BEGINNING OF THE END FOR GOP RULE?
Abramoff pleads guilty to federal charges

From the Houston Chronicle:

Prominent lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who had several ties to former House majority leader Tom DeLay of Sugar Land, pleaded guilty today to conspiracy, fraud and tax evasion charges,bringing a wide-ranging corruption probe to the doors of Congress.

As part of his plea bargain, Abramoff is expected to cooperate with prosecutors in their examination of the actions of several congressmen and their top aides. The charges could carry a prison sentence of up to 30 years.

The charges mentioned gifts and contributions to an unnamed House member who has been identified as Rep. Bob Ney, R-Ohio, chairman of the House Administration Committee, allegedly in return for favors.

Ney has not been charged. He and DeLay have denied wrongdoing.

Abramoff agreed with U.S. District Court Judge Ellen Huvelle when she said that he had engaged in a conspiracy involving "corruption of public officials." The lobbyist also agreed when she said he and others had engaged in a scheme to provide campaign contributions, trips and other items "in exchange for certain official acts."

Click here for the rest.

Truly, this plea bargain has the potential for being the Rosetta Stone of right-wing political corruption in Washington. That is, quid pro quo, or simply bribery, is almost impossible to prove in these cases without one of the players cooperating with prosecutors. But now that's exactly what we have. Don't let the mainstream media fool you: they're talking about this as though it is a bipartisan scandal, but the amount of money taken by Democrats, as well of the numbers of Democratic politicians and political hacks involved, pales in comparison to Republican involvement. This is a GOP scandal that stands to collapse their power structure like a house of cards--the real question is if the Democrats are willing to take advantage of such a gift; I'm still iffy on whether or not they're brave enough to do the right thing. Maybe the prospect of Tom Delay facing some serious prison time--the article notes that Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle issued subpeonas earlier today looking for info that could connect Abramoff with the former House Speaker--will give them some courage. Even if the Democrats do fail as usual to jump into the fray, I feel pretty certain at this point that some truly bad guys are going down.

Now that's a birthday present!

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