HAVE REPUBLICANS ACTUALLY FOUND SOMEONE WORSE THAN NEY TO FOIST ON OHIO NEXT?

Every time some good citizen or some ethics-concerned watchdog group wants to declare this Republicrook or that Republicrook the most corrupt man in Congress, one ugly factoid gets in the way: no matter how corrupt Jerry Lewis is, no matter how corrupt John Doolittle is, no matter how corrupt Dennis Hastert is, no matter how corrupt Dirty Dick Pombo is... Bob Ney was never ceding the #1 spot to anyone. He got if from DeLay and he was keepin' it! Well, as Ney bows out of his re-election bid today-- the unspoken desire to spend more quality time with his future cellmate on everyone's mind-- the rush to replace him is on. (Not for #1 worst crook in Congress; that will be a fight to the death between Jerry Lewis and John Doolittle, but the fight to grab the seat of Ohio's 18th congressional district.)

Before Ney announced he is hanging up his toupee, he and Boehner handpicked the Republican most likely to fit into the Culture of Corruption they and their co-conspirators in the GOP leadership have fostered in our nation's capital. Actually, they didn't handpick her alone. The most despised governor in the history of Ohio, convicted crook, Bob Taft, who first appointed her to the State Senate seat she now holds, got together with them so they could find the candidate most like Ney and they came up with Joy Padgett, a right-wing misanthrope with ties to all the wrong places-- Big Pharma, Big Oil, tobacco companies... just what you'd expect the single most corrupt state Republican machine in the country to come up with.

In 2004 the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette first brought attention to the fact that Ms Padgett was no joy, calling her legislative race "one of the nation's nastiest campaigns [that] has divided a quiet corner of Appalachia, a place usually immune from political venom thanks to its neighborly ways." She was running against Terry Anderson, the former A.P. correspondent kidnapped by Hezbollah terrorists and held hostage in Lebanon for 7 years. Viciously, outrageously, and very Rove-like the reprehensible Padgett smeared him as a Hezbollah sympathizer and anti-American. This woman is the puke of the Republican Party of Ohio-- the very worst garbage they could dredge up to run for Congress. She went so far as to use a photo of Anderson with a Hezbollah terrorist as though they were pals, rather than as a captive and captor. Were she to win she would be in close contention with Ohio's other congressional monstrosity, Mean Jean Schmidt, when it comes to finding the filthiest and most depraved member of the Ohio GOP caucus.

If Ney was the posterboy for the GOP Culture of Corruption in DC, Padgett has had that same role in Columbus. According to the Democrat in the race, Zach Space-- whose surging campaign is what caused Republicans to pressure Ney to withdraw-- "Joy Padgett is tied at the hip to the most corrupt politicians in Ohio: Bob Ney, Bob Taft and Jim Petro. For Joy Padgett, being handpicked by Ney and appointed by Taft is quite an indictment... We need new priorities and new leadership."

Washington is abuzz with why Ney, who is trying to pretend he is innocent of everything-- although he is clearly tied to every financial scandal that has come to light in Washington and Ohio--was forced to pull out of his race today. Today's Roll Call may have the answer. In an article by Paul Kane titled "Senate Testimony May Haunt Ney," there is every indication that Ney is sure to soon be prison-bound.

The Justice Department is reviewing documents related to an interview Rep. Bob Ney (R-Ohio) gave to Senate investigators nearly two years ago regarding his relationship with admitted felon Jack Abramoff, according to sources familiar with the case.
With the deadline for removing Ney's name from the Ohio ballot less than two weeks away, the review of his statements to the Indian Affairs Committee could form the basis for a charge of lying to Congress against the Ohio Republican, according to a handful of sources familiar with the transfer of documents to federal prosecutors.
In releasing its report on the Abramoff investigation June 22, the Indian Affairs Committee cited several instances in which Ney's statements to panel investigators conflicted with the testimony and e-mails of several other figures involved in the case.
His statements to the committee regarding his efforts to help Abramoff's clients are just one piece of a larger investigative puzzle that the prosecutors are exploring. Ney has already been identified as "Representative No. 1" in the plea agreements of five different figures in the probe, including Abramoff and Neil Volz, Ney's former chief of staff who went to work for Abramoff in February 2002.

Of course, Ney will only say "I'm doing this for one reason: my family. My wife and two children have been through enough." It's only the beginning, Mr. Ney.


UPDATE: BOEHNER DELIVERED THE COUPE DE GRACE

Today's Washington Post revealed that it was Boehner who told Ney the jig was up. Boehner threatened him with hard times for his family if he stayed in the race. He reportedly told Ney "that with a son in college and a daughter nearing college age, he will need money, according to several congressional Republican aides. If he lost his House seat for the party, Boehner is said to have cautioned, Ney could not expect a lucrative career on K Street to pay those tuition bills, along with the hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees piling up."

The Post implies that the GOP congressional leadership are pissing their pants as they see devastating polling data for rubber stamp solons who have supported Bush's catastrophic agenda (the way apparently walking dead Beltway types Thelma Drake, Chris Chocola and Joe Lieberman have).
"With a critical midterm election just 92 days away, GOP leaders are moving aggressively to cut the party off from scandal-plagued candidates and hoping the taint does not spread." Of course if they move too aggressively, no one will be left. It isn't like Boehner and Blunt are without "taint," and Doolittle and Lewis aren't any less guilty than Ney.


UPDATE: THE BEST LAID PLANS OF MICE AND MEN AND PIGLETS...

Today's Washington Post is reporting that the attempt by Taft, Boehner and Ney to insert one of their stepford-crew into congress may run afoul of the law. Although Joy claims she "has a green light," she may start learning earlier than most Repugs that Boehner and Ney and Taft's green lights are trumped by the law of the land. Looks like little piggy is ineligible to run because she already ran in a primary in this cycle and lost. "One Republican strategist, speaking on condition of anonymity, said lawyers had concluded Padgett was likely covered by the so-called political sore loser's law and thus would not be eligible to run."