The latest Washington scandal may top them all

[IkeWarnedUs]

The latest Washington scandal may top them all

By DAN K. THOMASSON
Scripps Howard News Service
24-NOV-05

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While the impact of the Baker scandal and those that followed _ including the Ethics Committee's first case, an inquiry into the financial activities of Sen. Thomas Dodd of Connecticut (in retrospect an unfair journalistic attack on an honest but careless man) _ were considerable, they pale in significance when measured against the likes of Watergate and Iran Contra and the much earlier Teapot Dome. But if you think that any of those was the Mount Everest of government malfeasance, at least from a financial standpoint, you ain't seen nothing yet.

Churning down Constitution Avenue toward Capitol Hill is a hurricane of potential political anguish the size of Katrina. It has been swirling around down the street at the Justice Department for sometime and with a major development just last week seems on the move to destroy any number of careers. It involves an extraordinarily well -connected super lobbyist named Jack Abramoff, whose activities already have resulted in an indictment in Florida and have been under close scrutiny in this town for at least a year and a half.

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But the lawmakers most targeted for favors seems to be Rep. Robert Ney, R-Ohio, the chairman of the House Administration Committee, who appears to have frequently eaten free at Abramoff's now closed Capitol Hill restaurant, and DeLay, who was the chief celebrity at a big time golf outing in Scotland, sponsored by Abramoff. The Associated Press has identified more than 30 other lawmakers as having pushed for an Aramboff cause. All deny there was any exchange of favors.

The extent of Abramoff's activities is apparently still being determined. But his alleged improprieties make those around Baker, who even shook down Senate pages, look like penny ante stuff, or, in Watergate parlance, a third rate burglary. The key amount that brought down Baker was something like a $100,000 donation in cash from a lobbying group. Native Americans lost millions in this deal, not an unusual consequence for our indigenous citizens at the hands of the government and those who influence it. That alone makes the entire mess more egregious than most of these scandals.

Link: http://www.shns.com/shns/g_index2.cfm?action=detail&pk=THOMASSON-11-24-05