WHICH LITTLE PIGGY GETS TO BE TAKEN TO THE CLEANERS BY ZACH SPACE IN NOVEMBER? 8 REPUGS FILE TO REPLACE NEY IN OHIO-18

While Bob Ney tidies up his affairs before the inevitable, the Republicans are holding a pointless primary in the sprawling Appalachian 18th congressional district in eastern Ohio. And, as of the closing of filing today, there were eight little piggies in the race. One will face Zach Space, who is looking more like a winner by the day.

When I first introduced you to Ney's (as well as Taft's and Boehner's) hand-picked replacement for the 6-term uber-corrupt congressman, Joy Padgett, she was the only piggy in town. Now there's a whole sty of sleazy Ney-wanna-be's, including a Republican and a Democrat who had challenged Ney in the May primary. Today's Washington Post points out that James Harris, who had run against Ney in the primary, "came out firing at Padgett, suggesting her personal and corporate bankruptcies make her unfit to help set the federal budget."

In typical Republican "you-take-responsibilty-leave-me-out-of-it" fashion, Padgett blamed the bad economy for her dual bankruptcies, although even a fleeting glance at the case shows that she is as crooked as a pretzel with fraud and felony on her mind.