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According to the Center for Responsive Politics, a research group in Washington that monitors the influence of money in politics, Mr. Hayworth was the largest single Congressional recipient of donations from Mr. Abramoff and his family, his associates, his Indian tribe clients and a gambling cruise ship line that he owned, with more than $101,000 going to Mr. Hayworth and his political action committee since 1999. Mr. Hayworth was also a frequent guest in sports skyboxes controlled by Mr. Abramoff and his clients, and at Signatures, a Washington restaurant owned by the lobbyist. Mr. Mitchell said Mr. Hayworth needed to...

Arizona's U.S. Rep. J.D. Hayworth, ranked as one of the top recipients of campaign contributions from interests enmeshed in a raging lobbying scandal, has no reason to return the money, his top aide says. Moreover, the donors want Hayworth to keep the funds, chief of staff Joe Eule said. With four other politicians returning more than $250,000 in recent days to Indian tribes and others connected with disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff, pressures have mounted for Hayworth and other recipients to follow suit. Eule said that the Republican congressman has received campaign contributions totaling $150,000 from tribes affiliated at one time...

Former Arizona congressman-turned-talk-radio-host J.D. Hayworth has resigned his gab-festing gig in order to challenge Sen. John McCain in the 2010 Republican primary. (Although he has not officially launched his campaign, Hayworth recently told the AP, "We will formally announce at a later time, but we're moving forward to challenge John McCain.") In these strange political times, such an extraordinary event -- McCain was the GOP presidential nominee just 15 months ago -- seems normal to the point of predictability. So, too, were the unsurprising responses within the political firmament. Democrats were delighted, movement conservatives were energized -- and not always...

<p>Bernard Madoff, the investment fund manager and former Nasdaq chairman accused of a Ponzi scheme in which investors allegedly lost up to $50 billion, is a major contributor to Democratic causes, and his company spent almost $600,000 to curry favor in Washington, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.</p>

WASHINGTON -- Eric Egland, who helped Rep. John Doolittle defeat Democratic challenger Charlie Brown in November, said Wednesday that he is seriously considering challenging Doolittle in next year's Republican primary because the congressman is too damaged to win the general election. "The main concern of our district is that if Doolittle wins the primary, we will likely lose the seat to Cindy Sheehan Democrat Charlie Brown," Egland said in a telephone interview. Egland, a 36-year-old Air Force reservist from Roseville, says he was a lifelong independent voter before he re-registered as a Republican last year. Yet, he is picking up...

Republican Rep. John Doolittle barely won re-election in his suburban-mountain district east of Sacramento last November even though his party holds an immense (18-percentage-point) voter advantage, thanks to a torrent of revelations about his unseemly relationship with disgraced Washington influence-peddler Jack Abramoff. In the six months since the election, the news has gotten even worse for Doolittle, including an FBI raid on his suburban Washington home, apparently seeking documents about that relationship, and reports that Kevin Ring, a former Doolittle aide who later went to work for Abramoff, is talking to federal prosecutors. Doolittle has stepped down -- temporarily, he...

WASHINGTON, (AP) -- FBI agents have searched the Oakton, Va., home of California GOP Rep. John Doolittle, who is under investigation in the congressional corruption investigation surrounding convicted GOP lobbyist Jack Abramoff, Doolittle's attorney said Wednesday. The search last Friday focused on records of Doolittle's wife's company, Sierra Dominion Financial Solutions Inc., said attorney David Barger.

ATLANTA - Former Christian Coalition leader Ralph Reed, unable to overcome his ties to disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff, conceded defeat Tuesday in Georgia's Republican race for lieutenant governor. It was a stunning turnaround for Reed, who was making his first bid for elective office after working for years as a behind-the-scenes campaign strategist and leading the Christian Coalition and the state Republican Party

The investigation into Jack Abramoff, the Republican lobbyist, took a provocative new turn when the Justice Department said that the chief prosecutor in the inquiry would step down this coming week because he had been nominated to a judgeship by President George W. Bush. The prosecutor, Noel Hillman, is chief of the department's Office of Public Integrity, and the move ends his involvement in an investigation that has reached into the administration as well as into the top ranks of the Republican leadership on Capitol Hill. Democrats swiftly questioned the move's timing, and called for a special prosecutor as Bush...

WASHINGTON, Jan. 26 /U.S. Newswire/ -- "Howard Dean can engage in all the Clintonian word games he wants, but the bottom line is Democrats have been on the receiving end of Abramoff affiliated money," said Tracey Schmitt, Republican National Committee press secretary. "Efforts by Abramoff Democrats to indicate otherwise only reminds Americans that their minority party is overtly hypocritical and will stop at nothing to score cheap political points. Our country expects its leaders to speak the truth, rather than engage in a partisan blame game when it behooves them politically." The DNC's Jack Abramoff Affiliated Money: DNC Has Received...

