The powerful Ohio Congressman man who, while gambling at a London casino on a lobbyist paid vacation, got “lucky” and won $34,000 on a $100 bet (just in time to pay off a $30,000 credit card debt) may be seeing his luck finally run out.
Reports now breaking all over the place that House Speaker Denny Hastert is pushing Ney out of his chairmanship position on the House Adminstration Committee…
Ney’s committee has jurisdiction over the Republican reform agenda in the wake of the Abramoff scandal, and Hastert believes it is inappropriate to let Ney run it, said a GOP leadership aide, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the negotiations between Ney and the speaker.
…
“I’m considering it — stepping down temporarily — and once the issue is over, I’ll come back,” he said.
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The aide said the speaker himself cannot fire Ney, and unless Ney steps aside it would be at least three weeks until the GOP caucus, on holiday break, could consider removing him.
He’ll step down “temporarily” and “come back”. Now where have we heard that before?
COVERAGE:
— MSNBC…
— Hotline…
— Roll Call… [subscription required]
— AP…
— CNN…
— BRAD BLOG’s Ney exposé from Tuesday…
UPDATE from David Edwards: Video Report by CBS News:
— Video in Streaming Flash format…
— Video in Windows Media format…
Ney, a principal author and advocate for the disastrous Help America Vote Act (HAVA) of 2002 was revealed, last Tuedsay, in a detailed BRAD BLOG exposé to have had very close ties to lobbyists paid by Diebold and Jack Abramoff’s firm, Greenberg Traurig.
Most of those ties had yet to be reported by the mainstream media who have been focusing primarily on information concerning Ney’s lobbyist-funded trips, gifts and other monies raised via his close relationship with Abramoff and his clients. Much of the information so far reported by the MSM was revealed by the guilty plea agreements filed by Abramoff and his former associate Michael Scanlon.
As we reported in our piece on Ney, his former chief of staff, David DiStefano, was hired by the beleagured and duplicitous Voting Machine Company, Diebold, Inc. in order to lobby Ney to ensure that HAVA’s provisions mandating disabled-accessible voting machines in every precinct in the country stayed firmly in place. At the same time, via his post as Chair of the House Administration Committee, Ney was able to hold hearings to smokescreen massive election irregularities in Ohio in 2004 and see to it that bills calling for voter-verified paper records for every ballot cast would never see the light of day.
Our story also reported the thousands of dollars being paid by Diebold to Jack Abramoff’s firm, Greenberg Traurig. Though we have yet to find any official disclosure of those payments via congressional lobbying databases. So for the moment, we’re still left wondering what happened to that money, and what precisely it was meant to be used for.
The corrupt Republicans are now fighting amongst themselves, steppin’ down left and right…DeLay…Ney…Duke Cunningham…
The POC, not the GOP (Party Of Corruption).
Reminds me of the little dutch boy trying to plug holes in the dike. I don’t think he has enough fingers!
Greed Opression Power
I think that embodies the foundation of the Republican party.
Hopefully the links to Abramoff and Election rigging will start getting some airtime… as well as shine some light on Feeney.
Robert Ney needs to be investigated now for his links to voting vendors…
How did Bob get involved with working for both the voting vendors, AND Jack Abramoff??? What was that Traurig money used for? We need all the answers for discussion….
How about investigating how Ney and Feeney traded favors too..
Doug E.
Good reporting as usual, Brad. HAVA — as well as the bogus certification process — are in the very foundation of the house of cards.
So glad to see you peeling away the onion.
Bev Harris
Hastert’s got a lot of nerve, considering his own shady ties to Abramoff. I wonder who’s going to force him out?
I wonder if we can get enough of them on the ropes quickly enough to block their vote on Alito.
Jane Hamsher at FDL notes that the blog’s contributors are reasoned and articulate. Now, having been a writer all my professional life I may be relatively articulate, but reasoned?
Not these days.
Rather I’m frustrated, angry, and depressed. The repeated victories of the moron and his gang of Fascists have elicited in me some very ancient impulses, like, uh, an overwhelming urge to do some serious physical damage to these fat fucks, if ONLY I could get my hands on them.
