Leftcoaster alert: Abramoff, Ney, St.Andrews on ABC Nightline

[Bozita]

Chris Bury does a great job with his time, about half of the show. MUST SEE.

http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/print?id=1402192

Did a Powerful Congressman Receive Favors in Alleged 'Corruption Scheme?'

Congressman Bob Ney Is Under Investigation in Connection With Notorious Lobbyist




Dec. 13, 2005 — - Bob Ney is hardly a household name, but in Congress, the Ohio Republican is well-known as "the mayor of Capitol Hill."

As chairman of the Committee on House Administration, Ney controls such key perks as congressional contracts, office space, parking places and even the cafeteria menus. He's the one who replaced "french fries" with "freedom fries" after the French opposed invading Iraq. Such authority sounds mundane, but, in fact, he wields plenty of power.

"A good part of Bob Ney's power comes from the reality that members of Congress are constantly going to him and asking for little things," said Norman Ornstein, a congressional scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. "From the ability to have a room to run a reception to making sure that your administrative assistant gets to park reasonably close to the elevator -- those little things accumulate, so you do not want the chair of the house administration committee to be unhappy with you."

But now, court documents suggest Ney may have received favors in an alleged "corruption scheme" involving Washington's most notorious lobbyists: Jack Abramoff and his former partner, Mike Scanlon. They allegedly schemed to cheat their clients, enrich themselves and shower members of Congress with political contributions.

Last month, Scanlon struck a plea bargain that left him smiling: a reduced prison sentence in return for his cooperation.

Now that Scanlon is cooperating with federal authorities, some speculate he could cause problems for Ney.

"I think that Congressman Ney had better get right with his God," said Texas political consultant Marc Schwartz. Schwartz, who had extensive dealings with Abramoff and Scanlon, is cooperating in the federal investigation. In his first television interview, Schwartz tells "Nightline's" Chris Bury that Scanlon's testimony could be damaging for Ney.

more...

[Quixote1818]

1. Thanks for the heads up! I will tune in for sure now. nt

[Warpy]

2. Heh, they finally got around to issuing a subpoena

on Wilkes in the Delay mess, which is connected to the Abramoff mess, which is connected to the Cunningham mess which is connected to the... Well you get the idea.

Wilkes is the charming defense contractor who had a bunch of pretty much dummy corporations, Mirror Labs among them, who did little work for anyone but who managed to get big defense contracts and make big donations to GOP coffers. No evidence of defense work was ever uncovered at any of these corporations. Mirror Labs did small time beta testing of commercial software, and that's it. It existed to launder taxpayer dollars in the DOD budget into campaign contributions for the RNC.

All sorts of little threads are being pulled in all sorts of directions. When the final unraveling starts, it should be pretty spectactular.

It all remains to be seen whether or not these bastards are charged under the RICO statutes, something that certainly should happen. If this isn't organized crime and racketeering, what is?

[kansasblue]

3. the report suggested it was just the tip of the ice berg.

more to follow.

[Bozita]

4. last call for leftcoasters