One of Dick Armey’s former aides was just indicted:
Horace Cooper, 44, a former aide to Rep. Dick Armey (R-Texas), was indicted Friday on five felony counts in the investigation stemming from D.C. lobbyist Jack Abramoff.
The indictment alleges that Cooper took from Abramoff and his associates more than $5,000 in tickets to sporting events and concerts between 1998 and 2001 while working for Armey. Between 2001 and 2005, while working as chief of staff at the Voice of America and in a later job at the Labor Department, Cooper took another $9,000 in tickets from Abramoff’s team, the indictment claims.
If you’re keeping score at home, Armey is now the chairman of FreedomWorks and a regular on the sabbath gasbag circuit. A former employee of his spent last week blogging at Sully’s place (where he mostly wanked about pop culture, with a few health care misrepresentations thrown in).
General Winfield Stuck
Six Degrees of Prosecution
asiangrrlMN
@General Winfield Stuck: FTW.
However, I am gonna be the cranky one (gee, really?) and say, until someone big gets taken down (W., Cheney, Rummy, Yoo, and yeah, Armey just ‘coz he’s SUCH a small-d dick), I am not gonna muster up too much enthusiasm for the smaller fry getting put away.
JK
I’d sure as hell love to read that Dick Armey, Tom DeLay, or Karl Rove had been indicted.
burnspbesq
This is right out of the organized crime investigations playbook, i.e., work your way up the food chain by getting little guys to roll over with plea bargains and sentencing recommendations.
It will be interesting to see whether the wingnut omerta is as strong as the Sicilian version when the pardon power is held by the other party.
cbear
@JK: Delay has already been indicted and, as far as I know, is still under indictment.
burnspbesq
@JK:
I’m willing to be patient, because I want to see them indicted on charges that will stick. A perp-walk on CNN isn’t the objective. Bankrupting them through legal fees isn’t the objective. The objective is that they be convicted and do time. Yes?
ellaesther
@JK: You and me both.
Well, you and me and most of the people involved with this blog in any fashion. And a whole lot of other folks, too.
But for the purpose of this comment: You and me both, JK!
ellaesther
@cbear: Oh wait, good point!
Ok, I amend my comment to 17 seconds ago to say: I’d sure as hell love to read that Dick Armey, Tom DeLay, or Karl Rove had been convicted.
But actually, I’d sure as hell love even more to see someone along the lines of a Bush, a Cheney, a Rumsfeld indicted and convicted.
It’s funny — I feel a fool just writing that. They deserve it, of this I have no doubt. But the truly powerful only rarely pay for their crimes.
cbear
@ellaesther: Sadly, I think the absolute best we can hope for is some sort of truth & reconciliation commission, when what is needed is a reprise of the Nuremberg Trials—complete with scaffolds.
ellaesther
@cbear: I’m with you up to the scaffolds, just because I’m not a death penalty gal, but yes: At absolute best. And yet what is needed — indeed, what justice demands — is a serious criminal tribunal.
Sigh. The arc of the moral universe bends toward justice, the arc of the moral universe bends toward justice, the arc of the moral universe bends toward justice…
Roger Moore
@burnspbesq:
The objective is that they be convicted in a way that doesn’t make them look like martyrs to the wicked lieberals. Otherwise, they’ll just get out and wind up on the wingnut welfare circuit and/or go right back into a future Republican administration. If you really want to root this stuff out, they have to be made so politically radioactive that nobody in DC will touch them for the rest of their lives.
JK
@cbear:
I meant convicted.
SiubhanDuinne
@ burnspbesq
My brain takes your point, and it’s a good one. But my gut says, “I can haz perpwox pleez?”
de stijl
A former employee of his spent last week blogging at Sully’s place
Did Suderman ever disclose the FreedomWorks connection on The Daily Dish. I saw the links (not on Sully) to Megan McArdle’s “I’m In Love With Peter Suderman” thang, but I don’t think he ever ‘fessed up / disclaimer-ed when he was guesting on Sully (I could be wrong).
Corner Stone
@DougJ at the top:
Not sure if it’s been suggested before but can we term these kinds of subterfuge “Stealth Care”?
As in, “He blogged at Sully’s all week about pop culture with a few stealth care posts thrown in.”
burnspbesq
@SiubhanDuinne:
FWIW, my gut says the same thing. But my brain says that if any former senior Cheney Organized Crime Family capo, is perp-walked on national TeeVee, all we will hear for weeks is how the evil special prosecutor was trying to influence the jury pool, and since they can’t get a fair trial anywhere in America they must be cut loose. That’s how I would play it if I were the defense attorney.
T. O'Hara
How about Bill Ayers?
de stijl
Bill Ayers guest-blogged on The Daily Dish? GTFOOH!
SiubhanDuinne
@ burnspbesq / 12:32 pm
Fully concur. That’s how defence atty me would play it too (also). But, you know . . . . Sigh.
ChrisB
@cbear: Rob Rogers has a cartoon out showing Delay performing on tonight’s edition of “Dancing with the Indicted.”
robrogers.com/gallery/recent_cartoons/html/latest.html
Meanwhile, Dick Armey will continue to be a respected guest on all sorts of serious news shows. Think he’ll be asked about his aide?
Of course, those tickets he took works out to good seats at only a couple of games at the new Yankee Stadium. He’s really almost entitled to them, isn’t he, for his service to the country?
WereBear
@burnspbesq: Har!
The Sicilian version ain’t what it used to be, re: John Gotti.
So wingnut omerta is freakin’ non-existent. The only thing keeping Scooter’s mouth shut is that sweet, sweet, wingnut welfare and the fear of Cheney shooting him in the face.
Remarkably similar to Mafia tactics, now that I think of it. Maybe someone should come up with a rightie version of The Sopranos. Possible titles:
The Mayberries
The Smallberries
Sarah, Insane & Small
I’d pony up for HBO again to see that.
gbear
@Corner Stone:
The ‘Billionaires for Bush’ gang have a new video called ‘Billionaires for Wealthcare’. It’s kind of a nice change to see a funny video come out of a teabagger protest (they’re thanking the teabaggers for making them rich).
youtube.com/watch?v=jHVwrCzRUX0&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fcrooksandliars%2Ecom%2F&feature=player_e…
Mike G
@gbear
That is excellent.
Good to see some humor and ridicule of these angry, self-righteous hypocrites.
Anne Laurie
@gbear: Healthcare versus Wealthcare — ‘Betsy McCaughey, professional Wealthcare apologist’ and ‘Peter Suderman, astroturfing for Wealthcare’ — I like it!