Farewell From Inmate Number 28882-016

Bob Ney says goodbye:

hello,

i will not have access to e mail so this will be my last for awhile. i wanted to drop you a short e mail to give you my address:

robert ney
inmate number 28882-016
fci morgantown
446 greenbag road
route 857
morgantown, west virginia 26501

i also wanted to thank you for all you have done for me and my family. your kind words, thoughts, and prayers throughout the last six months have helped all of us quite a lot.

someone asked me the other day, if i wish i had never ran for office. i answered that i am glad that i did. nothing can erase the wonderful memories, thoughts, constituents, and changes that we, working together with the republicans and democrats, have been able to do. working to bring jobs to the district, helping constituents with issues, and trying to change law to help people has been the greatest memory ever.

would i change things if i could, sure. am i sorry for things that happened, absolutely, and i will pay the price. but, i am grateful for many good people in our office that helped the district and grateful for a free nation, the men and women that protect it, and a wonderful constituency in the district that i used to serve.

my family and i have lost everything on an economical basis, house, health care, possesions, but so have other people, people in the district, many, have lost all. and yes , that is painful for anyone that has gone through it, but, i am so fortunate to have my wife and children, we are so rich with family, friends like you, loved ones that are there for us, and full of hope for a good future.

the darkest days are not ahead, i have gained a higher power, the god of my understanding, is with all of us and that allows me to view tomorrow, although as a day of loss of freedom, as a day of enlightenment and of life to come.

as garth brooks said in his song the dance:

and now i'm glad i didn't know
the way it all would end, the way it all would go
our lives are better left to chance,
i could have missed the pain,
but i'd have had to miss, the dance

my family and my life is starting new, thanks for being part of it.

god bless,

bob ney

Must be a big ee cummings fan.

Ney Gets A Thirty Month Stay

Bob Ney has been sentenced to thirty month in the federal pen. the judge actually imposed a harsher sentence than prosecutors sought. It's a good thing, and furthermore, it's over.

I have, as have many, skewered Bob Ney here and at other sites. Ney was a crook and on the take. The one thing he wasn't, however, was bad at serving his constituents. I work in Ney's district and to be honest, when it came down to serving the people that elected him, he actually did a pretty good job. That being said, it didn't give him licence to do what he did.

I have no beef at all with the man himself, but it's politics, so when you see a fish in a barrel, you shoot that motherfucker til it's dead. Now that Ney's political career is now dead, I wish him the best in the future.

Intriguing

A couple of nights ago, I stopped in at a semi-popular happy hour location for a few drinks. I started up a conversation with a couple of guys about football and much to my surprise, they were from DC. So I asked them if they were in town to work the election, and they said no. Both were attorney's for the Department of Justice.

I joked with them asking if they were in town for me, they weren't. They did however have some interesting things to say. One of them had worked on the prosecution of Bob Ney. I told them some of the rumors I've heard about Ney over the past ten year and they replied that most of them were believable given their knowledge.

Then one went on to say that Ney also has what they described as "a Mark Foley type problem." Huh? They went on to say Ney was "totally gay", so at this point I'm not sure they were using the phrase "Mark Foley type problem" as a way to indicate that Bob Ney is simply gay, or if he really has a page problem similar to Mark Foley. They left without clarifying.

Even in his days in the Ohio House and Senate, Ney was known as someone who got a little too close to his staff. Is he still doing the same thing today. I realize that Ney is going to prison, and I hate to kick a man when he is down, but he is still a sitting member of Congress as he has refused thus far to resign, and the republican led legislature has refused to throw him out.

Don't worry though, I'm sure the republicans are still doing everything possible to protect the children, or at least they will once the election is over.

Update: Ney just resigned.

Rolling Stone Gets Really Shrill

Wow, The new issue calls the current republican Congress the worst one ever. From Rolling Stone via Attaturk:

“These past six years were more than just the most shameful, corrupt and incompetent period in the history of the American legislative branch. These were the years when the U.S. parliament became a historical punch line, a political obscenity on par with the court of Nero or Caligula — a stable of thieves and perverts who committed crimes rolling out of bed in the morning and did their very best to turn the mighty American empire into a debt-laden, despotic backwater, a Burkina Faso with cable.”

The issue also goes on to name the Ten Worst Congressmen in this Congress which doesn't include those who didn't even make it the full term such as Duke Cunningham (Convicted, In Prison), Bob Ney (Convicted, Sentenced, Awaiting Prison, Yet to Resign), Tom Delay (Indicted, Awaiting Trial, Resigned), and Mark Foley (Resigned, Under Investigation).

Note: This post was stolen almost in its entirety from Attaturk, except that he actually took the time and effort to post the cover of this issue of Rolling Stone, something I'm too lazy to do. If you don't read Attaturk, do yourself a favor and read him.

Delusional

Bob Ney plead guilty today to conspiracy and making false statements. Then, he released a statement with this curious disclaimer. From TPM Muckraker:

I never acted to enrich myself or to get things I shouldn’t, but over time, I allowed myself get too comfortable with the way things have been done in Washington, D.C. for too long.

Does Ney believe all Congressmen should get free trips to Scotland to play golf? Does he also believe all Congressmen should take bribes in order to pay off their credit card bills? He'll have twenty-seven months to think those things through.

Dirty Ney Money

So, which member of Congress benefited the most from the campaign cash Bob Ney threw around? It's none other than local boy Pat Tiberi. Tiberi's campaigns have netted a whopping $25,857 from Ney. I wonder if Tiberi is going to give the money back.

Other Ohioans that took money from Ney include Steve LaTourette ($13,250), Ralph Regula ($5,000), and Mike Turner ($1,000) The Ohio GOP also got $45,000.

All of this money has the taint of Jack Abramoff on it and all of it should be returned. GOP candidates this cycle have had to write an awful lot of checks, haven't they?

One Of The Charges Ney Copped To

From TPM Muckraker:

In his plea agreement, Ney also admitted to charges that he had accepted thousands of dollars worth of gambling chips from a foreign businessman. According to the documents filed today in court, in February 2003 and again in August 2003, Ney made two trips to London, during each of which he and members of his staff met with a foreign businessman who was hoping to sell U.S.-made airplanes and airplane parts in a foreign country. Ney agreed to help the businessman with obtaining an exemption to the U.S. laws prohibiting the sale of these goods to the foreign country, and Ney also agreed to help the businessman obtain a visa to travel to the United States. On February 21 and 22 and again on August 29, Ney and the staff members accompanying him each received thousands of dollars worth of gambling chips from the businessman for use at private casinos in London. As a result, Ney eventually pocketed more than $50,000. Ney admitted that he never returned any of the free chips to the businessman and never shared with the businessman any of the money he had won as a result of the free chips.

Obviously this is the one I care about since I figured out the scheme over a year ago. I'm feeling pretty damn smug today, I must say. The only question is whether that foreign businessman was Nigel Winfield or Fouad al-Zayat.

Bye Bob

Bob Ney is going to plead guilty for his part in the Abramoff scandal, but this caught my eye in this mornings Dispatch:

Another person familiar with the department’s investigation said that at least one of the criminal charges in Ney’s guilty plea would involve the accuracy of his contention in a House financial-disclosure statement that he won $34,000 in a London casino in 2003.

The winnings also had been under scrutiny by the Justice Department in part because the amount coincided to a surprising degree with the amount of debt on Ney’s credit cards. Ney’s host on that trip was a Cyprus-based aviation firm that was seeking congressional support for sales of airplane parts to Iran.

For more on this read what I wrote last year here, here, here, and here.