Abramoff Update

Back to Abramobb.

Representative #1, Bob Ney (R-Ohio) has a primary challenger who is a Republican but who is not a member of the DeLay-Hastert Fraternity. In other words, James Brodbelt Harris is a Republican outsider who has the Ohio GOP and Ney in a twitter:

Fearing that an unknown candidate could defeat an indicted incumbent and certainly lose to a well-funded Democratic in November, Ohio GOP Party Chairman Bob Bennett made a slew of phone calls to Ohio GOP lawmakers, the White House, and Ohio legislators to consider whether an established candidate, such as GOP State Sens. Jay Hottinger or John Carey, should enter the primary.

"There were numerous back up plans and back up plans to the back up plans," said an Ohio Republican. "Scrambling is an understatement."

At one point, the author of The Hill article uses the term "irritated" to describe Ney.

In other news, "based solely on the sensitivities of cooperation," the Department of Justice and defense lawyers asked that Abramoff's sentencing for his Florida fraud charges be pushed back from the current date in March "to allow him more time to cooperate in a broader government corruption investigation."

TPM's Daily Muck notes the Abramoff investigation is "going strong" and backs this up with a recitation of the A-list people named in a subpoena seeking information about the U.S. Family Network: Tony and Lisa Rudy; DeLay and his wife, Christine; Buckham and his wife, Wendy; Ralph Reed and Grover Norquist.