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As featured on p. 218 of "Bloggers on the Bus," under the name "a MyDD blogger."

Wednesday, May 24, 2006

Wrestling Coach in Figure-Four Leg Lock

So now the Speaker of the House is under investigation:

The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Dennis Hastert, is under investigation by the FBI, which is seeking to determine his role in an ongoing public corruption probe into members of Congress, ABC News has learned from high level government sources.

Federal officials say the information implicating Hastert was developed from convicted lobbyists who are now cooperating with the government.

Part of the investigation involves a letter Hastert wrote three years ago, urging the Secretary of the Interior to block a casino on an Indian reservation that would have competed with other tribes.

The other tribes were represented by convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff who reportedly has provided details of his dealings with Hastert as part of his plea agreement with the government.

The letter was written shortly after a fund-raiser for Hastert at a restaurant owned by Abramoff. Abramoff and his clients contributed more than $26,000 at the time.


I hope the Republicans keep telling me about how "everybody does" corruption in Washington. I'd be happy to provide them with a chart detailing Democrats under investigation or indictment in the last five years vs. Republicans.

William Jefferson
maybe Allan Mollohan (not definitely under investigation)
vs.
Scooter Libby
Karl Rove
Richard Armitage
Dennis Hastert
Claude Allen
David Safavian (his trial started today)
Duke Cunningham
Tom DeLay
Bill Frist
Jerry Lewis
John Doolittle (I think he's under investigation)
Jack Abramoff
Dusty Foggo
Michael Scanlon
Tom Noe
George Ryan
Gov. Chandler (KY)
Bob Ney
Neil Volz

I think I'm probably missing about 15 others. And the difference, of course, is that EVERY MAJOR BLOG AND DEMOCRATIC OFFICIAL has called for the ouster of William Jefferson. DeLay was defended. Hastert? It remains to be seen. The point is that corruption is wrong in any form. If you're abusing your office you deserve to be tossed out of it.

No wonder Denny was so vociferous about the FBI raiding Jefferson's Congressional office. He was just looking out for #1.

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