This is the diary I've been waiting a long time to write. It all goes back to working toward getting Kerry and Edwards elected in 2004. Volunteering for that campaign was the first time I'd been involved in a national or federal level campaign. After all the time, resources and energy put into that campaign the election results were a gut-wrenching blow. But, not for long.
I started to think about what it would have been like for Kerry and Edwards to work with a Republican congress. Not just any Republican congress, but one in which the most rabidly partisan and corrupt were in charge, e.g. Tom DeLay. Would they have been able to accomplish anything? Seemed like there was work to be done on the congressional level. This led me to investigate the U.S. Representative from my district -- one John T. Doolittle.
I soon learned: Doolittle was the politician approached by Michael Moore in Fahrenheit 9/11 that ran away from Moore in fear; that his voting record was about as close to Tom DeLay's that you could get without being a clone; that if you wrote or called his office to share your view about an up-coming vote that you would often receive a form letter in reply that bore little if no connection to what you had contacted him about; that people in this district had no idea what their 8-term congressman looked like because in 16 years he rarely met with his constituents; and, that when he finally hosted an open meeting as part of the Social Security Bamboozlement Tour, he looked vulnerable. Very vulnerable.
As time went on, it became clear that John Doolittle was a player in everything going on in Tom DeLay's congress. Read something about Jack Abramoff, dig a little, and there would be Doolittle. The question became, which one of his various shifty entanglements was going to get him? The answer may have come today with the sudden resignation of Kevin Ring, a former Doolittle aide, from his job at a law firm. Kevin Ring is one of the strongest connectors between Doolittle and Abramoff.
Ring’s resignation could foreshadow deepening problems for Doolittle in the Abramoff inquiry.
"It’s typical prosecutorial methodology to work their way up the ladder, put pressure on underlings, cut a deal with them to save their skin and to bring in the bigger fish," said Kenneth A. Gross, an ethics expert at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom.
Doolittle, according to news reports, helped direct appropriations to Abramoff’s clients, weighed in on their behalf in disputes, used Abramoff’s skybox for a fundraiser, received over $130,000 in political donations from Abramoff, his clients and associates.
The timing of this resignation is what seems to point to this being the first shoe to drop. That it came a week after it was reported that Jack Abramoff's sentence may be reduced due to his cooperation is sit-up-and-take-notice-time. After the frustration of U.S. Attorney Carol Lam's firing and what it has mostly likely done to stall investigation into Doolittle's shady dealings with Brent Wilkes, today's events are heartening.
We'll keep watching and waiting at Dump Doolittle.