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The Situation: Wednesday, January 4

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_{Posted: 9:35 a.m. ET
From Mark Preston, CNN Political Unit}

Naming names

Disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff's willingness to name names has caused a certain amount of uneasiness on Capitol Hill and K-Street, as lawmakers, staffers and lobbyists wait to see who will become ensnared in this explosive public corruption probe.

As many as two dozen lawmakers and staffers are under investigation, a senior government official tells CNN. Other sources suggest that Abramoff might possess thousands of e-mails in which he describes the influence peddling he was involved in and explains what lawmakers were doing in exchange for the money he was putting into their campaign coffers.

"This is the biggest scandal to come down the pike in a long, long time," said Richard Ben-Veniste, a former Watergate prosecutor and Democratic appointee to the 9/11 commission. Abramoff pleaded guilty on Tuesday to conspiracy, fraud and tax evasion charges in a wide ranging investigation that centers primarily on defrauding Indian tribes of tens of millions of dollars.

So far, federal investigators are looking at what official actions Rep. Bob Ney (R-Ohio) performed for the lobbyist. Ney is already known to have entered comments in the Congressional Record against a man standing in the way of an Abramoff project, and the Ohio lawmaker took a 2002 trip to Scotland that the lobbyist sponsored. Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay's (R-Texas) relationship to Abramoff, who was once a close political ally, is also under scrutiny. Spokesmen for both lawmakers deny any wrongdoing.

Fallout from Abramoff's guilty plea was almost immediate yesterday with House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Illinois) announcing he would donate nearly $70,000 in contributions received from Abramoff clients to charity. DeLay, Sen. Conrad Burns (R-Montana) and Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-North Dakota) have all returned Abramoff related money.

Even though Abramoff's political donations were not exclusive to Republicans, Democrats contend that he is a GOP lobbyist and this scandal will hurt Republicans in the midterm elections.

"Sadly, it is not a surprise because this Republican Congress is the most corrupt in history and the American people are paying the price," House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-California) said in a statement released by her office.

But Democratic claims that Republicans are the party of corruption are not being embraced by the American public, although about half of U.S. adults believe that most members of Congress are corrupt, a CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll conducted in mid-December shows. When asked how many Democrats in Congress were corrupt, 52 percent answered "only a few," while 49 percent responded with the same answer when asked about Republicans. Still, 49 percent of Americans believe their representatives are corrupt and 55 percent said the issue of corruption was either the "most important" or a "very important" factor in how they would vote in November.

"It looks like the public currently views corruption as a bipartisan problem," said Keating Holland, CNN's polling director.

Meanwhile, outside interest groups continue to prepare for next week's opening hearings on Judge Samuel Alito's nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court. An anti-Alito coalition will announce a radio and television advertising campaign today that initially targets Arkansas, Louisiana and Maine Senators. IndependentCourt.org would not reveal how much the ad buy would be, but the 30 second television commercial will focus on Alito's decision not to remove himself from cases involving companies in which he had financial interests. Progress for America, a pro-Alito organization, announced yesterday it plans to spend $500,000 on television ads and will specifically target Louisiana, Maine and North Dakota Senators. Both groups are also airing their commercials nationally.

President Bush and Vice President Cheney will each make separate remarks today about the war on terror. Bush will deliver his statement from the Pentagon at 11:35 a.m. ET. At 2:35 p.m. ET Cheney addresses the Heritage Foundation and an administration official tells CNN's Dana Bash that he will strongly defend the administration's NSA domestic surveillance program arguing that it is both legal and necessary.

"He'll compare and analyze the criticism through the prism of what our sensible policy decisions have done to protect us in the fight against terrorism," said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

And if Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-New York) is indeed trying to move more towards the political center, she has a lot more work to do, according to a CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll. More than half of all Americans, 51 percent, describe Clinton as liberal, while 32 percent believe she is moderate and 12 percent said she is conservative, according to the poll conducted in mid-December. Not surprisingly, liberals and conservatives had diverging views on her political leanings. For example, 40 percent of liberals describe Clinton as liberal, 42 percent said she is moderate and 12 percent believe she is conservative. On the other hand, 71 percent of conservatives said Clinton is liberal, 15 percent believe she is moderate and 11 percent describe her as conservative.

