6-17-05, 10:40 am

Corruption in the Republican Party isn’t a new story. Calls for much needed investigations of Vice President Cheney’s relationship to big oil and its creation of the administration’s energy policy have been ignored. Investigations into the payment of journalists to propagandize for the administration didn’t go far as GOP leaders sat on efforts to get at the truth.

Mass public pressure alone forced the GOP to make noise about wanting an open and honest ethics process in examining Tom DeLay’s apparent improper dealings.

Initially, the GOP leadership sought to bend and change the rules that would have forced them to remove DeLay from his leadership position. Then they revamped the House ethics committee to obstruct a serious investigation into DeLay’s influence-peddling schemes and his apparently illegal role in raising corporate cash for Republican campaigns in Texas.

The Republicans would like to confine the damage to DeLay, but at least one close friend of DeLay deserves scrutiny too.

Rep. Bob Ney’s (R-OH) unseemly deals reveal that he’s a major player in Washington’s pay-to-play politics, working for lobbyists who fund his campaigns and provide luxury trips at the expense of the people he is supposed to represent.

In essence, Ney’s story is much like DeLay’s, but with some more sinister twists.

Ney used the power of his office to help a Washington lobbyist buy a casino company in Florida. Washington super-lobbyist 'Casino Jack' Abramoff’s business partner, Adam Kidan – a Ney campaign contributor and friend with whom Ney traveled to Scotland for golf – negotiated a deal with a certain Gus Boulis to buy a casino company called SunCruz.

Kidan allegedly has ties to organized crime and was disbarred in 2000 after misappropriating $100,000. Despite this record, Ney said of Kidan, he 'has a renowned reputation for honesty and integrity.'

Newspaper reports show that during the negotiations for the casino, Ney denounced Boulis in the Congressional Record, saying that Boulis was a 'bad apple' and that the way Boulis and SunCruz 'conduct themselves with regard to Florida laws is very unnerving.' Observers understood Ney’s comments as meant to pressure Boulis into selling at a lower price or to show Boulis how connected Kidan and Abramoff were and with whom Boulis was dealing.

A few months later, once it looked like the deal was going to go through, Ney once again used the power of his office to facilitate the deal, cynically praising Kidan for his honesty.

In September 2000, reports say, Kidan and Boulis were about to close the deal when things went sour. Boulis accused Kidan of stealing money, and Kidan accused Boulis of trying to have him killed. In February 2001, Boulis was murdered in what Florida police called a 'professional hit.'

Maybe Kidan was just a badly chosen friend?

Maybe, but Ney and Kidan also went to Scotland three years later on a trip paid for by the infamous 'Casino Jack' Abramoff who is also known to have improperly paid for numerous luxury trips for their mutual close friend Tom DeLay.

Ney accepted the luxury golfing vacation to Scotland in exchange for his sponsorship of a bill that would re-open Native American casinos. The cost of the trip totaled $150,000. One Texas American Indian tribe gave Ney $30,000 in contributions on Abramoff’s advice. Five days after the trip, Ney met with tribal leaders and reiterated his commitment to the legislation.

Despite Ney’s best effort to cover his influence peddling scheme as a culturally conservative 'values' issue to stop the dangers of Internet gambling, it failed to pass in the Senate.

In another example of quid pro quo, Ney championed a 2003 bill that would have protected predatory lenders despite the fact that foreclosures in his district have doubled since 1998. Since joining Congress, Ney has received more than $672,000 from real estate and commercial banking interests who would have been the main beneficiaries of the bill, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

Ney’s former staff worker, Neil Volz, also has ties to 'Casino Jack' Abramoff. Volz enjoyed the luxury Scotland golfing junket along with Ney and former Christian Coalition chief Ralph Reed.

Ney’s ties to Abramoff are numerous. As chair of the House Administration Committee, Ney helped Abramoff client Mobile Access (now Foxcomm) win a contract to allow the company to build cell phone antennas in House offices.

Ney apparently likes bending ethics rules and favors influence peddling, even when it comes down to getting tasty snacks from people seeking his support. In January 2003, Ney supported Tom DeLay’s proposed rules changes that allow charities to give lawmakers free travel and lodging at resorts and make it easier for lobbyists to send complimentary food to congressional offices.

(You might recall that Abramoff disguised his financing of at least one of DeLay’s luxury trips as a charity gift.)

It’s no wonder that Ney isn’t interested in an open and fair ethics process. Earlier this year, Ney voted twice to kill a proposal that would have required the Speaker of the House to appoint a bipartisan ethics task force.

Corruption is like a cancer in the Republican Party. It’s time for some drastic therapy.



--Contact Leo Walsh at pa-letters@politicalaffairs.net.