Ney Plea Brings Anger, Pity, but No Surprise

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Rep. Bob Ney’s (R-Ohio) guilty plea Friday in the ongoing Jack Abramoff probe and his admission into a rehabilitation facility for alcohol abuse came as little surprise on Capitol Hill, where Members and aides received the news with a mix of outrage and pity.

“I have always known Bob as a skilled legislator and a good friend. Clearly Bob made mistakes, and he is now feeling the full weight of those mistakes. His actions violated the law, and he must be held accountable,” said House Majority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) in a public statement. Boehner was widely credited for persuading Ney, a longtime friend, to give up his re-election bid and announce his retirement Aug. 7.

Ney had been a key player in the “culture of corruption” media campaign Congressional Democrats waged for most of early 2006. While House Democrats pulled no punches on Friday, Democratic leadership aides acknowledged that the storyline largely has played out. Rather than focus efforts on reinvigorating the corruption debate, aides said they would continue to promote their agenda on national security and the economy.

“It’s still a part of it, but the culture of corruption was our way to differentiate us from them,” one Democratic aide said, “We’ve done that, it’s a second-tier message at this point. This close to the election we don’t want to be talking about them, we want to be talking about us.”

Yet Ney’s guilty plea also is an uncomfortable reminder of Republicans’ repeated failure to pass a comprehensive lobbying and ethics reform bill. The announcement overshadowed a small victory last week for House GOP leaders when the House approved a new internal rule to disclose the sponsors of individual earmarks.

Republican aides said Friday that it was too early to tell whether Ney’s guilty plea would be enough to propel the lobbying and ethics bill back to the top of the legislative agenda. “That is a decision leadership will have to make,” one GOP aide said.

“If you look at what [Republicans] have done on lobbying reform, none of it would have changed how Ney operated,” countered one Democratic aide.

While House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) characterized Ney’s actions and fate as a “tragedy,” she also was quick to knock Republicans on the reform front. “Mr. Ney’s criminal dealings with Jack Abramoff and others also remind us that, in the face of overwhelming evidence of the auctioning off of Congress to the special interests, the Republican leadership has done nothing to return the Congress to the control of the American people,” she said. “Republicans have failed to pass a single substantive reform, instead proceeding with shams like [Thursday’s] earmark bill that does not save one penny or prevent one earmark.”

Democrats were forced to ease up somewhat on the corruption theme earlier this year when a handful of their own Members, most notably Rep. William Jefferson (La.), became the subjects of federal investigations. Democrats still can’t lay sole claim to the moral high ground on the ethics issue, as the threat of indictments — particularly of Jefferson — also looms on their side of the aisle.

Ney’s guilty plea had long been expected by his Republican colleagues, as Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) already had stripped Ney of his House Administration Committee chairmanship in January.

Hastert issued a brief statement Friday afternoon, saying, “The illegal behavior that Congressman Bob Ney has admitted doing is unacceptable. I am glad he has recognized and accepted the consequences of his actions. My thoughts and prayers are especially with him and his family at this time.”

Unlike ex-Rep. Duke Cunningham (R-Calif.) — the now-jailed lawmaker who was viewed by many of his colleagues as arrogant and overbearing — or even former Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) — who made his fair share of enemies before leaving the House under a cloud of still unresolved criminal charges in June — Ney was largely seen before his downfall as an affable and generally well-liked Member on both sides of the aisle.

“Most people just think it’s pathetic,” said one Republican leadership source, adding, in reference to Ney’s chairmanship of House Administration, “It’s a sad story about someone who needs a lot of help, which is made even worse by the fact that he could have been something.”

The source added that Ney largely has eroded any sense of goodwill among House Republicans because on May 10, Ney stood in front of his colleagues at their weekly meeting to offer an impassioned self-defense, which was met with a standing ovation led by Hastert.

“Ney stood up in front of the entire Conference and said that he was innocent and that he was taking on these allegations and it was the media’s fault and that he would clear his name,” the source said. “He lied to everybody. I hope he gets better in rehab, but he needs to have a great sense of shame for what he’s done. No apologies.”

Ney will remain a Member of the House until he sends a formal letter of resignation to Hastert. Sources contacted for this story did not believe Ney would return to Capitol Hill in any official capacity before his October sentencing date.

Pelosi sent Hastert a letter Friday requesting Ney’s immediate removal from his subcommittee chairmanship on housing and opportunity for the Financial Services Committee.

As for the open-seat race in Ohio, the Ney-endorsed candidate, state Sen. Joy Padgett, handily won the GOP primary last week. In a Friday statement, Padgett made no excuses for Ney. “Bob Ney has admitted to a serious crime. He will pay the appropriate penalty mandated by law,” she said, while downplaying its potential impact on the general election, stating “voters are ready to move away from the past.”

However, Democratic candidate Zack Space is unlikely to let voters forget the Ney-Padgett link. “Joy Padgett is Bob Ney’s candidate,” said Angela Guyadeen, communications director for Space’s campaign. “Their tie-in is close, it’s an issue that will be on the minds of voters.”

Space has sought to make ethics a cornerstone of his campaign. On the main page of his campaign Web site, he features “The Zack Space Ethics Pledge,” where he promises to never take gifts, meals, or trips from lobbyists.