Circling the wagons

Well, it seems when one of their own, no matter what party, gets caught with his hand in the cookie jar, all our Congresscreatures get outraged:

House Speaker Dennis Hastert demanded Wednesday that the FBI surrender documents it seized and remove agents involved in the weekend raid of Rep. William Jefferson’s office, under what lawmakers of both parties said were unconstitutional circumstances.

House Majority Leader John Boehner of Ohio told reporters Tuesday that the Congress will somehow speak to “this issue of the Justice Department’s invasion of the legislative branch. In what form, I don’t know.”

In an unusual joint statement Wednesday, House Speaker Hastert and Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi accused the Justice Department of violating the principle of Separation of Powers, and the Speech or Debate Clause of the U.S. Constitution which provides immunity to lawmakers while they are engaged in legislative acts.

Somehow, I find all the outrage, especially given recent corruption investigations and calls from both sides of the isle for investigations in to Congressional corruption, disingenuous. Oh sure, we’re all for investigations if we think we can get some political advantage, but if it gets too close to home, well, hold on Buster.

My Dad used to say that if a politician wasn’t a crook when he went to Washington, he’d be one soon enough. Smart man, my Dad.

Odd that he didn’t mention the hypocrite part of that, though.