At least one GOP lawmaker is paying attention to L’Affair Abramoff: Ohio Rep. Bob Ney. Time is running out for the former “Mayor of Capitol Hill.”
Dennis Hastert pushed the Ohio Congressman from his House Administration Committee chairmanship following Abramoff’s DC indictment in January. Since then, a game of wait and see has transpired between Ney and the law.
Ney’s statute of limitations in the Abramoff Sun Cruz casino fleet investigation expired last Thursday, with the Justice Department opting for an expanded corruption probe. Ney’s lawyer says his client will learn in “a month or two” whether he faces criminal charges. Multiple guilty pleas from Abramoff and his aides ID’d Ney as the bribe-taking “Representative #1.”
That’s probably why $96,500 of Ney’s 250,098 campaign dollars last quarter went toward legal fees. Or why Congressional Quarterly recently changed Ney’s re-election prospects from “Lean Republican” to a tossup, with internal GOP polling showing Ney losing to either of his Democratic challengers. Or why the pretrial motion in the federal investigation into indicted Bush Administration official David Safavian argues that Ney underreported the cost of his golf trip to Scotland with Abramoff and Safavian by $12,000.
Like his former mentor Tom DeLay, Ney’s got some ‘splainin to do. With the Ohio primary approaching tonight, National Journal reports that “well-placed Republican strategists say it’s time for House Majority Leader John Boehner to tell Ney to resign.”
