Couldn't have said it better...

...if I had said it myself:

Barney Frank (D.Mass.), who happens to be the editor's congressman, said the following on the floor with respect to the FBI search of Cong. William Jefferson's office:

Madam Speaker, I disagree with the bipartisan House leadership criticism of the FBI's search of a Member's office. I know nothing specifically about the case, except that the uncontroverted public evidence did seem to justify the
issuance of a warrant.

What we now have is a Congressional leadership,
the Republican part of which has said it is okay for law enforcement to engage in warrantless searches of the average citizen, now objecting when a search, pursuant to a validly issued warrant, is conducted of a Member of Congress.

I understand that the speech and debate clause is in the
Constitution. It is there because Queen Elizabeth I and King James I were disrespectful of Parliament. It ought to be, in my judgment, construed narrowly. It should not be in any way interpreted as meaning that we as Members of Congress have legal protections superior to those of the average citizen.

So I think it was a grave error to have criticized the FBI. I
think what they did, they ought to be able to do in every
case where they can get a warrant from a judge. I think, in particular, for the leadership of this House, which has stood idly by while this administration has ignored the rights of citizens, to then say we have special rights as Members of Congress is wholly inappropriate.

Thanks to talkingpointsmemo for pointing this statement out.

What's happening in Congress, as more and more citizens realize, is that Republicans are using the troubles of a Democrat to invoke the separation-of-powers doctrine in a groundless attempt to shield their many members who are under criminal investigation--including such luminaries as Jerry Lewis, chair of the House Appropriations Committee. Unfortunately, the Republican leadership is being aided by some Democrats in the leadership in making this sound like a constitutional issue.

As The New York Times pointed out in a recent editorial, it ill-behooves the Republicans--who have said nothing about the President's repeated arrogations of power to the executive branch--to raise these issues now, when it is so clear that all they have in mind is self-protection. Take is as another example of how debased and corrupt the system has become.

If there is a silver lining to this rodomontade, it is that Cong. Jefferson seems, so far, to have been shuttled to the background (restricting, at least for the moment, the ability of Republicans to paint corruption as bi-partisan), and that the transparency of the shock! shock! over the FBI search is serving mainly to remind Americans of the many criminal investigations underway, almost all against Republicans.

(I have suggested to those who don't known Barney Frank that he is so popular in the Massachusetts 4th that he could run against God, and God would lose.)