Bribery probe may ensnair Ney & others in Congress

Is the end near for Ney?
Mounting evidence of the Republican congressman's unseemly dealings in the Abramoff corruption scandal bodes ill for the "mayor of Capitol Hill."
By Michael Scherer

To hear his spokesman tell it, Rep. Bob Ney is a dupe, but not a criminal. The Ohio Republican did favors for the disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff and his business partner Michael Scanlon, but they were nothing more than "official action" taken in the course of a "normal, appropriate government process" involving no "improper influence."

"Any allegation that Representative Ney did anything illegal or improper is false," announced Ney's spokesman Brian Walsh on Monday, in one of the many recent releases to reporters. "It appears, unfortunately, that Representative Ney was one of the many people defrauded."

Prosecutors are also investigating the role of DeLay, who once described Abramoff as one of his closest friends, a fact that was revealed in a recent filing with the British government asking for information about a trip that Abramoff organized for DeLay in 2000. Dozens more senators and congressmen benefited from Abramoff's largess in recent years, and many of them later supported initiatives for Abramoff's clients. Rep. J.D. Hayworth, R-Ariz., and Rep. John Doolittle, R-Calif., held fundraisers in Abramoff's skyboxes at sporting events without properly disclosing the in-kind contribution, a possible violation of campaign finance rules. Others, like Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., received $137,000 in campaign contributions from Abramoff and his tribal clients, and then helped one of Abramoff's clients obtain federal grant funding, a relationship that was first reported by the Washington Post.

"We know we have a number of members here, and that number may be more than two or three or four," says Ornstein, referring to the scope of the inquiry. "Right now I would be sweating bullets

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2005/11/22/ney/index_np.html