The Republican Devolution

In the mid 1990's, conservative republicans led by House Whip Newt Gingrich, created the Contract With America, a campaign tract that delineated their plan to take control of the House and Senate. The first sentence of this manifesto pledged Republicans "to restore the bonds of trust between the people and their representatives." Success in the elections of 1995 gave Republicans majority legislative control, and led by Tom Delay and his spokesman Michael Scanlon, they made good on that promise by hectoring President Clinton with a series of frivolous charges culminating in 1999 with his impeachment for perjury relating to his private sex life, a grandstanding waste of time that astounded the world with its false piety.

Congressional ethics committees fell silent once Bush took office. In their eyes, the bonds of trust had been restored by the monolithic conservative control of all branches of federal government, and that's too bad because Republicans and their operatives have been busy beltway beavers ever since, building and blowing dams on the rivers of money that flow through Capitol Hill.

Thankfully, the Justice Department, the Treasury Department, the I.R.S. and the S.E.C. are not looking the other way:

Under Investigation - Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist for insider trading.
Under Investigation – Senior Presidential Advisor Karl Rove in the leak of a CIA agent’s identity.
Indicted - Vice Presidential Chief of Staff Lewis Libby on obstruction and perjury charges.
Indicted - House Majority Leader Tom Delay on campaign fraud charges and money laundering.
Indicted - Delay aide James Ellis on campaign fraud charges, conspiracy and money laundering.
Indicted - Delay aide Warren Robold on campaign fraud charges, conspiracy and money laundering.
Indicted - Delay aide John Colyandro on campaign fraud charges, conspiracy and money laundering.
Convicted - Republican Representative Randy Cunningham for taking bribes from military contractors.
Convicted - Republican Operative Michael Scanlon for conspiracy to bribe congressmen.
Indicted - Lobbyist Jack Abramoff for wire fraud and conspiracy to bribe congressmen.
Indicted - Lobbyist and Abramoff partner Adam Kidan on wire fraud and conspiracy charges.
Indicted - Chief procurement official David Safavian on obstruction and perjury charges.
Under Investigation - Republican House Chairman Bob Ney for taking bribes.

Scanlon's guilty plea and a $7 million fine got him off the hot seat, and swung the spotlight onto Abramoff and Safavian. If either one or both cut a deal with the Justice Department, an enormous conservative scandal may unfold, exposing these hypocritical moralists for the venal animals they really are.