Gonzales to quit to support executive perogative

The NY Times reports today that Attorney General Gonzales has threatened to quit if the materials seized in the raids on Rep. Jefferson's (D-LA) office are returned to the Congress. This issue has raised some troubling questions about the real motives of Republican protests about the Justice Department's raids, the first on a member of Congress. As the Times notes, this is "largely a proxy fight for battles likely to come over criminal investigations into other Republicans in Congress". Republicans have time and time again demonstrated that, as long as Republican is in the White House, they don't care about the separation of powers. Their acquiecience in the NSA domestic spying program, the executive-branch led war in Iraq, to mention a few, demonstrates a crass political raison d'etre. If the Republican president is popular, they will support everything he does. However, if there is a chance that their offices will be raided in the future, they will stand behind a (likely) corrupt politician. It makes perfect sense. Even though Jefferson is a Democrat, the raid was related to a corruption probe, something the Representatives can easily identify with.