What in hell does "reason" have to do with anything these days? Yes, there ARE articulate and reasoned people on progressive/liberal blogs, but the bottom line is that we are totally impotent in the face of the Fascists’ well-oiled machine.
One part of the Fascists effectiveness is that they all speak with one voice on a daily basis, and they never depart from the script. One message each day, in short, clear, declarative sentences.
That’s what the pants-pissing, brain dead 45 percent of the American electorate who love the moron need right now.
Here’s what’s so frustrating. To defeat these slimy bastards we would all have to become exactly LIKE THEM. Cynical manipulators, bullshit artists, liars. Criminals.
I don’t have the stomach for it, honest to God. They do. Which is why we’ll never win.
I think Agent99 (#7) has a very good and valid point – how will an Alito nomination affect what is happening with the fraudulent voting systems? Would the SCOTUS have any say in determining how counties proceed with their elections? Is it something that could be brought before SCOTUS – they’ve already screwed us once and it was a 5-4 bench. Now we will have a 6-3 bench.
Good ol Hastert, who will be left to get his corrupt ass out of there after the shit is done flying ?
He reminds me of a more rotund Dink Cheney
He is definitely Dick Cheney you got that right, and same operandi….
By the way I *wouldn’t* worry about Alito too much….. and he has no affect on voting rights here….Its just all a big distraction…move on to NSA hearings and so forth, because I think we’re about to get alot more help very soon!
Doug E.
Has anyone referenced Marvin Schram’s excellent column for Scripps Howard this week? http://www.shns.com/shns/g_inde...CHRAM-01-10-06
Ney & DeLay are not enough!
Martin Schram has been a Washington journalist, editor and author for more than three decades. He is a nationally syndicated newspaper columnist and appears frequently as a commentator on various television networks. Mr. Schram is the author of five books and is the co-editor of the Progressive Policy Institute’s Mandate for Change, a policy blueprint published in 1992 by Berkley Books.
E-mail him at martin.schram@gmail.com .
Brad
I am finding it hard to believe my own eyes, ears, and thoughts as these stories unwind. There has never been more for the MSM to ignore!!! What a field day for them, big stories to let slide.
One of the stories going by the wayside is the schemes Abramoff pushed. Ney wins money at gambling. Yeah right. And Abramoff purchases a fleet of gambling boats … in other words a fleet of money laundering vessels.
They "lose" $5,000,000,000 in Iraq … and guess where it shows up? In "wins" at the gambling machines. What lucky gamblers the neoCons are.
And the prez, the dick, the rove, and the libby listen thru NSA to see if anyone has leaked the info or is talking about it. Hey Ney, don’t worry, we got talking points, we got lies, we got an arsenal to deceive with. Hang in there they say to all the neoCon windbags. Stay with us.
Then someone dying internally at all this, dying because they can’t fathom it, dying because they can’t grapple with the conflicting guilty, dirty feel it gives them, LEAKS.
Yes, just before the last vestige of intellectual honesty and conscience fades into history, the PATRIOT LEAKER revives, comes back to life, and to their credit, becomes a patriot again. The GOOD LEAKER exposes the neoCon coup that has taken over America in the dark.
Leaker Light is shining deeper, Deeper, and deeper into the slime. The people are feeling those feelings one has after waking up from a nightmare. But since it is true they are angry and there will be hell to pay.
AH, YES The CONservative – neoCon – GOP – republican – Culture Of Corruption
Who makes those GOP Hair Pieces / Rugs ? Fucking Road kill Heads
They are always hiding something . . . even a Bald Head.
Judge of J’s remark above about GOP hair reminds me of Jon Stewart’s amazing remark during the Republican convention. After a series of behind and from-the-top views of shiny scalps and combovers, he said, "This is what happens to your hair when you don’t let gay people touch it."
…John Palcewski ‘So reasoned and articulate ,then this "Which is why we’ll never win." .Your fighting against people who have spent decades "moving the pieces into position" and how long have people been "pushing back" ?
Hope springs eternal.
thank the stars its dubya leading the administration
,a clever man with the same agenda might have been much worst.
Time for every single whistleblower, large and small to begin leaking every single thing they have while we throw out the voting machines…..
Get to it….We’re waiting for your hallapalooza right now..
Doug E.