When Democrat William Jefferson was indicted on bribery charges earlier this week, it gave the GOP a welcome respite from coverage of their own ethics problems.
But now the honeymoon is over.
Italia Federici, an ally of disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff, pleaded guilty Friday to tax evasion and obstructing a Senate investigation into the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal.
Federici's plea was part of a deal with the Justice Department that two people close to the case said could lead investigators to officials in Congress and the Bush administration.
Federici served as a go-between for Abramoff, who currently is in prison, and J. Steven Griles, a deputy Interior secretary who also has pleaded guilty to lying to Senate investigators.
She also embezzled money from a lobbying group she co-founded -- the Council of Republicans for Environmental Advocacy -- and didn't bother to pay income taxes for three years. Sounds like a real charmer.
Her testimony could implicate Democrats as well as Republicans, of course. But the odds don't favor the Republicans. Besides her distinctly Republican ties, the GOP was the majority party at the time, and lobbyists would naturally have directed most of their efforts -- and bribes, if that was their modus operandi -- at Republicans. So expect this to lead to yet another crop of really bad headlines for Republicans.
Federici, Abramoff, corruption, politics, midtopia
3 comments:
Not much of a honeymoon anyway....considering Jefferson's 16-count criminal indictment only got about 1 to 2 days coverage. It IS the liberal media, you know. Helping out everyway they can.
BTW, I really hope that this Democrat widening of Abramoff investigations will finally snare their own Majority Leader, Harry Reid. But they would not allow it to---so I doubt it very seriously.
JP5
The Jefferson story is ongoing, and the latest iteration has been in the news constantly since the indictments broke. What more do you want?
As for Reid, the investigation is in the hands of the Bush Justice Department, not the Democrats. Unless you figure the Democrats are an all-powerful cabal secretly pulling the strings of power.
What more do I want? Oh----just a fraction maybe of the coverage that Lewis Libby has gotten---including the same amount of FRONT PAGE coverage.
Speaking of Reid----why don't we hear from the mainstream liberal news about it constantly? You know---like we did BEFORE Tom Delay was not even charged?
What I object to is the lack of coverage for Dems alledged wrongdoing...and the constant drumbeat of Republicans' alledged wrondoing. We all know that media coverage can make or break a case. And the Dems get an awful lot of help and assistance on that point.
JP5
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