Is Jack Abramoff the gift that will keep on giving?

[dajoki]

The Nation
http://www.thenation.com/blogs/capitalgames?bid=3&pid=47894

Posted 01/09/2006 @ 05:48am
Will Jackgate Destroy the GOP?

Is Jack Abramoff the gift that will keep on giving? And will he destroy the Republican Party?

It's not a coincidence that Tom DeLay resigned his leadership post--which he was forced to temporarily abdicate once he was indicted in Texas on charges of laundering campaign funds--days after Abramoff, the corrupt-Republican-lobbyist-turned-snitch, cut a deal with the feds that will require him to tell all. That certainly will entail sharing whatever he knows about his intimate relationship with DeLay and DeLay's closest political associates, as well as what he knows about other GOP lawmakers, staffers and high-powered Republican operatives (such as Ralph Reed and Grover Norquist). News reports have already said that up to twenty lawmakers and aides are already in the crosshairs of federal prosecutors thanks to Abramoff and Michael Scanlon, his former partner in sleaze, who also has been cooperating with the feds.

With nervous Republicans angling to toss DeLay overboard, the indicted ex-House majority leader had not much choice but to jump before being unceremoniously shoved aside. But GOPers still have reason for fear for at least two reasons:

1. The Abramoff inquiry is big.

2. As big as the Abramoff probe is, it could extend far beyond the corrupt dealings of Jack Abramoff and his pals on Capitol HIll and K Street.

My friend Karen Tumulty reports in this week's Time that Justice Department prosecutors are running a decent-sized investigation:

Another official involved with the probe told Time that investigators are viewing Abramoff as "the middle guy"--suggesting there are bigger targets in their sights. The FBI has 13 field offices across the country working on the case, with two dozen agents assigned to it full time and roughly the same number working part time. "We are going to chase down every lead," Chris Swecker, head of the FBI's criminal division, told Time.

Nearly 50 agents chasing down Abramoff leads across the country? Republicans far and wide better watch out. (Recall the recent GOP scandal in Ohio, in which the allegedly illegal doings of a top Republican fundraiser stretched to the office of the Republican governor.) On Sunday, The New York Times reported that some of these agents are looking at Alexander Strategy, a leading Republican lobbying firm closely linked to DeLay. Unless the Bush White House dares to muscle the prosecutors, the odds are high that they will nab a bunch of legislators, aides and lobbyists who did shady business with Abramoff, "the middle guy."

[niyad]

1. one can only hope!!

[NVMojo]

2. the fundie media is working overtime with the "FDR was corrupt"

and other bullshit to spread blame around. Why didn't we do that when Clinton was under attack? Like, "Reagan wanted a blow job."

[joefree1]

6. You know they're screwed when they do that "you're guilty too" shrill

Man I love 2006.

[dajoki]

3. what are the chances?

Unless the Bush White House dares to muscle the prosecutors, the odds are high that they will nab a bunch of legislators, aides and lobbyists who did shady business with Abramoff, "the middle guy."

[NV Whino]

4. Oh yeah!

I'm lovin' it.

[coldiggs]

5. I worry though that if just one dem gets tied to this then the whole thing

is out the window

[joefree1]

7. Not

Repeat after me, "This is a culture of corruption propagated by the ruling republican party."

Take no prisoners. Stay hungry.

[coldiggs]

8. ya but the MSM will be able then to portray it as a bipartisn thing and th

e general public will be like a curse on both your houses.

[joefree1]

12. Nope, the tonga line of repukes doing the perp walk

... will be owned by the rethuglican party. All Democrats will have to say is get rid of the corruption and graft and the life blood of the repukes will drain away from their putrid corpse of a party.



"The devil is only a convenient myth invented by the real malefactors of our world"
-Robert Anton Wilson

[snowbear]

9. T.G.H. coldiggs....

TGH = "Taint Gonna Happen"

In other words... don't worry!! :hug:

[Independent_Liberal]

10. I hope so!

I want to see their party completely crippled!

[snowbear]

11. And not only that... but they're facing the "six year itch"

They're goin' down...

[orwell]

13. The whole system...

...is corrupt, as are the "citizens" of the United States, not unlike the mobs of Rome clamoring for bread and circus.

That there is even any debate on how far afield "democracy" had ranged should be fair warning to all. We are hopelessly lost in our own hubris.

A pox on all our houses.

[dajoki]

16. no, please...

not mine, i tried.

[f-bush]

14. Jack buddy is going to need an oil drum of K-Y

and I can only hope the rest of the rethugs join him there.

[applegrove]

15. Apparently, since using dems as a scapegoat doesn't work, they

now blame the Native Americans.

[Tin Man]

17. Fortunately, the Abramoff scandal is gonna drag out for years to come

...and eventually, it's gonna sink into the skull of Joe RedState that the Republicans are about as trustworthy as a Nigerian email solicitation, and that 'ol Joe has been played for the fool. It's shocking to me that it takes a scandal of this magnitude to wake people the fuck up!

[dajoki]

18. i'm sorry, but...

i have no faith that anything is going to sink into the skull of "Joe RedState. if it didn't by now i don't have a clue as to if or when it will.

[LaCrosseDem]

19. that's because in the last two presidential elections

we have ignored Joe Redstate. No more- look what Harry Reid and Howard Dean are doing.

[dajoki]

20. Welcome to DU LaCrosseDem...

you're right, we can no longer ignore or give up on any voter.