Political Skullduggery

It is doubtful whether Rep. Robert Ney (R-OH) would be agreeing these days with Irish dramatist Brendan Behan's truism that "there is no such thing as bad publicity."

Behan's words of wisdom are the essence of a winning strategy in Hollywood, but not in the "culture of corruption" that defines Washington today. Especially when you are running for re-election to the House.

Testimony in the trial of a former White House budget aide accused of lying about his contacts with the lobbyist Jack Abramoff is expected to result in new scrutiny of Representative Bob Ney, an Ohio Republican caught up in the influence-peddling scandal centered on Mr. Abramoff.

Mr. Ney's former chief of staff, Neil G. Volz, who has pleaded guilty to conspiring with Mr. Abramoff to give illegal gifts to Mr. Ney, has been called to testify this week at the trial of David H. Safavian, the White House aide. Mr. Volz is expected to describe how Mr. Abramoff organized a $130,000 golf trip to Scotland by private jet in August 2002 for a group that included Mr. Ney and three House aides...

Mr. Volz's testimony is scheduled to take place in the wake of several embarrassments for Mr. Ney, who is facing a difficult re-election fight this fall. These include the disclosure last week that his current chief of staff and another former House aide were resisting defense subpoenas and threatening to assert their Fifth Amendment rights against compelled self-incrimination if called to the stand in Mr. Safavian's trial...

While Mr. Ney has insisted he is not guilty of wrongdoing, the Justice Department has repeatedly made clear that he is a focus of the criminal investigation of Mr. Abramoff's lobbying operations on Capitol Hill and may face indictment. The House ethics committee announced this month that it was opening an investigation of Mr. Ney's ties to Mr. Abramoff.

A spokesman for Mr. Ney, Brian Walsh, said the lawmaker had no comment on the decision by Mr. Ney's current chief of staff, William Heaton, and a former aide, Paul D. Vinovich, to resist subpoenas by asserting their Fifth Amendment rights. Both men joined Mr. Ney and Mr. Abramoff on the golfing trip. Mr. Walsh said Mr. Ney continued to cooperate with the Justice Department's investigation...

The disclosures about the subpoenas to Mr. Heaton and Mr. Vinovich, and their efforts to resist testifying, came in exchanges at Mr. Safavian's trial last week among the trial judge, Paul L. Friedman; prosecutors; and Mr. Safavian's lawyer, Barbara Van Gelder.

Ms. Van Gelder had said that defense witnesses she had subpoenaed were refusing to testify, citing their Fifth Amendment rights. The chief prosecutor, Peter Zeidenberg, then disclosed that Mr. Vinovich was among the potential witnesses who had a "Fifth Amendment" concern.

Despite a few political snags, Rep. Ney has recently been expressing confidence in his ability to win re-election in the Fall.

I couldn't ask for a better intro to the story that can be found directly below.