So Long, Farewell, Auf Wiedersehn, Goodbye!

by hilzoy

From the NYT

"Representative Bob Ney, Republican of Ohio, has agreed to plead guilty to federal criminal charges related to his dealings with the corrupt lobbyist Jack Abramoff, lawyers and others with knowledge of the investigation said Thursday.

A guilty plea would make Mr. Ney, a six-term congressman, the first member of Congress to admit to criminal charges in the Abramoff investigation, which has focused on the actions of several current and former Republican lawmakers who had been close to the former lobbyist.

People with detailed knowledge of the investigation said Mr. Ney had entered an in-patient rehabilitation center in recent days for treatment of alcoholism, making it uncertain whether he would appear at a court hearing to announce the plea. Lawyers and others would speak only anonymously because of concern they would anger prosecutors.

They said the agreement with the Justice Department — and the exact criminal charges, which are expected to include conspiracy and false statement — would be disclosed in Washington as soon as Friday and would probably require Mr. Ney to serve at least some time in prison. (...)

In May, Mr. Ney’s former chief of staff, Neil G. Volz, who left the House to join Mr. Abramoff’s lobbying firm, pleaded guilty to trying to corrupt Mr. Ney with illegal gifts, including the Scotland trip, which included rounds of golf at the fabled course at St. Andrews.

Mr. Volz’s guilty plea offered a road map to the criminal charges that Mr. Ney might have faced had he been forced to go to trial.

The Volz agreement, which did not identity Mr. Ney by name, referring to him instead as Representative No. 1, said the lawmaker had accepted a variety of gifts from Mr. Abramoff’s lobbying operation, including the Scotland trip, regular food and drink at two Washington restaurants owned by Mr. Abramoff and the use of his luxury skyboxes at local sports stadiums. Mr. Ney’s lawyers in Washington, Mark H. Tuohey and William E. Lawler, did not return phone calls on Thursday. Nor did Justice Department officials.

Another person familiar with the department’s investigation said that at least one of the criminal charges in Mr. Ney’s guilty plea would involve the accuracy of his claim in a House financial disclosure statement that he won $34,000 in a private London casino during a trip in 2003.

Those winnings were also under scrutiny by the Justice Department, in part because the amount of the winnings coincided to a surprising degree with the amount of debt outstanding on Mr. Ney’s credit cards. Mr. Ney’s host on that trip was a Cyprus-based aviation firm that was seeking Congressional support for sales of airplane parts to Iran."

As I've said before, I think it's very important that corrupt Congresspeople get caught, not just because they have sold out the public trust, but because it has to serve as some sort of deterrent to others who might be tempted to do the same. The last six years have seen a spectacular amount of corruption in Washington, and every time one of the people who participated in it goes down, I rejoice.

Enjoy your stay in prison, soon-to-be-ex-Representative Ney. I hope all those golf trips were worth it.

Comments

[The Local Crank]

See ya later, Bob. As we say in Texas, don't let the doorknob hit you in the ass on the way out. And take the rest of the crooks with you!

[John Thullen]

So he's an in-patient at a rehabilitation center, is he?

Will he show up in court in a wheelchair with a shawl over his knees and sporting a sippy cup like a Mafia chieftain faking a stroke?

[Ugh]

OT - what passes for our Commander in Chief is going to have a news conference this morning to explain why we have to engage in torture, warrantless eavesdropping and star chamber trials in order to...uh, well, I'm really not sure. I guess just for the hell of it.

It should be quite hte Tour de Farce.

[Slartibartfast]

I think it's great that they're cleaning house. It'd be even better if they cleaned the whole house, but I'm not sure how many people would be left.

[cleek]

to you, Bob Ney, i lift a glass (well, a paper cup of Caribou Coffee) in the hopes that you'll drag a few of your Corrupticans* down with you.

* - CB, how'd i do?

[Jackmormon]

I'm listening to it now, Ugh. I can't say that I'm impressed.

[Anarch]

It should be quite hte Tour de Farce.

I'd much rather watch Floyd Landis again, steroids and all.

[Ugh]

For some reason I expect every Bush press conference to end with him, frustrated from getting caught up in his words, shouting "San Dimas High School Football Rules!!!!" and marching off with his fist in the air to wild cheers from the press core.

[Jackmormon]

...and then we would wake up, our hearts racing with danger averted, and it would be a lovely, sunny, January morning early in 2001, shortly before the inauguration of President Gore.

In the absence of this fantasy, I would ask Bush's handlers to convince him not to pound the podium while emphasizing the "vital importance" of "The Program." It's just too sinister for late morning, out-of-doors; save the Kruschevian theatrics for eerily lit conference-rooms, please.

[Tim]

The conference had its points. You could certainly see the Dubya mood swings. It was anger/fear for the torture law, back to smirking for Iraq and Iran, and hesitation for anything else.

[Steve]

Josh Marshall points to this suggestion that Ney got off quite easy.

[Slartibartfast]

I'd be in favor of Ney getting a break if he gave up a whole bunch of other crooks in exchange for said break. Looks like that wasn't the case, though. At this rate, though, we're going to be running short of congresscritters.

[Jesurgislac]

At this rate, though, we're going to be running short of congresscritters.

Yes, you are.

(It is kind of amusing how Republicans keep trying to make the corruption in Washington look like bipartisan scandals. But only kind of: desperation is never that funny.)

[JakeB]

Well, to be fair, Jes, we do have some pretty skanky Democrats, although I agree the difference in seriously putrescent politicians may be an order of magnitude or more these days.

[Slartibartfast]

Either that, or that 100 grand just fell into Jefferson's freezer.

[Andrew]

The difference, Slart, is that Jefferson is an aberration among Democrats. Ney is the norm among Republicans.

[Slartibartfast]

Ah. Well, I hope to see the crack law-enforcement agencies on top of this, pronto.

[Dantheman]

"Well, I hope to see the crack law-enforcement agencies on top of this"

I didn't think this was in the DEA's purview.

[Bernard Yomtov]

Well, to be fair, Jes, we do have some pretty skanky Democrats, although I agree the difference in seriously putrescent politicians may be an order of magnitude or more these days.

I agree, but suspect the relative degree of corruption has mostly to do with relative power.

I find it interesting that the parties do not do a better job of policing their own ranks. After all, crooks do a lot of damage to their own party, and it is obviously beneficial to avoid that, and to develop a reputation for insisting on honesty even from one's own party members. If the crook in question comes from a safely gerrymandered seat the cost is virtually nothing.

It's impossible for me to believe that the shenanigans of Cunningham, Ney, etc. were not obvious to their colleagues years ago.

[JakeB]

Slart--
You'll be pleased to know I first parsed that as (((crack law-)(enforcement)) agencies) and immediately thought of Marion Barry.