I always get excited when Repubicans get arrested. I think it has something to do with the frog. Well…Rep. John Doolittle hasn’t been arrested yet, but the FBI raided his house on Friday and now he has voluntarily given up his seat on the Appropriations Committee. A former aide of his, Kevin Ring, went on to work for Jack Abramoff and then as a lawyer at another firm. He announced his resignation for his law firm on Friday, the same day that the FBI raided Doolittle’s home. We’ve seen this before. Bob Ney’s former chief of staff abruptly resigned from his law firm when he turned state’s witness. And the FBI raided Dusty Foggo’s home long before Carol Lam indicted him on her last day as San Diego’s U.S. attorney.
Doolittle won re-election in 2006 by 7,539 votes. He only received 49% of the vote. It appears that Charlie Brown will be running against him again. It should be possible to pick off this seat. I don’t know enough about the district to know whether there is a Republican ready to step in if Doolittle is indicted. But I doubt Doolittle will ever win another election.
Duncan Hunter and Jerry Lewis are two other California Republicans that should probably be indicted for their links to Jack Abramoff. Hunter is running for President and I believe his son is going to run for his seat. I kind of doubt that we can win a seat in Hunter’s district (since he won it with 65%) or in Lewis’s (67%), but indictments would help.