office, an intrusion into the separation of 
powers. But Ms. Pelosi suggested the lawmaker bore some responsibility.

"Members of Congress must obey the law and cooperate fully with any 
criminal investigation," Ms. Pelosi said in a statement. "If they don't, 
they will be held accountable." 

Late Monday evening, Speaker J. Dennis Hastert issued a statement highly 
critical of the search.

"Insofar as I am aware, since the founding of our Republic 219 years 
ago, the Justice Department has never found it necessary to do what it 
did Saturday night, crossing this separation of powers line, in order to 
successfully prosecute corruption by members of Congress," Mr. Hastert 
said, promising to seek a means to restore "the delicate balance of 
power."

Donald Ritchie, a historian with the Senate, said his office could find 
no record of a similar search, though the homes and business offices of 
lawmakers had been searched in the past.

At an unrelated news conference, Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales 
called the search "unusual steps that were taken in response to an 
unusual set of circumstances; I'll just say that."

In their affidavit, federal prosecutors said they had adopted special 
procedures in the raid to minimize the likelihood that any politically 
sensitive materials unrelated to the inquiry would be seized in paper 
form or from office computers.

Lawmakers under federal investigation have in the past raised their 
special status under the Constitution in an effort to thwart charges 
with mixed results, with prosecutors sometimes narrowing the case in 
response, though the Supreme Court has also refused to consider such 
claims.

In 2002, Mr. Jefferson sought to join the House leadership by becoming 
the chairman of the Democratic campaign committee, citing his fund-
raising record. But Ms. Pelosi chose her fellow Californian, 
Representative Bob Matsui, who died in January 2005, and her 
relationship with Mr. Jefferson has been somewhat strained since.

Mr. Jefferson's problems were generating wisecracks on Capitol Hill 
about cold cash and freezing assets. As in the case of Randy Cunningham, 
a California Republican jailed after a bribery conviction this year, 
fellow lawmakers also expressed amazement at the purported goings-on.

"If the allegations are true," Mr. Doggett said, referring to Mr. 
Jefferson, "he has no place here."

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