DC’s ‘corruption eruption’

September 19, 2006

Yesterday, Rep. Bob Ney (R-Ohio), who has already pleaded guilty to corruption charges, announced that he will continue to serve in Congress and resist calls for his resignation. It’s almost amusing.

On a related, less-amusing note, the corruption in Congress caused by Ney and others like him has become so systemic, the Justice Department is having trouble keeping up.

There is so much political corruption on Capitol Hill that the FBI has had to triple the number of squads investigating lobbyists, lawmakers and influence peddlers, the Daily News has learned.

For decades, only one squad in Washington handled corruption cases because the crimes were seen as local offenses handled by FBI field offices in lawmakers’ home districts.

But in recent years, the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal and other abuses of power and privilege have prompted the FBI to assign 37 agents full-time to three new squads in an office near Capitol Hill.

As it turns out, FBI Assistant Director Chip Burrus told the New York Daily News that the current three-squad team isn’t even enough — newly uncovered wrongdoing demands that the agency add a fourth corruption squad.

I’ve seen all the reports of late about how the “culture of corruption” charge just lacks political salience this year, but when graft and other criminal improprieties in Washington gets this bad, it suggests the Republican operation on the Hill made a right turn at “merely offensive” and is now comfortably in the neighborhood of “out of control.”

Aw! It’s more fun to have Ney around as an example of Republican’t corruption. Imagine the kicks Democratic Congressmen get passing him in the hall with greetings of “Hello Felon”.

  • Corruption like this — much less, actually — used to be journalistic meat and potatoes. Remember when Jim Wright and Tom Foley were driven from their Speakerships over unloading a box of Wright’s books and Foley hiring his wife? Ah, those innocent days of yore … when 30 years of able service to the nation could be terminated for the most petty of offenses. Today’s journalists not only don’t write about major scandals and ripoffs; they don’t even want to know about them. Might interrupt the GOP brie and champagne fests.

  • Can you imagine getting paid well after you plead guilty to a crime that involved work ? You have to give it Ney, he’s got balls bigger then most. Plus of course he will be receiving a tax payer pension.

    I agree CB, it is amusing. It’s also amusing to see the republicans get so bent-out-of-shape about it. I mean here is a guy who has always put himself before the American people, and now they can’t believe he is doing it to them. The balls.

    It’s fine when he’s fucking the lowly public, but when it comes to screwing his own… that’s off limits, at least Delay had republican morals.

  • Lance. I doubt he is going to be anywhere around Washington. He’s just sitting in Ohio waiting for the paychecks.

    Only in America would we continue to pay an elected official after they have confessed to corruption charges, and give him a pension for all his troubles.

    I would imagine he will step down once Kstreet has fixed him up with a good gig.

  • Why has the American public become so accepting of corruption? We’ve had periods of extreme corruption at all levels before (although municipal corruption such as Tamany Hall and Daley’s Chicago come to mind first and foremost). Is this just the political equivalent of the frog-in-boiling-water phenomenon, which happened because the Republicans steadily built up institutionalized pay-to-play politics and thereby inured us to it? How does a populace regain an aversion to endemic, institutionalized corruption?

    In the meantime, Ney should be turned into a poster boy for why everyone needs to vote against their republican representatives on general principles, “even if you happen to like the person”.

  • “[Ney’s] just sitting in Ohio waiting for the paychecks.” – ScottW

    Well, he’ll be right at home there as I understand it.

  • The Democrats need to jump all over this and propose anti-corruption legislation.

    To wit: Any Congressperson that misuses their office and commits a felony, would lose their entire congressional pension if convicted of that crime.

    Simple, direct, and understandable by 99% of the public.

  • “when graft and other criminal improprieties in Washington gets this bad, it suggests the Republican operation on the Hill made a right turn at “merely offensive” and is now comfortably in the neighborhood of “out of control.” CB

    I agree that the problem has a dominant Republican shine right now. But, the K street lobbying is now so entrenched, with both parties benefitting, that we should not be limiting the discussion or pointing blame toward only the Republicans. The system coupling lobbyists, earmarks, legislation written by lobbyists, revolving doors between legislators and lobbyists, and campaign fundraising by lobbyists for legislators, has become such an acceptable practice by both parties that much more far reaching reform is desperately warranted.

