This news brings me great joy and I feel no guilt whatsoever that I feel this way. I hope 2006 will be the year of comeuppance for the whole corrupt lot of them...

Zip ah de do day,

Zip ah de ay,

My oh my,

What a wonderful day!

I must confess to a spot of schadenfreude myself on this one.

I have four words for any GOP apologists out there:

Read The Plea Agreement.

http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/i/msnbc/sections/news/060103-abramoff-information.pdf

About as one-sided as it gets. He's goin' down and taking a large contingent with him.

I get it! It must be a snide reference to Bill's imbroglio! Hahahah! Great hed writing, whoever!!!

With any luck, that OTHER former head of the College Republicans will soon be indicted, too.

...talk about the picture of shady. It's like he stepped right out of Dick Tracy.

"Words will not be able to even express my sorrow," Abramoff muttered. "All my remaining days I will feel tremendous sadness and regret."

Is that sadness and regret for doing the things he did? Or is for getting caught?

And isn't it interesing how these guys look to the Almighty after they've got caught.

Oh, that photograph!

Black trenchcoast and fedora--

low-budget gangster!

...Jack Abramoff ever "held dear" was Jack Abramoff, and the bank account of same. Which makes him no different than most of his pals in the GOP.

"Schadenfreude" doesn't begin to describe how I feel about Abramoff's guilty plea. I'm seeing the complete collapse of this arrogant, unconstitutional administration. Yay!

So we've now got guilty pleas and truth-telling from "Duke" Cunningham, "Scooter" Libby, and now Abramoff. And DeLay's lined up in the crosshairs. Yay!

I cannot tell you how much I hope a sterling Democrat takes advantage of the Administration's gross fuck-ups, to turn our government around.

If he is instrumental in taking down Delay, he'll have done something worthwhile.

I know a local alcohol and drug non-profit that got a good sized pork hand out from Congress last year through Senator Reid's office and she now openly brags about giving him $5,000. in campaign contributions last year to get the pork. This same person openly criticises Reid every chance she gets. In bragging about the pork success, she says she's learned to be like the Republicans, money gets more money. It's enough to make one ill.

I'd love to think that DeLay and co. are goners, but the raised-in-Ohio-blastfurnaced part of me says that they'll slip out of this like they will out of the Plame case. Why? Because this country has become so polarized that it doesn't matter what "your" party does as long as it is "your" party. Any excuse will do to scrub out the stains of bribery, larceny and contempt for the Constitution if "your" side is the culprit. With the cowardly and useless Dems in the minority (and some of them no doubt clients of Abramoff) and the constituancy not caring at all, there is nobody to hold these assholes accountable except some career bureaucrats.

Actually, far from not caring, the American mindset outside of the urban areas is generally (and I know that I am generalizing, but it's a true generalization) that the Indians had it coming. Average non-coastal Americans - the ones I know, at least, and I know a lot of them - resent the Indians for their tax-exempt status, despite spending lots of time and money at the casinos. They will applaud what Abramoff did, and see nothing wrong with the congressmen who benefited from the bribery. They'll see it as "doing smart business." They'll see it as Abramoff "getting even" for the average, trod-upon white American, despite the fact that their current, seriously troubled financial status has nothing to do with tax-exempt casino profits and everything to do with people like Abramoff and DeLay. They won't see the complexities of what Abramoff did, and how it has undermined everything our government should stand for.

I hope I'm wrong.

Destined to forever be the turd in the punchbowl, I can't help but wonder, cynically of course, if the Abramoff, et al, deals aren't designed to make all the bad news for the Repugs happen as early as possible in '06 so as to get it behind them before the elections in November. From here to November is an eternity in politics, and the great American dunce-herd has no memory. Plus voter turnout for a mid-term election is always very low, which favors the Repugs. Will all this scandal, if in fact it ever really does hit Congress, make more people want to vote?

Sorry, and I'm delighted to see this big fixer go down, but I really have to wonder if he will take with him anyone above the level of 'Aide'. The big boys, especially in the White House, are going to be immune, is my prediction. But I would still consider it a major victory if DeLay (spelled DeLie), Grover Norquist, and Ralph Reed all got what's coming to them. Perhaps the religious right lunatics will also lose a few of their stars. That would really make my day.

Still more interesting, how about his half-ownership of a Florida gambling boat frequented by Mohammed Atta pre-9/11/01..??? Or are we straying away from the purview of "mainstream" media..?

So Jack Abramoff was known as a "religious man." When are people going to recognize these phonies for what they are. George W. Bush deeply religious? Like many ex-acoholics he traded a scotch on the rocks for Jesus on the rocks. Any faith he has is completely self centered and self absorbed. His actions, demeaner and policies do not point to a deeply religious man. Bush, Cheney, Abramoff, Ralph Reed the whole bunch of them have masterfully manipulated the great mass of the ignorant Christian right, nothing more.

Jack Abramoff was not a religious man. He was a venal crook. He is not guilty of a lapse in judgement, he is guilty of a long criminal career.

"Words will not be able to even express my sorrow," Abramoff muttered. "All my remaining days I will feel tremendous sadness and regret." Sorry he got caught. May he rot in prison...and I hope he drags the rest down with him.