Posted on 09/15/2006 6:54:13 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
WASHINGTON - Republicans decided long ago their party won't pay a significant price at the polls for the scandal spawned by lobbyist Jack Abramoff. It's a proposition likely to be tested anew in the aftermath of Rep. Bob Ney (news, bio, voting record)'s agreement to plead guilty to corruption charges.
Within minutes of the disclosure of Ney's signed plea bargain papers on Friday, House Democrats circulated a list meant to suggest guilt by association. It highlighted the names of more than 60 Republican incumbents who have accepted political donations from the six-term lawmaker.
"Americans are ready for a new direction this November because it's time for a Congress that will put the American people's interests ahead of the special interests," said Rep. Rahm Emanuel (news, bio, voting record), the Illinois Democrat who chairs his party's campaign organization.
Republicans said that as a national strategy, ethics was a non-starter.
"I don't know of any member of Congress who's lost because of something another member did or didn't do," said Carl Forti, a spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee.
"We saw how well the corruption message worked for Democrats in California," he said, a reference to a Republican victory earlier in the year in a special election to succeed convicted GOP Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham, now in prison.
There's evidence to suggest Forti might be right, so far at least.
Beyond attacking Republicans verbally for presiding over a "culture of corruption," Democrats have made little if any effort to exploit the spectacle of once-powerful Republicans confessing crimes.
Officials in both parties said they knew of only one candidate, Zack Space, who has aired a television commercial on the issue of corruption so far in the campaign. He is running in the district Ney has represented since 1994.
That doesn't mean individual lawmakers haven't paid a political price — or may soon.
Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay resigned earlier in the year. He had close ties to Abramoff, and is under indictment in Texas on campaign finance charges.
Another Republican, Sen. Conrad Burns (news, bio, voting record) of Montana is in a difficult re-election race, in part because of his ties to Abramoff and roughly $150,000 in donations he received from the lobbyist and his clients and his associates. Burns has returned the money or donated it to charity.
Rep. William Jefferson (news, bio, voting record), D-La., has long lived under a legal cloud. Two men have been convicted in a probe in which he is involved, his congressional office was searched for evidence and the FBI says it found $90,000 in bribe money in a freezer in his home. The congressman denies wrongdoing.
The political calculation by GOP strategists has been evident for months, and became clear when their drive to enact far-reaching ethics legislation cratered.
Within days of Abramoff's guilty plea, a Capitol competition of sorts broke out as lawmakers in both parties and both houses of Congress scrambled to declare their support for far-reaching ethics legislation. Individual lawmakers rushed to shed themselves of donations from the GOP lobbyists or his clients.
"I wish it hadn't happened because it's not going to help us keep our majority," conceded Rep. Ralph Regula (news, bio, voting record), R-Ohio, in the wake of Abramoff's guilty plea.
Within a few months, the Senate passed a bipartisan bill banning senators and staff from receiving meals and gifts from lobbyists.
The Republican-controlled House voted along party lines for a bill that allowed privately funded travel as long as two-thirds of the ethics committee approved it in advance. A Democratic call for tougher measures failed.
Then gridlock gained control.
In a move designed to thwart Democratic chances at the polls, House Republicans had included a provision to crack down on a type of independent political organizations known as 527 committees. Unlike the parties and most groups, they are allowed to raise money in unlimited amounts from donors whose identities may remain secret.
Senate Democrats threatened to filibuster. They were joined by a small group of Senate Republicans, some of them maneuvering for favor among the 527 groups in advance of the 2008 presidential campaign.
Despite a steady stream of convictions — involving two former senior congressional aides, a former Interior Department employee and a one-time aide at the General Services Administration — the drive to enact legislation was doomed.
Now, with lawmakers likely to adjourn in two weeks for the elections, the list of reform measures is not a long one.
The House voted last February to bar former lawmakers-turned-lobbyists from the House floor and gym.
At the time, Rep. David Dreier (news, bio, voting record), R-Calif., called the changes "the first step toward our reform package."
Or not.
On Thursday, the House voted to require lawmakers to identify the special projects they slip into legislation. It's a temporary change only, subject to ratification when the new Congress convenes in January.
Has AP even covered ANY of the Democrats caught up in this "scandal"?
They make passing mention of Jefferson and that is about it.. nothing about others like McDermott, Kennedy, McKinney,, the list goes on
I guess I should of known. To AP an accusation = a conviction if you are a Marine, a Republican or a Conservative
C'mon. The AP listed Cunningham, Ney, DeLay, Jefferson and Burns. It is a safe bet that those on this list who haven't been convicted will be. You really need to look at each individual case here. The criminal acts for each are quite clear. I think it is your partisanship that prohibits you from seeing it.
And where's the William Jefferson coverage?
What a yawner. I don't know anyone talking about this other than the left wing dunderhead yammering class. Funny they won't talk about the Plame "scandal" being debunked to the extent they'll talk about some nobody GOP Congressman no one has ever heard of.
And entire article based on Ney's plea bargain, and it doesn't even mention that Ney dropped out of his re-election race a while ago, so he's effectively quit the congress.
Not that I am aware of.
However, that does NOT excuse not only Ney's reprehensible conduct, but the Republican Party of Ohio (and possibly the RNC), one of which had to know this was coming and did not force Ney out earlier.
Go to Hell
"Oh I hope I hope I hope, I hope....."
The rat ALWAYS has more scandals and scandals are almost always local. Ney's seat will be held and Mollohan's will be a pick up.
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