Just saw on Breaking blue that Melissa Hart (R-PA) is in a tightening race.

She is also a member of the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct, aka the Ethics Committee.

This diary speculates on what that could mean for the Foleygate investigation underway by the committee.

There's more...

After a long delay - since September in fact - Bush has finally nominated a new Inspector General for the Defense Dept. And what a nominee. On the face of it, Assistant U.S. Attorney David Laufman looks like a Bush crony in every way, singularly ill-qualified for the position.

As Kos diarist smintheus has noted in an extended version of his Kos diary over at his own blog, Laufman's main claim to fame so far has been the successful prosecution of some high profile terrorism cases - including getting Ahmed Omar Abu Ali imprisoned for 30 years for plotting to assasinate Bush himself. But there's no military service, no previous experience as an inspector of any kind. It would be easy to write Laufman off as another in the tradition of his predecessor Schmitz, who has joined mercenary-for-hire firm Blackwater USA after leaving his post under a cloud of investigation for conspiracy to rig bidding and for obstructing the course of justice.

But there is a bit more to Laufman, although you have to dig to find it, which proves that while Bush may play tiddlywinks and the Dems may play checkers, the likes of Cheney and his military/industrial pals play a fine game of chess.

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Last fall, former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay decried what he called the "criminalization of conservative politics," claiming that Democrats and other progressives were trying to beat Republicans in the court of law rather than the court of public opinion. As Josh Marshall subsequently noted, "That sentence can be read more than one way" -- that through their illicit behaviors, conservatives are criminalizing politics.

At the time of DeLay's comment, there were a few high ranking Republicans in heat with the law, to be sure. Ohio Governor Bob Taft had been convicted of inappropriate ties with lobbyists, an SEC investigation into stock sales of Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist had been opened, and DeLay himself had come under indictment for a number of charges, including money laundering.

But over the course of the last few months, DeLay's comment has proved to be prescient as more and more very important Republican lawmakers, staffers and lobbyists have been convicted, indicted or come under investigation. GOP Congressman Randy "Duke" Cunningham: convicted. Scooter Libby, chief of staff to Vice President Cheney: indicted. The Bush administration's top procurement official David Safavian: indicted. Senior Bush administration domestic policy aide Claude Allen: indicted. Top GOP lobbyists Jack Abramoff and Michael Scanlon: convicted.

And just in the last 24 hours we have learned that federal investigations have been opened to look at the activities of former Bush FDA chief Lester Crawford and Missouri Governor Matt Blunt, as well as the fact that the Feds have opted for a wideranging investigation of Rep. Bob Ney of Ohio.

Talking a lot about clean government isn't sexy, and in the past it hasn't won elections -- just ask Michael Dukakis. That said, in an era in which so many powerful Republicans are either going to trial or going to jail, a pledge to clean up Washington probably wouldn't hurt the Democrats.

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Let's suppose that the Dems take control of both houses this November.

Clearly, there will be no chance of passing much in the way of controversial legislation - a veto-proof majority is far away in the realms of fantasy!

And Bush will no doubt be happy to out-Truman Truman in the veto department.

So what about those investigations that the lefty sphere has been looking forward to?

There's more...