A TALE OF THREE LITTLE BIG PIGS: BLUNT, BOEHNER & SHADEGG

The House Republican caucus-- and a better example of an organized crime ring you will never find-- is busy picking over the discarded bones of former House Majority Leader/GOP Capo di Tutti Capi Tom DeLay. So far 2 vicious insiders, Roy Blunt (a DeLay hatchetman from Missouri) and John Boehner (a somewhat slicker but no less crooked wingnut from Ohio) and a self-righteous, but also ethically tainted, extremist from Arizona, John Shadegg are battling to take DeLay's old job, now that he has been indicted and unceremoniously dumped by his embarrassed colleagues (embarrassed not of what he-- and they-- have done, of course, but because he-- and they-- have been caught red-handed).

Of course the unseemly, bloody battle between these 3 crooks-- each claiming he is the one who could bring "reform" to DeLay's corrupt House plantation system while secretly assuring caucus members that the moolah they all have come to depend on will continue to flow-- is serious business. Blunt and Boehner are classic practitioners of the very worst in right-wing greed and selfishness and Shadegg, while a relative novice in the ways of high-level graft and corruption (though he got his share of the spoils too), is a starry-eyed loon eager to turn our country even further to the right.

In their quest for committments from the caucus memebers they have even gone so far as to ask members who are on the verge of indictment for support! Boehner is being supported by this week's news media superstar of corruption Bob Ney as well as one of DeLay's chief capos in California, Dick Pombo. Blunt claims several equally corrupt DeLay stooges from the Golden State, the soon-to-be-indicted John Doolittle, Duncan Hunter and Darrell Issa. (Apparently super-crooks Jerry Lewis and J.D. Hayworth, who have more serious matters on their hands this week, haven't committed and are both-- characteristically-- said to be holding out for last-minute bribes to help them make up their minds.) The Rossputin.com blog has an up-to-date list of committments and a list of the uncommitted and it shows Blunt, the most closely allied to DeLay, out front with 83 committments (proving he is the most corrupt in the eyes of his colleagues) with Boehner trailing with 47 committments. Shadegg, who GOP salons are worried might actually shut off the bribery taps, has 6 votes committed (including 2 who are safely leaving the House, Kolbe and Ryan). Each has his fair share of far right extremists. Blunt can boast Tancredo, for example, but Boehner can counter with most of the loons in the Ohio delegation, including notorious crack whore Mean Jean Schmidt, and the all-purpose Pombo. And even Shadegg, who was endorsed by the far right propaganda sheet, THE NATIONAL REVIEW, has loons like Tom Feeney and James "Fat Jimmy" Sensenbrenner behind him.

Meanwhile, yesterday's CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR has an insightful story about how the battle over ethics has complicated the battle for what's left of DeLay's crumbling empire, a battle that has been best summed up by right-wing whacko Jeff Flake: "We don't just need new leaders, but a course correction."