| Sunday, April 16, 2006 |
| Sen Coburn: Expect Seven Legislators to be Off to Jail |
 Fresh out of Oklahoma, Sen Tom Coburn told a town hall meeting yesterday (via TPM) that he expects 7 lawmakers to end up in jail as a result of the Jack Abramoff and other congressional scandals. Six from the House and one Senator. The Senator is a no-brainner (not intended to be a rip on Mr. Burns' limited mental capacity), Sen Conrad Burns (R-MT), but lets see if we can figure out who the six House members are that he speaks of, shall we?
First, the obvious ones:
1.) Randall "Duke" Cunningham (R-CA)
he's already been sentenced for the over $2.4 million in cash and prizes that he banked from defense contractors, so this isn't even a guess, it's an observation (come on No Whammies, No Whammies, No Whammies......STOP! Dammit!)
2.) Tom DeLay (R-TX)
already indicted on charges somewhat unrelated to Abramoff, however 2 of his former aides (Michael Scanlon and Tony Rudy) have flipped for the prosecution in the indicted lobbyists' complex of scandal and a third, Ed Buckham, is expected to flip shortly (remember, if DeLay goes to jail, the terrorists win)
Next, the only-slightly-less-obvious, except to those of us who have been following this quite closely:
3.) John Doolittle (R-CA)
this guy's in it up to his frickin' earholes (so too is his lovely wife, Julie, who receives 15% of all contributions to her husband and his PAC), not only is he involved with Jack Abramoff, but he's got some ties to Duke Cunningham co-conpirators Mitchell Wade of MZM, Inc. and Brent Wilkes of ADCS, Inc. as well (a 'slam dunk' as Medal of Freedom recipient George Tenet would say)
4.) Robert Ney (R-OH)
he's been implicated in three seperate indictments (Scanlon, Abramoff, and Rudy) and a former aide, Neil Volz, is well within the prosecutor's sites (say it! say it! "Dead Man Walking")
5.) William Jefferson (D-LA)
his problems are unrelated to either Jack Abramoff or "Duke" Cunningham, he's more of an independent freelance crook in that regard as he's got his own connects to corruption (could've been a Republican if he just wasn't quite so, oh what's the word, black)
And finally, wild speculation for the 6th:
6?) Katherine Harris (R-FL) or Virgil Goode Jr. (R-VA)
both of these members of congress accepted hefty sums of money (some illegal) from Cunningham co-conpirator Mitchell Wade and his company MZM, Inc. (over $100K to Goode since 1995, and $50K to Harris since 2001) , and we know that Cunningham was wearing a wire for the feds right about the time he was indicted (i'd be willing to bet that Harris is the less careful of the two members, though if you remove Jefferson from the list, there's room for 'em both)
6?) J.D. Hayworth (R-AZ)
one of the slickest politicians on the market today, so I'd say it's unlikely that he goes down, but he was the biggest winner in the Jack Abramoff sweepstakes collecting over $90K (to him and his TEAM PAC) from Abramoff and Abramoff's clients from 1999-2004
6?) Ernest Istook (R-OK)
Mr. Istook is from the same state that Sen Coburn represents so Coburn may have some inside info here, but as far as I can tell, what Ernie's done pales in comparison to some others in congress, so I'd be suprised (a shot in the dark)
Any other guesses for a possible sixth? Or any other interpretations of what Coburn meant when he said 'Abramoff and others'?
[UPDATE 4/17/06 6:38a] Okay, after conversing with some folks around the internets and some further reflection, I've got a couple of additions to the list which were previously overlooked:
6?) Richard Pombo (R-CA)
yet another dirty California Republican with his hands in many pots
6?) Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA)
and another dirty California Republican, goodness gracious
There are more candidates to select from, but these are probably the ones most likely to be headed off to the big house.
My revised list looks like this:
S1.) Burns (R-MT)
H1.) Cunningham (R-CA)
H2.) DeLay (R-TX)
H3.) Doolittle (R-CA)
H4.) Ney (R-OH)
H5.) Jefferson (D-LA)
H6.) Pombo (R-CA)
We shall see.
[CORRECTION 4/22/06 2:08p] I previously had Jefferson listed as a Republican here in the updated list. Jefferson is in fact a Democrat. |
posted by MindSquash the Brain Worm @ 6:57 AM   |
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