Culture of Corruption

I found it funny that Comcast used this picture with the story that Harry Reid has realized that he might have goofed by taking boxing tickets from the Nevada Boxing Commission while working on legislation for the sport.

Evidently having a dozen ethics experts tell him that his explaination was a crock caused Harry to see the light.

If only William Jefferson from Louisiana were in the picture, it would be perfect.

Speaking of Mr. Jefferson, the feds filed court documents that said that a supeona, the normal way of getting into a Congressional office (though not specifically required by law) would have been unwise in the raid of his office. They based it on the fact that when they went into his home, after notifying him they were coming, he was caught stuffing documents into bags. They didn't want a repeat at the office, but knew he'd be informed if they swore out a supeona and then served him with it.

The DOJ has also come up with a very good proposal for how to handle the evidence from that raid. (From Washington Post)

As part of its response to Jefferson's lawsuit, the government offered to provide a "filter team" -- to be made up of an FBI agent and two Justice Department lawyers not part of the investigation -- which would allow Jefferson to examine all the seized materials. If Jefferson thought legislative materials were "privileged" and unrelated to the criminal investigation but the government disagreed, a judge would be the final arbiter, under the proposal.

If the leadership, on both sides of the aisle, can't agree that this is a fair way to protect the "priveleged material", while still chasing down a scofflaw congressman, both parties are in trouble.

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