Mitchell Wade, an unindicted co-conspirator in the Rep. Duke Cunningham bribery scandal, will become an "indicted co-conspirator" later today.

According to the AP, Wade will plead guilty to unspecified charges in Washington.

This is extremely bad news for the GOP, as this will give the feds yet another cooperating witness in their ongoing corruption probe of DeLay and others.

Wade, and fellow defense contractor Brent Wilkes, showered GOP House members with campaign contributions, and in at least one case, bribes, in return for earmarked defense contracts.  Check out this San Diego Union Tribune story for a sense of the potential scope of this matter.

The story in today's Boston Globe about the latest subpoenas in the Abramoff investigation are very bad news for DeLay.

Clearly the feds have zeroed in on the activities of the U.S. Family Network and the money that Russian energy execs steered there for as yet unknown political favors in return. 

DeLay, and his henchman, Ed Buckham, are neck deep in the U.S. Family Network.  If DeLay knows anything incriminating about the Speaker, or the President, now may be the time for him to start organizing his thoughts, because it won't be too long before he is trying to make a deal with the feds. 

The new report by the Rep. Louise Slaughter of the House Rules Committee is now available online.

You can find the full report here. 

And here's a link to Rep. Slaughter's post on Kos about her report:

Our Report from the House - America for Sale: The Cost of Republican Corruption

According to Rep. Slaughter, here are some of the key findings of the report:

For the first time, this report tries to quantify the damage the Republican Congress and Bush White House have inflicted on our country.  Here are a few numbers to consider:

Senator Conrad Burns filed for re-election yesterday and gave this explanation for why he should be re-elected:

Burns, who sits on the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee, said he is responsible for bringing more than $2 billion in federal money to Montana during his career. He intends to run on his record of delivering for Montana and won't shy away from mentioning it.

He was also quite good at delivering for Jack Abramoff, but somehow, I doubt we'll be hearing quite as much about that from the Senator.

From her vantage point atop the the House Rules Committee, Rep. Louise Slaughter has had a birds-eye-view of how the Republicans have done business in Washington over the last several years, and the costs those actions have had for the average American.

In a 118 page report to be released later today, Ms. Slaughter lays out in painstaking detail exactly how the Republicans have conducted themselves over the last several years, and the myriad ways that has cost the American people.

Today's NY Times has a profile piece on Mississippi's lobbyist-turned-Governor Haley Barbour which recounts the ways in which Barbour's lobbying acumen --honed during his years as one of K Street's heavyest hitters-- has aided him in his dealings with the Federal government since his election to office.  The profile also provides Barbour a national soapbox from which to reinforce popular farcical myths upon which Republicans rely to misdirect American voters.  

The Associated Press reports that the ex-Malaysian Prime Minister claims that Jack Abramoff was paid $1.2 million to help set up his 2002 meeting with President Bush.

Former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said Monday that disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff was paid $1.2 million to organize his 2002 meeting with President Bush, but denied the money came from the Malaysian government.

Mahathir told reporters he was aware a payment was made to Abramoff, but he didn't know who made it. He said he had been persuaded by the U.S. think tank Heritage Foundation to meet with Bush at the time.

Ties between the GOP leadership, Korean business interests--including pharmaceutical companies, PhRMA, and a "grassroots" seniors organization--Sixty Plus, reveal just how money fuels a vast GOP propaganda machine that foists bad public policy on the American public.

In 2000, Hanwha Group, a Korean company with extremely close ties to Speaker Dennis Hastert, Rep. Tom DeLay, Rep. Roy Blunt and other GOP leaders donated $300,000 to a "grassroots" seniors organization, Sixty Plus, that has assisted the GOP with their legislative agenda, including their Medicare prescription drug proposal.

The SacBee has an interesting story about Rep. John Doolittle's actions on behalf of Jack Abramoff's clients. the Choctaw Indians.

When Rep. John Doolittle praised a "great American success story" on Sept. 16, 1998, it was one of the earliest signs that he shared interests with Jack Abramoff and Rep. Tom DeLay.

"One tribe that has been a national leader in exercising its self-determination to build a strong tribal government and reservation-based economy is the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians," the Roseville Republican said in a five-paragraph statement he entered in the Congressional Record. The Bee found the statement after conducting a review of his public remarks.

In this piece, NDN Chair Simon Rosenberg lays out how he sees 2006 shaping up.

 Here's his bottom line:

I've been skeptical about the fall elections becoming a 1994-like "change election." But given that in Mid-February the President has dropped below 40 percent, their weak agenda has nowhere to go, foreign policy and security issues are as likely to be as damaging to them as helpful, and the criminal cases against their leadership will spread and deepen, I think even the skeptics have to now acknowledge that 2006 is likely to become an historically bad year for the governing party.