Suddenly, with the FBI raid on Rep. William Jefferson's office, Congressional leaders appear to be rediscovering the U.S. Constitution. For years now they have looked the other way as President George W. Bush behaved much like an emperor without limits on his authority. They remained mute as he launched permanent wars and authorized unwarranted spying on private citizens. And yet now, in reaction to a search for evidence in the case of the $90,000 in the freezer guy, both parties are crying foul.

Some Republicans are no doubt motivated by a desire to break loose from a President whose policies could cost them control over Congress. For Democrats, the newfound interest in the Constitution could lead to a shift in their own strategy vis-à-vis a President with illusions of imperial power.

Until the Jefferson case, the Democratic leadership had seemed to be pursuing the strategy that General Kutuzov used against Napoleon in the war of 1812. Rather than confronting the French invaders, Russia's commander-in-chief held his troops back, allowing Napoleon's Grande Armée to succumb to hunger and a brutal Russian winter.

But Bush and his political army are unlikely to disappear into a snow bank without a fight, however low his poll numbers might sink. Perhaps the spark of resistance to the office raid is a sign that Congressional Democrats might be coming out of their bunkers to use the power of the U.S. Constitution to hold the President accountable for his actions.

Napoleon's opponents didn't have the advantage of a Constitution to limit his authority. After having himself proclaimed emperor, Napoleon had free reign to make war wherever he fancied. To realize his imperial dreams, he merrily dispatched soldiers from one end of Europe to the other.

Under the U.S. Constitution, such decisions are not left to one man. Congress, not the President, has the sole power to declare war. And yet Congress has passively allowed Bush to overstep his bounds. Yes, lawmakers did approve a 2002 resolution authorizing an attack if Saddam Hussein refused to give up weapons of mass destruction, but they never assumed their constitutional responsibility to debate and vote on whether to declare war.

And of course there were no weapons of mass destruction, which put Saddam Hussein in the position of having to prove a negative. But the charade goes on. As this undeclared war enters its fourth year, Bush now tells us that our troops will stay in Iraq into the indefinite future. Most Democrats, rather than calling him on the constitutional question, speak about the President's war as simply a matter of mismanagement.

After getting away with violating constitutional intent on war powers, no wonder the President felt free to give the green light to spying on Americans' phone calls and emails without warrants. His flimsy defense is that he has the inherent constitutional authority to take whatever actions are necessary to protect the country.

Napoleon also imagined himself as the great protector of his people. His Napoleonic Code granted freedom of the press and codified other civil protections. But as he plunged France into endless war, Napoleon became fearful of domestic and foreign subversives. Freedom of the press and individual liberties were abolished. Like the Bush Administration, Napoleon's officers developed sophisticated spying systems, including the use of concierges as the eyes and ears of the imperial power.

For Napoleon, the end came when a coalition of nations forced him to live out his days in disgrace on the remote island of Saint Helena. International challenges to Bush's use of force have withered since the 2003 showdown over Iraq in the UN Security Council. So it's not a good idea to rely on help from outside the United States.

On Capitol Hill, Rep. John Conyers' (D-MI) call for an investigation into whether Bush has violated the constitutional rules of executive authority has garnered meager support. On the Senate side, Russ Feingold's proposal to censure Bush over the wiretapping scandal sent the Wisconsinite's fellow Democrats scurrying for cover.

Perhaps the raid on Jefferson's office hit close enough to home for members of Congress to realize that they must overcome their fears of raising constitutional issues. More likely is that it will be up to the citizens of this country to demand an end to Bush's imperial aspirations that are wasting hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars and thousands of lives.

Our constitution must be restored to its central purpose  to ensure accountability in what is, after all, a constitutional democracy.

Marcus Raskin is co-founder of the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, D.C. and the co-author of "In Democracy's Shadow: The Secret World of National Security" (Nation Books, 2005). Sarah Anderson is a Fellow of IPS and a co-author of the report Executive Excess 2005.