Columbus Dispatch:
Rep. Bob Ney is guilty. Now, House GOP leaders want him gone.
Ney pleaded guilty to federal charges yesterday for accepting thousands of dollars in expensive trips from lobbyist Jack Abramoff and a Syrian businessman. After his appearance in U.S. District Court, the Republican from Licking County said in a statement that he would resign his eastern Ohio congressional seat "in the next few weeks." That’s not soon enough for his party’s bosses, who vowed to remove him from Congress when it reconvenes Nov. 9.
House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., said Ney "betrayed his oath of office. ... If he chooses not to resign his office, we will move to expel him immediately as our first order of business" when Congress convenes Nov. 9....
Yea, right. Blah. Blah. Blah. I hope Ney takes his little old time to resign because he makes a nice poster boy for corruption.
The Chicago Tribune: In the color-coded, Crayola world of politics, Ohio is a red state.
But if one pays close attention--listening to the grumbles of unhappy voters, reading the poll numbers and catching the hang-dog expressions of Republicans--it's almost as if one can hear the drip-drip-dripping of the dye into the electoral paint can, changing the hue of the great state of Ohio ever closer to blue....
... Once again Ohio, credited with giving President Bush a second term two years ago, is the national battleground in miniature. The war in Iraq has left the veteran Senate incumbent, Mike DeWine, surprisingly vulnerable. Rep. Bob Ney pleaded guilty to felony corruption charges Friday, but has yet to leave office. And the Rep. Mark Foley congressional page sex scandal has damaged the campaign of the fourth-ranking Republican in the House, Deborah Pryce, who described Foley as a friend in a recent magazine article....
We always tell our kids that, like it or not, we are known by the company we keep.
In describing Ohio's politics, The Chicago Tribune said.....
....Then came the war, the coin scandal, a stumbling economy and the trio of Bob Taft, Bob Ney and Mark Foley.
"It's a perfect storm," said Hugh Quill, the Democratic treasurer of Montgomery County, "but it's a perfect storm of their own making."
The Republicans did it to themselves. It is time for change in Ohio and our country.