Disgraced Congressman Bob Ney admitted Friday that he took bribes from jailed lobbyist Jack Abramoff, but the Ohio Republican clung to his congressional seat over the objections of his besieged party leaders.
Ney, 52, pleaded guilty Friday in U.S. District Court. He admitted to accepting bribes and gifts from the one-time wunderkind lobbyist.
If U.S. District Judge Ellen S. Huvelle accepts prosecutors’ recommendations, Ney will serve a little more than two years out of a possible 10.
But his party — already facing tight races throughout the country — may well be a collateral casualty of the plea bargain.
On Friday, House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., Majority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, and Republican Whip Roy Blunt of Missouri issued a joint statement, vowing to kick Ney out of the House as soon as the midterm elections are over.
“He betrayed his oath of office and violated the trust of those he represented in the House,” the statement said. “There is no place for him in this Congress.”
Little known nationally, Ney was a key figure in Republican Washington. As chair of the Committee on House Administration, he had charge of everything in the day-to-day life of Congress — from congressional office assignments to Capitol Police badges. He was once dubbed “the mayor of Capitol Hill.”
His bribery plea is the second millstone to be hung around Republican necks in the last few weeks.
Hastert is already facing public calls for his resignation after it was reported that his top staff may have known that Florida Republican Mark Foley was sending lurid electronic messages to boys in the House page program.
And Ney’s plea may not be the end of GOP problems. There still lingers the question of who played poker with Brett Wilkes, the defense contractor who has admitted to bribing congressmen with cash and the attention of prostitutes in lavish evenings at the Watergate Hotel.
Democrats have revived their “culture of corruption” talking points with only days to go ahead of the midterm elections.
Both parties have been predicting — the Democrats gleefully, the Republicans ruefully — that the House would fall back into Democratic hands for the first time since 1994.
