Abramoff Bomb Lands In Karl Rove's Office, Deputy Resigns

[L.A. BRONCOS FAN]

While the House Republican Leadership is embroiled in a sex scandal involving abuse of young Congressional pages and coverup issues, the White House is now embroiled at the epicenter of the Jack Abramoff lobbying and corruption scandal with the abrupt and surprise resignation of Karl Rove's Deputy, on the eve of a national election.

Details are only now emerging about the resignation of Susan Ralston, Rove' deputy, with long term ties to Abramoff and major questions now begin.

A Congressional Committee has already put the number of Abramoff contacts with the White House at well above 400, at least. This means the Abramoff-White House relationship in this corruption scandal are only beginning to come out, with investigators and journalists now hot on the trail and more breaking news is no doubt coming soon.

For Karl Rove's deputy to resign so close to a historic election is a shocker of the first order in official Washington, leaving the strong suggestion that more news is imminent on Ms. Ralston's situation. While it would not be fair to her to draw conclusions at this point, to resign at this critical moment is virtually unprecedented in this or other Administrations, and strongly suggests the coming days will bring new revelations.

Beyond this, Mr. Abramoff has undoubtedly provided evidence to prosecutors, so the earthshaking question is whether he has provided corruption related information that touches on Mr. Rove and/or other senior White House officials.

We cannot say for sure, but the probability is real and significant. The impact of additional corruption related news in the days preceeding a major election would be a twenty megaton bombshell that would shake official Washington and Republican leaders in both Congress and the White House.

Dont be deceived by the classic Washington trick of letting information seep out going into a weekend, which only dramatizes the true power and importance of the news.

In fact, reporters are scouring Washington at this moment with a race among news services and organizations for who can get the scoop on exactly why Rove's deputy resigned at such a surprising and critical pre-election moment, and what shoes may be dropping next.

How ironic, that at the very moment that Karl Rove was orchestrating the Republican defense of Speaker Hastert, his deputy was resigning while the biggest corruption scandal in Washington in a generation was only beginning to break more news.

I have been in Washington for a long time, and cannot remember anything even remotely similar to this. Bombshells are dropping left and right, on the Republican Administration and the Republican Congress, one after another, day after day.

From sex scandal to lobbying corruption scandal, from the national intelligence estimate that puts the lie to so much we have been told about Iraq, to the Woodward book that dishes the inside dirt even more, to the appalling page abuse scandal, and now the Jack Abramoff bombshell landing in Karl Roves' office with the stunning resignation of his deputy, on the eve of a national election.

Meanwhile we have the preposterous farce in which a growing number of Republicans running for election do not want to be seen publicly with either the Republican President or the Republican Speaker of the House.

They would prefer the President and Speaker sneak into town with bags over their heads to raise money, then sneak out without pics of the scene of the crime or the getaway car.

This is incredible.

Not to be outdone, the Republican leader in the Senate calls for the Taliban to join the government of Afghanistan, which sends the Senate Republican Caucus heading for the hills to hide, at which point Leader Frist says his comment was just a naughty mistake that he really did not mean.

The President, for his part, looks increasingly like Captain Queeg on Iraq, saying he will not change the policy even if the First Lady and his dog are the only ones who support it, while our casualties escalate dramatically, our intelligence community says his policy creates more terrorists, our military leaders say the Iraq police are being taken over by death squads, the Iraqi police academy was built with such corruption that feces and urine pour down on the recruits, the respected Republican Chairman of the Armed Services Committee, Senator Warner, calls for changes in the policy and the President wants $20 million to celebrate his victory in Iraq.

Everybody who wants two more years of this, raise your hand.

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[L.A. BRONCOS FAN]

White House Aide Ralston Resigns Following Abramoff Report

Oct. 6 (Bloomberg) -- A top aide to White House political director Karl Rove has resigned, with the administration citing a House of Representatives report examining her ties to disgraced Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff as the reason.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?p...BQFyQ&refer=us