RENZI UNLIKELY TO RUN FOR RE-ELECTION-- EVEN IF HE DOESN'T WIND UP BEHIND BARS

Today was a bad day for crooked Republican congressman Rick Renzi. The world is caving in on this schnook. He's been a greedy little piggy and he deserves what he gets. The right-wing Arizona Republic alerted low-info constituents about what he's been up to, so flying under the radar and avoiding controversy is no longer an option. The jig is up.

The Republican House caucus had already kicked him off the House Intelligence Committee and today they really made him feel like a pariah by telling him to leave all his other committee positions and by throwing him out of ROMP, the committee that tries to save the most endangered and vulnerable GOP congressmen. They don't allow convicted felons or even indicted or, apparently, about-to-be-indicted felons on the list. Like with the Intelligence Committee, the spin is that Renzi voluntarily resigned from ROMP (Regain Our Majority Program). It really is the kiss of death for any chance to retain the seat, which he won with a scant 51% of the vote last November. He spent $2,246,790 last year, most of it from Big Business legal bribes. That has all dried up now.


UPDATE: GONZALES AND RENZI SITTIN' IN A TREE?

Today's Wall Street Journal is on the warpath protecting free market capitalism by attacking corruption. They're wondering if Gonzales protected Renzi from federal investigators before last year's congressional elections, where the local prosecutor's office "faced unexpected obstacles in getting needed Justice Department approvals to advance a corruption investigation of Republican Rep. Rick Renzi, people close to the case said. The delays, which postponed key approvals in the case until after the election, raise new questions about whether Attorney General Alberto Gonzales or other officials may have weighed political issues in some investigations. The Arizona U.S. attorney then overseeing the case, Paul Charlton, was told he was being fired in December, one of eight federal prosecutors dismissed in the past year. The dismissals have triggered a wave of criticism and calls from Congress for Mr. Gonzales to resign. Investigators pursuing the Renzi case had been seeking clearance from senior Justice Department officials on search warrants, subpoenas and other legal tools for a year before the election, people close to the case said."