Brad Jones, candidate for the Republican and Conservative nomination to Congress in the NY-24th District, announced today that he is adamantly opposed to any Indian Tribe being allowed to place any land in trust within New York State. He publicly stated this position at the Land Trust Forum in Oneida County on January 10th and again at the Land Trust Forum in Madison County on January 11th. Jones calls on Congressman Sherwood Boehlert to state clearly whether the Congressman is for or against the Land in Trust process. Jones says, “Asking for hearings, holding meetings, and getting extensions to response...

PALM SPRINGS, Calif. -- Actor George Clooney's off-color joke at the Golden Globes about Jack Abramoff's name reduced the disgraced lobbyist's 12-year-old daughter to tears. That's according to Abramoff's father, Frank Abramoff, who scolded the actor in an open letter on Palm Spring's Desert Sun newspaper Web site. Clooney won a Best Supporting Actor Globe for "Syriana," a multilayered political thriller about corruption in the global oil industry. During his speech, he poked fun at Abramoff's first name, and part of his last name -- which drew laughter from the crowd. The lobbyist's father wrote on the Desert Sun's site...

Nothing in my 50-year career prepared me for the thousands of flaming e-mails I got last week over my last column, e-mails so abusive and many so obscene that part of The Post's Web site was shut down. That column praised The Post for breaking the story on lobbyist Jack Abramoff's dealings, for which he has pleaded guilty to several felony counts. The column clearly pointed out that Abramoff is a Republican and dealt mainly with Republicans, most prominently former House majority leader Tom DeLay of Texas. I wrote that he gave campaign money to both parties and their members...

Associated Press The Washington Post shut down one of its blogs Thursday after the newspaper's ombudsman raised the ire of readers by writing that lobbyist Jack Abramoff gave money to the Democrats as well as to Republicans. At the center of a congressional bribery investigation, Abramoff gave money to Republicans while he had his clients donate to both parties, though mostly to Republicans. In her Sunday column, ombudsman Deborah Howell wrote that Abramoff "had made substantial campaign contributions to both major parties," prompting a wave of nasty reader postings on post.blog. There were so many personal attacks that the newspaper's...

....Javers then took it upon himself to establish, right then, a completely new set of rules regarding columnists disclosure of the receipt of corporate money. All previous standards were null and void...

Writing in The American Prospect Online Edition, Greg Sargeant has an interesting discusssion about how Dems should frame their critique of GOP corruption. In his article, "Democratic Alchemy," Sargent outlines the current strategy: The short-term strategy appears to be twofold: Argue in unison that the GOP is the party of corruption, while aggressively countering GOP efforts to cast the scandal as bipartisan by hammering away at Abramoff’s exclusively Republican donations and spotlighting the GOP-built K Street Project machine. Seems like a workable strategy in the short run. But Sargent sees a larger opportunity here, which Dems must seize to convert...

In a mass e-mail today publicizing his "Jack Abramoff Rule" to bar lawmakers and staffers from receiving gifts, meals and travel from lobbyists, Senate Democrat Leader Harry Reid discusses past threats on his life and tells supporters that the GOP's "'K Street Project' is a shakedown machine that would make the mafia blush." He explains, "Republicans will be introducing their own ethics legislation. Quite frankly, having Republicans trying to clean up the mess in Washington would be like asking Jonh Gotti to clean up organized crime." Before drawing comparisons between Republicans and mobsters, Reid tells his supporters of his troubles...

With no real issues to promote, Democrats are putting all their eggs into the basket of corruption to restore their political fortunes. They and their friends in the mainstream media are working overtime to connect everyone and everything on the right side of the political spectrum to disgraced former lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who has pleaded guilty to multiple felonies. One channel that Democrats and liberals are working is tying conservative think tanks to the Abramoff scandal. They know that these think tanks have been one of the most effective forces in Washington over the last 30 years in advancing a...

Dem leaders Reid & Pelosi will hold a joint presser on the Hill to announce their plans to reform Congressional practices and to try and tie the Abramoff scandal to the GOP. Yesterday Hastert and Drier got out in front of this story, announcing GOP plans in this regard. What will the Dems say...If you're housebound because of the rotten weather, and STILL have power and cable, do tune in..

WASHINGTON - The Montana-Wyoming Tribal Leaders Council has rejected a $111,000 donation from the campaign of Montana Sen. Conrad Burns (news, bio, voting record), with some saying the money is tainted because it originally came from lobbyist Jack Abramoff and his clients. James Steele Jr., also chairman of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, said Tuesday evening that the council voted not to accept the donation, which was made up of contributions from Abramoff, his associates and his tribal clients. Julia doney, president of the Fort Belknap Indian Community Council, a member of the tribal leaders council, said that some...