It can get worse before it gets better

October 31, 2005

Let’s not forget that, as bad as October has been for Republicans, it’s not likely to get much better anytime soon. Roll Call reports today that the party’s “headaches are set to multiply.”

On Tuesday, Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Texas) will be back in court in Austin, Texas, to contest felony money laundering and conspiracy charges stemming from his role in the Lone Star State’s 2002 legislative races. DeLay’s indictment on those charges forced him to step down as Majority Leader in early October. DeLay has denied the charges and vowed to return to his leadership post.

On Wednesday, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) will hold his fourth and final hearing on former GOP lobbyist Jack Abramoff and his business dealings with a half-dozen American Indian tribes. McCain and his staff will then begin work on a committee report, expected to be released later this year, outlining the findings of their 18-month probe, according to Senate sources.

In addition, the long-sidelined House ethics committee is expected to be back in full operation soon. Rep. Doc Hastings (R-Wash.) and Alan Mollohan (D-W.Va.), chairman and ranking member of the panel, are conducting a search for a new chief counsel for the committee, and the two are said to be close to making a selection. Once the committee is up and running, it will begin preliminary probes of DeLay, House Administration Chairman Bob Ney (R-Ohio) and other Members caught up in the Abramoff and travel scandals.

Finally, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) is under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the U.S. Attorney’s office in Manhattan over his sales of stock in his family’s hospital chain.

And that’s just on the Hill; it doesn’t even include Scooter Libby’s indictment or Karl Rove continuing to be the subject of a criminal investigation.

But in terms of the one that’s really bothering the GOP, it’s Abramoff. Uber-activist Paul Weyrich told the LA Times over the weekend, “I’ve been talking to some members who are scared to death” by the Abramoff affair. “That one has the potential for blowing into something far larger.”

It can’t be easy to be a Republican nowadays. There’s so many scandals and so few defenses.

and please, let us not forget coingate!

  • Has everyone forgotten about Randy “Duke” Cunningham? US Representative from the San Diego area? He is also under investigation for accepting…demanding…bribes. Nothing much in the national media as of late. Anybody know anything?

  • Add this to the fire: Republican governors Bob Taft of Ohio and Ernie Flecther of Kentucky–and Ahnuld too.

  • We shoud tweak the acronym for CNN just a bit in honor of all these fine upstanding Republicans.

    How about the CrimeNewsNetwork.

    All Crime – All the Time.

  • Don’t forget Stuart Bowen’s report. Stuart was “a former White House deputy assistant to President George W. Bush”, so he’s not just your plain old inspector general. Bloomberg (10.30.05):

    “Plans for rebuilding postwar Iraq were ‘insufficient in both scope and implementation,’ lacking ‘systematic’ coordination between the State Department, White House and Pentagon, the special inspector general for Iraq said.

    Pentagon officials starting in mid-2002, when planning began, ‘were either unaware or chose to ignore’ State Department assessments, and drew up a plan on their own that wasn’t finished until late January 2003, less than two months before the war began, said U.S. Inspector General Stuart Bowen.”

    U.S. Planned Poorly for Rebuilding Iraq, Inspector General Says

    You think the Plame indictments got things riled? Just wait ’til this heats up. Note the reference to “government officials and contractors”. Reuters (10.30.05):

    “Bowen’s office, which has 20 auditors and 10 investigators in Iraq plus staffers in the United States, has made significant progress on cases charging fraud, bribery and kickbacks involving U.S. citizens — government officials and contractors — in Iraq, he said.

    The report said investigators had gathered ‘an enormous amount of evidence’ in these investigations but gave no details on any possible indictments.”

    US auditor urges anti-corruption drive in Iraq

    “Bowen said his office, created by Congress in November 2003 to oversee the Iraq Reconstruction and Relief Fund, recently transferred $2 million to the Justice Department to fund prosecution efforts, and four prosecutors were now working full-time on Iraq reconstruction cases.”

    “Send lawyers, guns and money.
    The shit has hit the fan.”

  • ‘With all these problems besetting the GOP I wouldn’t be surprised
    to see a “Gulf of Tonkin” type incident somewhere to distract the public-
    namely in Syria or Iran. When the going gets tough, start a war!
    It worked last time. At least for a while.

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