Once a Crook…
The National Taxpayers' Union blog reports:
Amid all the election festivities, there is one story that hasn't been reported with much prominence: the resignation of Bob Ney from Congress.
He announced that he had reached a plea agreement with federal officials on September 15th. He resigned on November 3rd, meaning that he took his Congressional salary of $452.60 per day for 50 days before tendering his resignation. During that time, he earned what for some people constitutes an entire year's worth of salary, $22,630.
He took advantage of his position of power and bilked the taxpayers out of their hard-earned money. In refusing to resign for so long, he took advantage of a Congress that was out of session and unable to forcibly expel him from the body.
Before Ney was indicted, current GOP Majority Leader John Boehner convinced him not to seek reelection, not because he was, you know, corrupt and stuff, but because if the GOP lost Ney's seat, Boehner would have poisoned Ney's chances for a lucrative gig on K Street. The implication there being that had Ney not been indicted, Boehner would have found the crook a high-paying lobbying position, effectively rewarding him for his sleazy dealings with Abramoff.
All of which the new GOP might want to keep in mind should Boehner decide to run to keep his leadership post in the next Congress.
