Newton's Third Law

For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction:

A jury found former Bush administration official David Safavian guilty Tuesday of covering up his dealings with Republican influence-peddler Jack Abramoff.

Safavian was convicted on four of five felony counts of lying and obstruction. He had resigned from his White House post last year as the federal government's chief procurement officer [...]

In the Safavian case, prosecutors highlighted the name of Rep. Bob Ney (news, bio, voting record), R-Ohio. They introduced a photograph of the congressman and Abramoff standing in front of a private jet that whisked them and other members of a golfing party for a five-day trip to the storied St Andrews Old Course in Scotland, and a second leg of the journey to London.

The trial consumed eight days of testimony about Safavian's assistance to Abramoff regarding government-owned real estate and the weeklong golfing excursion to Scotland that the lobbyist organized.

Safavian went on the trans-Atlantic trip while he was chief of staff at the General Services Administration, and other participants besides Ney included two of the congressman's aides and Christian Coalition founder Ralph Reed.

OK, maybe not an equal and opposite reaction, considering two elected officials are named in those first few paragraphs.

Not every Republican in Washington is going to be so skillfull to wriggle out of corruption and deviousness this systemic. Don't forget that the star witness for all of this, Jack Abramoff himself, didn't even need to take the stand to convict Safavian. When he starts talking to juries, look out.