Political Hot Topics

_{Posted: 9:35 a.m. ET
From Stephen Bach, CNN Washington Bureau}

LABOR WILL INVESTIGATE MINE ACCIDENT: Federal officials expressed sorrow Wednesday over the deaths of 12 West Virginia coal miners and pledged a full investigation into what happened. "Our hearts and prayers are with the families, friends and loved ones of the 12 miners who perished in this tragedy and our hopes and prayers are with the one miner who survived," Labor Secretary Elaine L. Chao said in a statement issued before dawn. "Along with them, the nation has been riveted by the heroic efforts of the mine rescue teams and others, who rushed to the scene and put their lives on the line to try and return their comrades to safety. She said the Mine Safety and Health Administration is launching a full investigation to "determine the cause of this tragedy and will take the necessary steps to ensure that this never happens again." AP via Yahoo! News: Feds Vow Full Probe of W. Va. Mine Blast

WHAT TUNE WILL JACK SING? Jack Abramoff, the once-powerful lobbyist at the center of a wide-ranging public corruption investigation, pleaded guilty yesterday to fraud, tax evasion and conspiracy to bribe public officials in a deal that requires him to provide evidence about members of Congress. The plea deal could have enormous legal and political consequences for the lawmakers on whom Abramoff lavished luxury trips, skybox fundraisers, campaign contributions, jobs for their spouses, and meals at Signatures, the lobbyist's upscale restaurant. In court papers, prosecutors refer to only one congressman: Rep. Robert W. Ney (R-Ohio). But Abramoff, who built a political alliance with House Republicans, including former majority leader Tom DeLay of Texas, has agreed to provide information and testimony about half a dozen House and Senate members, officials familiar with the inquiry said. Washington Post: Abramoff Pleads Guilty to 3 Counts

Click Here for a pdf of the complete Abramoff plea deal.

HEAT IS ON FOR "REPRESENTATIVE NO. 1": In scathing language, the Justice Department charged that Abramoff devised an elaborate scheme to "defraud and deprive" Rep. Bob Ney's Ohio constituents of "the right to the honest services" of their congressman. Those rights include the "conscientious, loyal, faithful, disinterested, unbiased service, to be performed free of deceit, undue influence, conflict of interest, self-enrichment, self-dealing, concealment, bribery, fraud and corruption." Ney's name is never directly mentioned in documents filed by the Justice Department. Instead, prosecutors refer to him as Representative No. 1. But the facts made public by the agency make it clear that the documents refer to Ney. Columbus Dispatch: Lobbyist admits he gave Ney bribes

WH HITS DEMS ON PATRIOT ACT RENEWAL: President Bush accused Democrats yesterday of blocking a full reauthorization of the USA Patriot Act for political reasons, as the White House stepped up an aggressive campaign to defend the president's terrorism-fighting authority. "For partisan reasons, in my mind, people have not stepped up," Bush told reporters, with 19 federal prosecutors by his side. "The enemy has not gone away; they're still there, and I expect Congress to understand that we're still at war and they've got to give us the tools necessary to win this war." White House spokesman Scott McClellan, speaking to reporters earlier in the day, said Senate Democrats are simply doing the bidding of liberal special interest groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union, which opposes the broad surveillance power authorized by the act. Democrats are trying to "appease" the ACLU "because they want to weaken and undermine the Patriot Act," McClellan said. Washington Post: Bush Assails Democrats Over Patriot Act

NSA EXPANDED OPS RIGHT AFTER 9/11, PELOSI LETTER REVEALS: The National Security Agency acted on its own authority, without a formal directive from President Bush, to expand its domestic surveillance operations in the weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks, according to declassified documents released Tuesday. The N.S.A. operation prompted questions from a leading Democrat, Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, who said in an Oct. 11, 2001, letter to a top intelligence official that she was concerned about the agency's legal authority to expand its domestic operations, the documents showed. Ms. Pelosi's letter, which was declassified at her request, showed much earlier concerns among lawmakers about the agency's domestic surveillance operations than had been previously known. The congresswoman wrote to Lt. Gen. Michael V. Hayden, then head of the N.S.A., to express her concerns after she and other members of the House and Senate Intelligence Committees received a classified briefing from General Hayden on Oct. 1, 2001, about the agency's operations. New York Times: Files Say Agency Initiated Growth of Spying Effort

ARNOLD'S STATE OF STATE WILL BE "MOST SIGNIFICANT" SPEECH OF POLITICAL CAREER: Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is scheduled Thursday to deliver a State of the State address that is expected to be the most significant speech of his political career to date, providing a road map for California and for his campaign for re-election in November. Ten months before Schwarzenegger again faces voters at the polls, political analysts agree that his New Year's address represents more than just a Capitol tradition. It will be his first formal address to voters since the Republican governor was battered by a special-election defeat in November, when Californians decisively rejected four initiatives he supported, and effectively begins his 2006 campaign. San Francisco Chronicle: Schwarzenegger pins his future on State of State

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