Analysis: Abramoff Plea May Rock GOP Boat

More great stuff from The Jack Abramoff Show! This is from Yahoo News:

WASHINGTON - The plea deal worked out by Jack Abramoff could send seismic waves across the political landscape in this congressional election year. The Republicans, who control Congress and the White House, are likely to take the biggest hits.

The GOP has more seats to lose and has closer ties with the former lobbyist. But some Democrats with links to Abramoff and his associates are also expected to be snagged in the influence-peddling net.

While the full dimensions of the corruption probe are not yet clear, some political consultants and analysts are already comparing its damage potential to the 1992 House banking scandal that led to the retirement or ouster of 77 lawmakers.

"You don't have to be a political genius to sniff the smell of blood in the water," said GOP consultant Rich Galen.

Galen said even lawmakers in seemingly safe districts, and those "who don't have a reputation for being fast and loose with the rules," could be vulnerable if voters rise up in reproach "and everybody drops five or six points" in this year's midterm contests.

Interesting enough, the mainstream media seems to want to lump Democratic lawmakers with the Republicans. The big problem I see with this is that the Republicans have more to lose in this scandal than the Democrats. It is the Republicans that have control of both Congress and the White House. Remember, Tom DeLay was involved in the "K Street Project," which funneled Republican congressional staffers into the K Street lobbying firms, while forcing those same K Street firms to punish lobbyists who retained staff members with Democratic ties. DeLay's wife even worked in a lobbying firm with ties to Abramoff. What is happening here is that the Republicans built a slick money-for-legislative-favors-marketing machine between themselves and the lobbyists. The K Street lobbying firms were happy to oblige with the Republicans, while Abramoff became powerful enough to where he could play both sides of the political field. Well, the machine is now breaking down. Consider this:

For years, many lawmakers have shrugged off lobbyists' gifts as campaign contributions, harmless wining, dining and socializing. "Now you've got someone admitting exactly what the motivation was and explaining all the avenues they used," said Kent Cooper, a former Federal Election Commission official.

"You're talking about standard operating procedure here in Washington suddenly being turned on its head and a key operator signing a plea agreement that he may have been involved in some kind of public corruption," said Cooper, who tracks lobbying and campaign contributions for the nonpartisan Political Money Line service.

Incredible.