NOT COUNTING CORRUPT CONTRACTORS AND LOBBYISTS, JERRY LEWIS WON'T BE MISSED ON CAPITOL HILL

God, I hope she used hot water and plenty of soap afterwards

Obviously my preference would have been to see Lewis carted off Capitol Hill in a police van but I suspect his perp walk won't be too far in the distant future. Bob Novak reported again today that his Republican sources-- and who has better Republican sources than Novak, the man Cheney and Rove made sure was the first to know Valerie Plame was a CIA agent?-- are confirming that Jerry Lewis won't be running for re-election in 2008.

Republican sources on Capitol Hill and in California say Rep. Jerry Lewis, ranking Republican on the House Appropriations Committee who has been criticized on ethical grounds, will not seek a 16th term next year.

Criticized on ethical grounds? Give me a break! Lewis is the worst purveyor of Republican corruption in Congress who is not currently serving a jail term or under indictment. Actually, let me re-phrase that. Lewis is far worse than either of his two colleagues now rotting in prison for taking bribes-- Randy "Duke" Cunningham and Bob Ney-- and the only contemporary member of Congress who outdid Lewis in the corruption field is Tom DeLay, currently under indictment on numerous charges.

Not only does the right-wing hack Novak ludicrously understate the nature of Lewis' predicament-- "Lewis came under fire for pouring millions of dollars worth of earmarks into his heavily Republican southern California district"-- he makes it sound like he was fighting for the poor, put-upon GOP voters there instead of stealing millions and millions of dollars for himself, and he neglects to go into the real reason why Lewis has decided to finally call it quits.

Before I get into exactly why Lewis is hoisting the white flag now, you might want a little background info on this Inland Empire bandito. I just checked Google to find a good DWT story but a search of "down with tyranny," "jerry lewis" turned up 1,210 results. So, unless you have a few hours to immerse yourself in his swill, spend a few minutes looking over Jerry Lewis' record at Congresspedia. You'll understand my reference to a police van in the first paragraph of this post.

OK, done? Good. As you now know, Lewis has spent over a million dollars in legal fees to a high power, uber-connected Republican law firm to keep himself from being indicted. To make that work two U.S. Attorneys have had to be removed. One, Carol Lam, was fired by Rove and Gonzales and the other, Debra Wong Yang, was simply bought off. So that left the myriad investigations into Lewis in limbo, not just in plain limbo but in the kind of Bush Regime limbo that says anyone who touches this gets to deal with Karl Rove and li'l Alberto.

And I'm guessing that Lewis' decision to pack it in isn't a coincidence now that there's a new sherrif in town, Thomas O'Brien, who doesn't sound like the kind of guy who wants to get his new career started by being part of an elaborate cover-up scheme that has already fallen apart. He'll be overseeing all federal cases in 7 Southern California counties, an immense area including Los Angeles, Riverside, San Bernardino, Orange, Ventura, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo. (Gary Miller and Ken Calvert must also be shaking in their boots around now.)

As Congress investigates whether U.S. attorneys across the nation were fired or forced out for political reasons, the Bush administration appears to be poised to nominate a respected career prosecutor as U.S. attorney in Los Angeles.

Thomas O'Brien, 47, the chief of the office's criminal division, worked for five years in the district attorney's hard-core gang division before moving to the U.S. attorney's office.

"He's probably the most apolitical person selected to that job for some time," Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley said. "He's an excellent pick. He's a career, professional prosecutor."

For months, congressional hearings have raised questions as to whether U.S. attorneys were pushed out for pressing corruption investigations of prominent Republicans or for failing to pursue voter fraud cases that could help the GOP.

There is speculation that the Bush Regime has been pressured into hiring honest professionals instead of partisan hacks for these sensitive jobs. Recall that yesterday, one of the more revolting and least qualified of the Rove protegees, Tim Griffin was forced to step down as U.S. Attorney for Arkansas. Unlike nearly all Bush Regime appointees in this area, O'Brien is not a Federalist Society member, nor even a political donor. He graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1981 and flew in F-14s as a radar intercept operator. He is a graduate of the Navy Fighter Weapons School and served on two overseas deployments on active duty; not exactly the kind of guy who makes draft dodgers like Bush and Cheney comfortable having around.

"As a federal prosecutor, he opened the case that resulted in the conviction of Highland Park gang members for violating the civil rights of African Americans with a campaign of threats and violence, including murder." Now he has a far more dangerous and damaging gang to deal with. Getting Jerry Lewis out of public office-- just by showing up-- is a great first step. We'll eagerly await indictments, trials, convictions and prison sentences.