HOW MANY REPUBLICROOKS (BESIDES JERRY LEWIS) FACE INDICTMENT AND PRISON AFTER THE MIDTERM ELECTIONS?

The entire political establishment was shocked-- and several Republicans probably crapped in their panties-- when the daughter/bagwoman and closest political cronies of arch-Republicrook Curt Weldon were served with subpoenas, had their homes and offices searched and had loads of evidence against the bloated and corrupt Pennsylvania congressman seized and carted off. This never happens right before an election. The Justice Department, the FBI and law enforcement officials tacitly agree to hold off on indictments and arrests of political figures within 6 weeks of an election, so as not to unduly influence the outcome. In Weldon's case, the grand jury that has been investigating his massive bribery case demanded the seizures, fearing evidence could be destroyed.

But with the unraveling of DeLay/Hastert Cultural of Corruption so pervasive and corrosive in every branch of national government, it is likely that several Republican congressmen who may be re-elected November 7, by voters not fully paying attention, will wind up indicted, on trial and in prison before the 2008 elections.

Today The Lofty Donkey is reporting that crooked Arizona congressman Rick Renzi will not be indicted for either his Hastert-like land deal or for income tax fraud and bribery until after November 7. Hastert and Ken Calvert are under investigation for the same sort of crooked real estate dealings as Renzi. Crooked land deals are only a small piece of the case closing in on Jerry Lewis (R-CA), widely thought to be the most likely Republican to next face prison. Others almost sure to be indicted after November 7 are Don Young of Alaska, John Doolittle of California, Katherine Harris and Tom Feeney of Florida, Virgil Goode of Virginia, Gary Miller and Duncan Hunter of California, and, of course, Montana's Conrad Burns.

In all likelihood at least Harris and Burns will be private citizens when they are carted off to prison. But how embarrassing will it be for the low-information voters in, say, CA-41, when their freshly re-elected long-time Republican congressman, Jerry Lewis is incarcerated? I mean won't they feel like the stupidest, brain-dead morons on earth? While the current issue of Rolling Stone ranks Lewis only the 5th worst congressman in the country, the do title the story about him The King of Payoffs. And some media sources have even started reporting how this crooked chairman/crime syndicate boss of the powerful House Appropriations Committee just fired 60 investigators who were getting a bit too close to discovering a pattern of corruption inside his committee.

Friday's Congressional Quarterly lays out a story that sounds incredibly like Nixon's Saturday Night Massacre, the one that led to his resignation and disgrace.

The chairman of the House Appropriations Committee dismissed most of the panel's team of waste and fraud investigators this week, firing about 60 contractors who had been examining federal spending related to Hurricane Katrina, the Iraq war and other programs.

Committee staff called the contract investigators on the evening of Oct. 16 to tell them that Chairman Jerry Lewis, R-Calif., had refused to renew their annual employment agreements, which expired with the 2006 fiscal year on Sept. 30.

The contractors, who worked for the panel's Surveys and Investigations team, were primarily retired investigators from the FBI, the CIA, the military and the Government Accountability Office. Among the projects the investigators had been working on were an examination of body armor for U.S. troops and the Army Corps of Engineers' spending to improve levees and dams in Louisiana.

Investigators said they were told not to come to work on Oct. 17 and that they had a week to turn in their congressional ID badges and collect their belongings. Sixteen permanent staff members of the team remain employed by the committee...

The team has existed since 1943, according to a September 2005 news release from Lewis that announced the investigators would be looking into waste in Hurricane Katrina contracts. The team's contract investigators served at the discretion of the House committee's chairman.

Lewis' decision "has in fact stalled all of the investigations on the staff," said one of the contractors, a former FBI agent, who asked not to be identified. "This eviscerates the investigatory function. There is little if any ability to do any oversight now."

Contractors were told that the team's offices in Louisiana, Wright Patterson Air Force Base and on the third floor of the Ford House Office Building were being shut down. The team is retaining offices on the second floor of the Ford building and at the Pentagon, the contractor said.

"In effect, no investigative function is going to be done," said the contractor, who called the decision "misguided."

"This staff has saved billions and billions of dollars, we've turned up malfeasance and misfeasance," the contractor said. "It's results justify the expense of the staff. I have no idea why the chairman would do this..."

Scofield [a Lewis flack] said any criticism of the decision was "just a bunch of sour grapes." He also said there was no concern that the move would stall investigations of Katrina and war spending.

"What we're looking for is not timely oversight, we are looking for good oversight," Scofield said. "We're confident that a periodic bipartisan review is a prudent course to make sure that we are getting the best oversight we can..."

[Former contractor, Ron] Garant said the GOP leadership was not interested in tough investigations. "When you have one party government, there was no real interest in investigating anything," he said.

Lewis, meanwhile, is in the midst of his own legal troubles, after newspapers reported that the Justice Department has begun investigating his relationships with lobbyists. He has spent nearly $800,000 in legal fees from his campaign account since June, according to Federal Election Commission reports.