The Daily Background

This is really more about Hastert than Jefferson, but this wouldn’t have come out without him. Some interesting insight from the Times today:

Speaker J. Dennis Hastert is moving publicly to put his constitutional showdown with the Justice Department in the past, but many on Capitol Hill believe that the bitter confrontation will resonate in the coming months.

Lawmakers and senior officials say Mr. Hastert’s determined challenge to the Justice Department’s court-authorized search of a Congressional office arose as much from frustration at missteps and slights by high-level administration officials as it did from outrage over what he saw as a gross violation of Congressional turf.

He and other Republicans were already upset at the Treasury Department for what they saw as the botched handling of the Dubai ports deal. And they held John D. Negroponte, the national intelligence director, responsible for what they considered the humiliating dismissal of Porter J. Goss, the popular former House member who was forced out as director of the Central Intelligence Agency.

It’s been interesting to see House Republicans at odds with the White House and in the past weeks, and the article mentioned a few instances. Goss, Dubai, and of course the immigration debate in which the President openly favors the Senate plan over the House one. It’ll be interesting to see what the next divide between the the party will be. Full article.

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