Moonage Political Webdream

OK, here’s the headlines:

As a high-flying Republican lobbyist, Jack Abramoff has long been known as a mover and shaker in Washington. But when he cut a deal with federal prosecutors on Tuesday, he shook up this town as never before.

Ramifications are already being felt locally in my small town:

U.S. Rep. Hal Rogers said last night he will give away $32,000 in campaign donations he had accepted from disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff’s Indian casino clients.

The money should not be allowed to become a problem, said Rogers, a Republican who represents Southeast Kentucky’s 5th Congressional District. It will go to the UNITE Foundation, a non-profit group he helped organize in his district to fight drug trafficking and treat addiction.

Money taken from gambling casinos by crooked Christian neo-conservative lobbyists to improperly affect legislation is going to be used to fight drug trafficking in rural Kentucky instead.  Why does this seem so perfect?  The rest is just pudding.

So far, the most likely victims of Abramoff’s activities seem to be:

• Representative Bob Ney, Republican of Ohio - Identified in the court papers regarding Abramoff.
• Tom Delay - Currently under indictment for money laundering, similar to the charges Abramoff pleaded guilty to.  Whether or not there’s a legal connection implicating Delay, his chances of returning to power now are zero.  He’s now double-tainted by both his own actions and the actions of his close associates.  He’s toast.  He’ll remain in office for a while but he’ll never be the power he once was.
• Grover G. Norquist, a leading conservative strategist and president of Americans for Tax Reform - They’ve been buddies for 20 years.  He’s probably innocent, but his days of being a "leading conservative stragegist" are probably toast.
• Ralph Reed, former director of the Christian Coalition who is now a candidate for lieutenant governor in Georgia - Ralph was the head figure of the movement that spawned under the presidency of Ronald Reagan, and IMO got caught up in it’s own success.  I think a lot of people expected Reed et al to basically have an open door to the White House.  However, I credit Dick Cheney with keeping the White House from following the extremism Reed and others espoused.  How this affects Reed’s chances I don’t know yet.  However, his lead at this time is pretty substantial.  But, it’s supposed to be a hotly contested race.  If this causes Reed to lose this election, he’s political toast.

Those are the four already convicted of guilt by association.  There’s nothing they can do about it.  One of the four, Ney, has REAL legal issues to deal with, he’s all over the plea agreement ( courtesy of Findlaw.com ).  That’s all I could find.  Now, my assumption is there is more, or the feds would not have been so eager to plea.  How tangible that proves to be I have no clue.  The stuff on Ney is very tangible.  If Abramoff has the same type of information on some others, there will be issues.  Some are already touting this as the next Watergate.  I don’t think it’s going to be quite that big of an issue.  Could be wrong, but I don’t think I am.  Abramoff and Scanlon are in a world of hurt and Ney has some explaining to do.  But so far the rest are only guilty by association.  And in a couple of cases, that’s good enough for me.

I was originally going to try to follow the paper trail of Preston, Gates, et al.  But quite honestly, it leads to too many places with nothing tangible coming from it.  I’ll leave that to the prosecutors I guess.

One person that definitely will not leave it to the prosecutors is ( drum roll please ), Ms. Nancy Pelosi.  Her summary judgment? "The political ramifications of the Abramoff probe were apparent, with minority Democrats intending to make ethics a campaign issue in this election year. House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi said Abramoff’s confession in court was "not a surprise because this Republican Congress is the most corrupt in history and the American people are paying the price."  Where have we heard THAT comment before?  Before she gets too carried away ( when is she NOT carried away? ), in all reporting of this story, it goes to pains to mention that some Democrats were also involved.  The most notable being Harry Reid, the Democrat Senate Party Leader.  Harry, not wanting to cave in to the hysteria being hyped by Nancy, recently had this to say:

��The Republican Congress has put their special interest friends at the top of their agenda this week as they rush to finish business before the holiday break. While they work to ensure big oil, the drug industry and the banks get everything on their wish list, middle-class Americans are learning just what it means to have a corrupt Congress abusing their power. Together, America can do better.��

All the while accepting Indian casino money from Abramoff wanting to take money and jobs away from his own constituents.

This could get REAL interesting before it’s over.  I’ll be watching.

• Technorati Jack Abramoff, Michael Scanlon, Tom Delay, Bob Ney, Ralph Reed, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid

Technorati Tags: National Politics, Opinions

Tags: National Politics, Opinions

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