I can't wait for more heads to roll. I don't care if the heads are Democrat or Republican, no one should tolerate corruption in the government.

I agree with Doug. And if it does becomea major problem for Republicans, so be it.

Time to throw all the bastards out. They've done NOTHING but spend, spend, spend.

Toss them all, worthless bastards.

We've needed to clean house for while now, both R's and D's. I say good riddance to bad rubbish - the country will be better off for it.

This could be the best thing that's happened to the Hill in a long, long time. Now, if we can just find the next Abramoff.

It's really easy to say "both Democrats and Republicans" in cases like this, but from what I've read about Abramoff, he has more of a history as part of the conservative movement, which inevitably means more elephants than donkeys will be under the axe.

However, I would really like to see both Rs and Ds mowed down in this. This Congres shas spent a lot of time on the wrong pursuits, emphasizing partisanship over all other concerns. On top of that, I have of late gotten the sense that I'm supposed to favor a "Republican majority" or a "Democratic majority" solely for the sake of having a certain party in the majority, rather than for implementing some specific agenda. Perhaps that can change in the near future?

--|PW|--

I've gotta go with the majority on this and wish any corrupt Dem's as much Justice as the Republicans.

I'm so sick of Legislative ideologies. When are we going to elect honest people who understand that the freakin' Scientific methodology is useful in Every aspect of life?

Hopefully, Judge Jones' recent Dover ruling will bring us a little bit closer to this being a "Popular" idea.

I hope it is an exact 50/50 split. But only so we can watch the reaction form the parties.

10 bucks says Dems will attack the accusers and support the wrong doers while the Republicans will shun them.

That's been the history in the past.

My hunch is that the GOP will start by trying to rally round the ol' Republican flag, but will jettison DeLay and several others as soon as they become damaged goods.

--|PW|--

My Republican flag notes that the investigation is being conducted by a Justice Department headed by Alberto Gonzales, who was appointed by George W. Bush.

It'll be hard for lefties to blubber about a "partisan" DOJ if it has cut a swath through some corrupt Republicans in this case.

Heh. Heh. Heh.

I hope enough of both parties are caught up in the mess to cause a basket turnover in both houses. It seems like the only way to get some of those A--holes out and get a fresh crop in.

Hmmm.

sigh.

This is how we traded Lott for Frist. No offense to anybody but unless an actual *crime* has been committed then I'm very hesitant to start throwing people under the bus. You can scream "corruption" all you like but if there isn't an actual crime, then what is criminal about it?

I'm sure someone will have a verbal pie-in-the-sky ethics purge here in the comments but it'll take a lot to convince me. Look at Delay as an example. There's no compelling evidence that his indictment isn't anything other than a political ploy by a local prosecutor, but it was successful in removing Delay from his House leadership position. A technique that would NOT work on the Democrats because they do not have a rule that would require the House leadership to resign in the event of an indictment.

Now on the face of it this sounds good right? Just what did that achieve? Delay was forced to resign, the House went all to hell and couldn't accomplish a damn thing. And still I don't see what this achieved that's positive.

"if the investigation are really is as widespread as are rumored it could become a problem for all incumbents regardless of party..."

Accepting contributions from groups linked to Abramoff, which is legal and proper, and taking contributions in exchange for official actions, which is illegal, and which is at the heart of the ongoing investigations.

"Between 2001 and 2004, Abramoff gave more than $127,000 to Republican candidates and committees and nothing to Democrats, federal records show."
Link / Bloomberg

Nice try, DDT, but limiting the data set to achieve the conclusion you want is a bit dishonest, don't you think?
Try looking here and telling me whether the beneficiaries were exclusively Republican, exclusively Democrat, or exclusively politicians.

I agree that everyone who sold out their office should go to jail but that distinction is somewhat difficult. Cases like Duke Cunningham where personal gifts and money are exchanged for governmental favors are simple and straightforward but also rare.

The Dems will all claim that they didn't do any "offical actions" in exchange for the money- any action done to help Abramoff's clients would have been done absent the donation. Clinton was the master of this artful double-talk. Somehow the MSM never allows Republicans to give this lame answer.

Even if free gifts and trips were given to the lawmakers, I believe unless Abramoff paid for them as a lobbyist with the knowledge of the Congress person, the gifts could be legal if reported as official fact-finding business. Delay argues that he was unaware Abramoff had paid for a trip, believing his client had paid, which would have made it legal.

I'm not excusing this behavior, just pointing out the difficulty in locating the lawbreakers and the ease that some could escape with simple word play.

I also believe that an obvious slimeball like Abramoff should never have gotten so close to the GOP Congressional leadership and for that reason alone Delay should not return as Majority leader, regardless of how the charges play out.