Federal prosecutors have joined with Jack Abramoff's lawyers in requesting a 90 delay in his sentencing so that he can keep cooperating with the ongoing  federal corruption probe.

From the AP:

The U.S. Department of Justice as well as defense lawyers asked to delay the upcoming sentencing of lobbyist Jack Abramoff after his conviction in a fraud case.

Officials are asking for more time so Abramoff can continue to assist with the overall government investigation into charges of corruption. The scandal has reached members of Congress and lit a political firestorm through much of Washington.

The Abramoff scandal appears to be sticking to Senator Conrad Burns.  Check out the story from today's LA Times.

A huge outfitting store on the edge of this mountain-ringed town should be a conservative bastion: The ranchers and farmers who come to shop tend to be reliable Republicans.

But here at Murdoch's Ranch and Home Supply — amid the calf pens, muck buckets and bags of horse feed — there are signs of trouble for the GOP. And that could be bad news for the party from coast to coast.

Jack Bolender, a retiree who voted for three-term Sen. Conrad Burns because the Republican delivered mounds of federal aid to Montana, said he was deserting the incumbent in the state's November election. Allegations that Burns was cozy with Jack Abramoff, the lobbyist central to a wide-ranging corruption scandal in Washington, have Bolender steamed.

"I appreciate what [Burns] brought to the state, but at what cost?" Bolender said one cold afternoon outside Murdoch's. "We seem to be selling out to the special interests."

Voters such as Bolender are at the center of a political storm that threatens to roil this year's midterm elections.

Interestingly, after years of cultivating an image of being crazy like a fox, Burns now wants Montanans to believe that he is the most naive fellow in Congress and had no idea what that Abramoff fellow was up to.  We'll see if he pulls it off.

Rep. John Doolittle is being very careful when he talks about "his friend" Jack Abramoff. Could he be trying to keep Abramoff from turning on him in his conversations with the Feds?

Some think so.

Stuart Rothenberg, a reliably right-leaning national elections analyst, uses his column this week in Roll Call (subscription only) to list his picks for the ten most endangered U.S. House members of the 2006 cycle.  It says volumes about the current political landscape and the way it is shaping up disastrously for the national GOP that 9 of Rothenberg's 10 most vulnerable are Republicans.  

Rothenberg's Top Ten are listed below, ordered by his assessment of most endangered.  (Commentary following each entry is mine.)

The media likes to make Senator John McCain out to be some kind of angel.  But it's becoming apparent that John McCain has an awful lot of politician in him too.

In this LA Times story about the obscene amounts of money that Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger plans to raise for his floundering re-election bid, is this little gem:

In seeking to reach his goal, Schwarzenegger is offering large donors personal access. Invitations to a March 20 dinner in Beverly Hills offer "head table seating with the governor" for two and six photos of couples with the governor for those who contribute at least $100,000 to his reelection campaign and the state GOP. The dinner's star speaker is Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), a champion of campaign finance reform.

A GOP front group that helped pushed for passage of the fatally flawed Medicare prescription drug benefit was funded, at least in part, by felon-lobbyist Jack Abramoff, likely at the request of Rep. Tom DeLay.

Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi recently called for a congressional investigation into the passage of the Medicare law based on the role played by yet another group with strong ties to DeLay and Abramoff, the Alexander Strategy Group.

In her call for an investigation, Pelosi laid out the troubled history of this legislation:

The latest subpoenas of the U.S. Family Network in the GOP Corruption investigation are very bad news for Rep. Tom DeLay, and anyone who has ever had anything to do with him.

I've previously pointed out that the U.S. Family Network was a repository of some of the dirtiest money for DeLay, Inc.  Apparently the feds now think so too. 

Here's the National Journal story on the subpoenas.

President Bush is keeping the money raised by a second Pioneer who has been indicted.  Tom Noe, a prolific fundraiser for Bush, was recently indicted on 53 counts.  Noe has also been a major source of embarassment for Republican Governor Bob Taft, of Ohio.

From the Toledo Blade:

Democratic National Committee officials said yesterday's indictment of Tom Noe is a prime example of the corruption plaguing Washington and Columbus.

 

Rep. Richard Pombo is trying to have it both ways regarding his 2003 taxpayer-financed vacation.

He tried to make political hay out of his choice in vacation, an RV trip with his family, while charging it to the taxpayers, and now claims it was all work.

But why should we expect him to tell us the truth about this when he repeatedly been dishonest about his ties to Jack Abramoff.

The Tracy Press is doing a bang up job of covering this story.

Rep. Tom DeLay has been rewarded by the GOP with Duke Cunningham's seat on the House Appropriations Committee.

There is no excuse for this and every Republican member of the House should be called to account for this action by their leadership. 

For previous Fired Up! coverage on this issue, click here and here.