NEXT CROOKED REPUBLICAN CONGRESSMEN TO BE CHARGED? HINT: WHAT DO ALASKA AND FLORIDA HAVE IN COMMON?

So you know all about the FBI raids on crooked Republican congressmen Rick Renzi (R-AZ) and John Doolittle. And you've already figured that they're both probably going to resign and go to prison, just like Bob Ney and Duke Cunningham. And now you want to know who's next. I know you want it to be Jerry Lewis and Duncan Hunter. I do too. But it looks like two other GOP congressmen have been clamoring for legal attention even louder: Alaskan pork king Don Young and the bribe-taking Orlando crook Tom Feeney.

Feeney, like Ney, Doolittle and DeLay, was in cahoots with Abramoff. Like them, he was on the receiving end of plenty of goodies. It's up to the feds to figure out and prove what he did in return. He claims he's "cooperating" but, of course, that's a complete lie and he'll never admit anything until he's presented with the irrefutable evidence of his own criminality. Then he'll say he was an alcoholic or high on pain killers or something. CREW pegs him as one of the 20 most unethical and corrupt members of Congress. Brad at the BradBlog has been building an even more disturbing case against Feeney for a couple of years.

We've been covering the corrupt Congressman in great detail for years in relation to claims by Florida computer programmer, Clint Curtis, that he'd asked him to create a vote-rigging software prototype when they worked together at a software firm in 2000 while Feeney was serving as a registered lobbyist for the company even while he was Speaker of the Florida House. We originally broke that story in December 2004. A summary version is here.

Let's hope Curtis saved those "Clint Curtis for Congress" signs. He may need them again sooner than he might have thought.

Now the case against Don Young is more garden variety and he's going down by the tried and true FBI method of catching a little piggie and making him squeal, the same way they did with Ney, Cunningham and Doolittle. In Young's case, the little piggy-- Abramoff-connected, of course, is Mark Zachares. His plea bargain comes today.

According to the document, Zachares and Abramoff had what they called their "two year plan": Zacheres would work for Abramoff on the inside, taking advantage of his congressional position to throw business Abramoff's way, and eventually, when Zachares left Congress, Abramoff would reward him. As the information reads: Abramoff "would 'credit' Zachares with the 'business' Zachares... referred or developed for Abramoff's firm, and would ultimately employ Zachares as a lobbyist credited 'with business,' warranting a high annual salary."

In addition to the usual stream of junkets, meals, and sports tickets, Abramoff also funneled $10,000 to Zachares through one of his phony charities. In return, Zachares referred clients and provided a number of favors for Abramoff's various clients.

The document does not implicate Rep. Young, but it does mention that in 2002, Abramoff "assisted Zachares in obtaining his position as a staffer on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee," which Young chaired. And Young has come up often in the course of the Abramoff scandal.