  • I know Ohio has disappointed in ’02 and ’04, but don’t worry about us this time around… we’ve got it covered. Strickland is going to be Gov, and Brown will kick DeWine out…

  • Who says the Republicans haven’t created any jobs? They’ve tripled the number of squads investigating lobbyists, lawmakers and influence peddlers!

    “We have to pull the whole weed up or it’s just going to grow back again.”

    Sounds like a plan.

  • Do you think Congressman Jefferson would vote for the anti-corruption legislation mentioned above?

  • TrippedChick, I assume you’ve followed this blog enough to know that most of us here would prefer Rep. Jefferson never had the chance to vote on much of anything else. Understanding some need for consistency, this comment section literally clamored for Jefferson’s resignation or removal once his cold, hard cash problem was revealed. Nice try, though. You still can have the Rice-a-Roni as a parting gift.

  • Ahhhh, the gold ol’ GOP… can’t we nail the bunch of them for obstruction of justice? After all, their corruption is forcing us to use resources that would be much better put to use in the war on terror…

  • This reminds me of a ‘joke’ sent by a girlfriend at home in Australia. It is Australian based but sadly would probably work as well here. The AFL / ARL are two competing football codes.

    Does the following apply to the ARL or AFL?

    36 have been accused of spousal abuse

    7 have been arrested for fraud

    19 have been accused of writing bad checks

    117 have directly or indirectly bankrupted at least 2 businesses

    3 have done time for assault

    71, repeat 71 cannot get a credit card due to bad credit

    14 have been arrested on drug-related charges

    8 have been arrested for shoplifting

    21 currently are defendants in lawsuits, and

    84 have been arrested for drunk driving in the last year

    Can you guess which football code this is?

    Answer:

    Neither, it’s the 535 members of the AUSTRALIAN PARLIAMENT IN CANBERRA

    The same group of Idiots that crank out hundreds of new laws each year designed to keep the rest of us in line.

  • You see Kathy, the problem is you have too many positions for such a small country (population wise, I know you’re really ‘big’ 😉 ). Now in America, with a population over 300,000,000, we can put together 535 senators and representatives (curious the number is the same?) with only having to recruit dozens of criminals 😉

  • If Congress can get its head out of the sand (or maybe its the kitty-litter), they ought to set up some form of legislation that prevents convicted felons from working for the lobbyist industry. They might also consider establishing criteriae whereby any federal employee convicted of a felony in association with their position automatically forfeits his/her entitlements—wages/salaries, benefits, pensions, job-based investments (at least anything contributed by the employer), and so on.

  • I’m still wondering why the Dems are so silent on the issue of “down with the felon” and, frankly, don’t like the implications.

    In all other jobs, *suspicion* is enough to get a person suspended (including pay-suspension) until cleared or jailed. Here, we have a suspect (Jefferson) and a self-confessed felon (Ney) strolling around as if nothing has ever happened (though, isn’t Ney spposed to be in rehab?).

    Why aren’t Dems baying for Ney’s blood? Could it be because they’re thinking “there, but for the grace of God…”?

    It’s the same with the ethics and lobbying reforms; *why* the silence?

    Had a haircut today and discussed politics with my hairdresser. She liked my pocketbook decoration (a mini-bumpersticker which says “Webb for Senate”) but said: “I hate the Bushies, but don’t see that the Dems are much better. We need a *viable* third party to wake them all up”.

    We ended up agreeing that “first things first” — we need to kick the bums out and take it from there; you need to stop a hemmorhage before you can start cleaning up the wound and think about cures. But there’s a lot of “pox on both your houses” feeling in “little America” and those people are likely to stay home in Nov, same as they did in ’04.

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