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Monday, November 21, 2005

OH-18: And Representative #1 Is...

Posted by DavidNYC

In case you haven't seen the news yet, Tom DeLay bagman extraordinaire Mike Scanlon (I think that makes him a bagman's bagman - how sad) just copped a guilty plea with federal prosecutors over his role in fleecing Indian tribes who were trying to lobby Congress. The flipside to all this, of course, are the bribes doled out to greedy Congressman - and the fallout that's soon to ensue.

Like the Libby indictment, some key players in Scanlon's indictment go unnamed. But just like everyone knows that Libby's "Official A" is Karl Rove, "Representative #1" in the Scanlon case is none other than Rep. Bob Ney, Republican of Ohio. Ney is claiming he was an innocent dupe of Scanlon's, and also claims he's cooperating with the prosecutor. But Libby "cooperated," too, and the result was a perjury charge.

The bigger deal is that Scanlon is cooperating, and he seems like the kind of guy who'll gladly screw his superiors if it'll help his cause. (Check out the excerpts from his brazen e-mails at the link above.) My federal white collar crime prof. thinks that it's hard to get these guys to flip, because the Republican establishment fanatically worships loyalty above any other virute, and if you betray your superiors, you'll never get another GOP job. That may be true, but only up to a point. If the choice is prison time vs. no prison time, that has a way of making people talk.

And I think Scanlon's gonna squawk indeed, and I think Bob Ney is seriously screwed.

Posted at 05:35 PM in 2006 Elections - House, Ohio | Technorati

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Comments

If Scanlon is charming enough, he can evade the bitterness from 'squealing' to be one of those annoying 'beltway pundits'.

What.. it's not like other slimeballs haven't moved on to be Cable News figures. Pat Buchanan.

Posted by: RBH at November 21, 2005 05:57 PM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

John Dean, I think, is something of a pariah in Republican circles these days, but he wound up doing alright, with several books to his name and what I imagine is a pretty lucrative route on the speakers' circuit. (Plus, he's pretty much converted to the good guys' side.)

Posted by: DavidNYC at November 21, 2005 06:10 PM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

Hell, if I could smile after being ordered to pay $19M to the people I screwed, I guess I could smile all the time.

But Scanlon will probably milk the "political book market" (with all those other books in the "Current Events" section at Barnes & Noble, that I won't read. Like Malkin's "Liberals are craaah-zeee" books)

Posted by: RBH at November 21, 2005 07:21 PM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

"(I think that makes him a bagman's bagman - how sad)"

And now Scanlon's the rat's rat which is not so sad since he is likely to take a few others down with him.

For more, see The Abramoff Diaries at Polunatic

Posted by: Polunatic at November 21, 2005 11:35 PM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

If there is a just god anywhere, there won't be any more GOP jobs to get anyhow.

Posted by: DaveW at November 22, 2005 02:26 PM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment