As if Rep. Bob Ney (R-Ohio) didn’t have enough to worry about, with ethics questions already swirling around him, a new controversy has arisen over alleged abuses waged against Ney critics.
Three radio show hosts in West Virginia have accused House Administration Committee Chairman Bob Ney (R-Ohio) of attempting to intimidate them after they read news accounts on air that cast Ney in an unfavorable light.
The Cleveland Plain Dealer reported this weekend that George Kellas, Dave Blomquist and John Blackmore of WKKX in Wheeling, W.Va., which reaches Ney’s Ohio district, said Ney’s attorney called the station to say that “he was reviewing tapes of their broadcasts, and Ney himself told a mutual friend he would investigate the hosts’ families and personal lives.”
The three had recently read media reports on air regarding Ney’s relationship with disgraced GOP lobbyist Jack Abramoff.
Ney’s office denies it, saying that the congressman “doesn’t spend a minute of his time worrying about this station and its four listeners,” but the radio hosts insist that the attempt at intimidation occurred.
I don’t know anything about these hosts, so I can’t speak to their credibility. But if Ney or his representatives engaged in this kind of abuse of power, it’ll be yet another Ney controversy that will be drawn to the attention of the House Ethics Committee.