South Knox Bubba says you ought to be mad as hell and he's right:

People like Tom "I AM the Federal Government" DeLay (not to mention John Ashcroft) are exactly why Thomas Jefferson and James Madison demanded a Bill of Rights be made part of the Constitution. They experienced first-hand, and could foresee, abuse of the awesome powers of the government for political or ideological purposes, or simply criminal activity by powerful elected officials such as theft, retribution, or revenge.

Nobody cared when Ashcroft ignored the Constitution, which he was sworn to uphold and protect, and started arresting and detaining people without warrants, probable cause, or due process. Nobody cared about Ashcroft's blatant violations of detainee's Fifth and Sixth Amendment rights when he held them without charges and denied their right to legal representation and their right to confront their accusers. Nobody cared because the detainees were suspected terrorists, you know, Muslims, and people of Middle Eastern descent.

Now it appears that Tom DeLay and others have similarly abused the powers of the Federal government to threaten the rights and liberties of Texas legislators, ordinary Americans, for political purposes.

SK recaps the whole shameful incident.

Update: The Washington Post reports Sunday that Joe Lieberman is asking for records of calls between Bush, Karl Rove and Tom DeLay on the issue.

The issue is politically sensitive because the Department of Homeland Security has acknowledged assisting law enforcement officers who were asked by Republicans to round up Democrats who had fled the state to avoid voting on a redistricting plan championed by DeLay. The plan died when a deadline passed without a quorum.

An FBI agent also helped in the search, but the bureau said it did not act at the behest of politicians. The Federal Aviation Administration gave aircraft-tracking information to DeLay's staff, and his staff sought advice from the Justice Department.

Bush and Rove apparently spoke to DeLay before the legislators departed.