John, given your look backwards at the mess that started in Texas, and your knowledge of how the major players behave and think, how do you see things playing out over the next 15 months:

(a) omerta-like silence from the BushCo loyalists, which gets rewarded by a passel of pardons next Christmas, as Bush heads out the door [per Bush 41 and Iran/Contra]?

(b) major prosecutions and plea agreements, coming out of Abramoff’s cooperation with prosecutors as well as cooperation by others seeking to get a deal before it all collapses?

(c) actual movement on the congressional investigations front, that would force more accountability?

(d) something else?

I’m wondering if the Dems are holding off on all teh prosecutions just so that #a above does not happen???? Maybe they’ll ramp up the prosecutors’ office after Dick and Georgie clear out…

Christy Hardin Smith @ 152

spaghetti at 151 — One of the many, many reasons I featured Mr. Norquist’s insatiable money appetite so prominently in today’s discussion. Hypocrite is the word which leaps to mind, and that’s just for starters…

How Norquist gets a pass I cannot fathom. Hypocrite is one word that comes to mind. Money launderer is another. Ditto Reed.

They’ve taken advantage of loopholes and lax requirements for reporting. Norquist’s CFG and Howie Rich’s Americans for Limited Government work very closely together — VERY. What one group doesn’t fund, the other one will, and the money is difficult to follow depending on the methodology of hand off. In my state, for example, there is no requirement for public disclosure of non-profits’ financials; Norquist and/or Rich can simply make a donation to a state-based non-profit, which in turn makes donations or funds efforts depending on how best to effect their objectives while avoiding disclosure.

It’s for this reason we cannot concentrate on Congressional seats alone; we must win state legislatures and governors’ seats in order to enact legislation that forces greater transparency at state level.

(I can think of another example in TX, and I don’t live anywhere near there…the Harris County Republican Party has had fundraisers that have been promoted on their website, and yet there aren’t any financial reports available that show an influx of checks to the party on the date of the fundraiser. ??? No requirements for disclosure, no follow-up by the state, no enforcement — and right there in DeLay’s backyard. I’d bet good money most of the TX state party organization has been doing the same all across TX.)

BeBe @ 142

George is in the middle of or leading in much of the worst lawbreaking. He goads others into doing his bidding by intimidation, cruelty, and shunning. He learned at an early age what is called in Texas “playing stupid”. The phony accent, the malaprops, the dumb expressions are all second nature to him now. He started this as a kid to avoid punishment or responsibility for his cruelty and dishonesty. He is sly, devious and has no conscience. People who think he is charming while insulting them are idiots. Look at him closely when he is angry or making fun of people, it is absolutely chilling.

You nailed it.

I think this perhaps calls for Dr. Freud! Seriously, I dare say Our W will find his way into any number of psychoanalytical studies in personality and god knows what all else.

Loo Hoo. @ 138

That’s what I keep thinking about impeachments.

Impeachment and conviction (never happen) is not very effective when the VP is worse. I guess the real question is can the WH lawyers fashion a blanket pardon broad enough to give the major players a free card.

No doubt they will give it their best efforts. They better.

Mr. Anderson, did you have difficulty linking all of the disparate threads of wrongdoing going on in so many different directions? Was is a straight line going from one crime to the next? Linking criminal actions is often the most difficult part of establishing a conspiracy as well as one of the last tasks before all hell breaks loose. Do you see all these tentacles coming together finally?

It wasn’t so much my keeping track in my own head, it was more a matter of putting it together for the reader. That’s the trick.

spaghetti at 151 — One of the many, many reasons I featured Mr. Norquist’s insatiable money appetite so prominently in today’s discussion. Hypocrite is the word which leaps to mind, and that’s just for starters…

How Norquist gets a pass I cannot fathom. Hypocrite is one word that comes to mind. Money launderer is another. Ditto Reed.

Grover Norquist is the most important person in this whole thing whom nobody knows.

Mr. Drown It In the Bathtub likes to pass himself off as a principled advocate for smaller, more responsible government, but he’s just a money-grubbing hack like all the rest of them, hustling the rubes while he hangs with the big boys like Abramoff, Delay, and Rove. He sucks at the government teat as much as the people he professes to hate; without Big Government, what would Grover Norquist have to fight against? If Norquist actually got what he says he wants, he’d be out of a job, and I don’t see that coming any time soon.

Which Circle of Hell? You make the call!

John Anderson@52: “I’m enamored of the PBS documentary “Watergate Plus 30″ — which I watched over and over during the final months of writing this book — and I keep wondering where our Sam Ervins are today. You think you might have romanticized the Watergate Committee, but to watch this wonderful documentary is to be reminded of just how good a job they did. Sam Dash, Lowell Weicker, old Senator Ervin. But even people like Herman (Ole Huhmun) Talmadge, for gods sake. They rose to the occasion. They rose above themselves.”

John, I am late to the discussion, but is it possible that all of the money that these people raised is being used to buy off those in the opposing party? It seems lately that we see congresscritters changing sides on issues that should not have another side. The only thing I can see influencing this is MONEY… They are selling out the Constitution for their own benefit.

Do you agree with that thought?

but why spend the money to buy anybody off when you have all those wonderful photos to put to use?