Free Republic

Gambling doesn't destroy people. People destroy people. The gentleman or gentlewoman who decides to gamble makes that decision of his own free will. It's a free market industry, and that appeals to conservatives. --Michael Scanlon AT ABOUT 8 p.m. on the night of September 26, a homicide detective with the Ft. Lauderdale police department entered the home of Anthony Moscatiello in the Howard Beach section of Queens, New York. Once inside, he placed the 67-year-old "caterer," aka "Big Tony," under arrest. Around 11 p.m., a thousand miles away in North Miami Beach, police stormed the condominium where Anthony Ferrari lived...

Michael Scanlon, once an aide to former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, is headed to federal court Monday on a single count contained in a criminal information, which typically is a prelude to a guilty plea and cooperation with government investigators... Rep. Bob Ney, R-Ohio, was identified by his lawyer late Friday as Representative No. 1. "I've talked to the Department of Justice on this and he's not part of this conspiracy," said the lawyer, Mark Tuohey. "Yes, he did perform certain acts — his office did — and there was certain other wining and dining situations like other people...

THE GOP'S SCANLON NIGHTMARE....Uber-activist Paul Weyrich told the LA Times a few weeks ago, "I've been talking to some [Republican] members who are scared to death" by the Abramoff affair. Weyrich added, "That one has the potential for blowing into something far larger." With this in mind, it's difficult to overstate just how much Michael Scanlon's plea deal strikes fear into the heart of Congress. A onetime congressional staffer who became a top partner to lobbyist Jack Abramoff pleaded guilty yesterday to conspiring to bribe a congressman and other public officials and agreed to pay back more than $19 million...

Michael Scanlon, a former aide to U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay, pleaded guilty Monday to conspiring to bribe public officials, a charge growing out of the government investigation of attempts to defraud Indian tribes and corrupt a member of Congress.

OP-ED COLUMNIST A scandal is like any other melodrama: It can't be a crowd pleaser unless the audience can follow the plot. That's why Monica Lewinsky trumped Whitewater, and that's why of all the story lines ensnaring Tom DeLay, the one with legs is the one with the craps tables. It's not just easy to follow, but it also has a combustive cultural element that makes it as representative of its political era as Monicagate was of the Clinton years. As the lies and subterfuge of the go-go 1990's coalesced around sex, so the scandal of our new "moral values"...