FROM OUTTA NOWHERE

Check out this new story on the Abramoff-DeLay Nexus of Corruption. Everyone is focused on the Ronnie Earle prosecution of DeLay, and developments in that case are both loads of fun and damaging to DeLay. You can't get that kind of value even if you bought your running shoes and soccer balls from the Malaysian sweat shop directly. But the real danger to DeLay has always been this probe into Jack Abramoff.

DeLay has been using his position to threaten and cajole K Street lobbyists into only hiring Republicans, and has invited industry into the lawmaking process in a way that dwarfs any previous corruption of this kind. There is no way he hasn't made serious ethical violations (he's been admonished three times already), and every few days we see a new detail reported about Abramoff's web of connections. Those stories may not grab the headlines, but if you're keeping track, you can see that investigators are closing in on DeLay over his acceptance of lobbyist money.

So let DeLay grin as he gets booked. After a few more arrests and mugshots, he won't be smiling.

JC