Why did the FBI and the Justice Department feel it was necessary to seize documents from William Jefferson’s Congressional office? Maybe this makes it clearer.

The Justice Department vigorously defended Tuesday the recent weekend raid of Rep. William Jefferson’s Capitol Hill office as part of a bribery investigation, asserting that the Democratic lawmaker tried to hide documents from FBI agents while they were searching his New Orleans home in August.

The government questioned in a 34-page motion filed in U.S. District Court here whether it could have obtained all the materials it had sought in a subpoena if it hadn’t raided Jefferson’s congressional office May 20. According to the government filing, an FBI agent caught Jefferson slipping documents into a blue bag in the living room of his New Orleans home during a search.

“It is my belief that when Congressman Jefferson placed documents into the blue bag, he was attempting to conceal documents that were relevant to the investigation,” FBI agent Stacey Kent of New Orleans said in an affidavit that was part of the government’s court submission. The document was filed in response to Jefferson’s suit demanding that the government return to him documents seized during the raid on his Capitol Hill office 10 days ago.

Gee, ya think?

While the leadership from both parties are having hissie fits over this, some members of Congress are looking at this through the eyes of the average voter.

The Speaker’s decision to challenge the constitutionality of the FBI search has not been politically popular among some members of his own Republican Conference. Rep. Ginny Brown-Waite (R-Fla.) announced last week that she would introduce a resolution when Congress resumes next week stating that members “are not above the law” and should not be able to hide information in their congressional offices.

During a closed-door session to discuss the issue last week, a handful of members raised concerns about whether or not Hastert had done the right thing in protesting the search, according to members in attendance. Even some of the Speaker’s supporters expressed frustration that he and the other leaders did a bad job explaining the constitutional protections involved to members and the media before it exploded in the press.

“I don’t know how you could sell it,” Brown-Waite said yesterday. “There is no way to spin it that it wouldn’t look like anything but a special privilege.”

In other words, you can call a cow pie a steak all day long, but that’s not going to make it taste any better.