He could see the Congressional ethics scandal blossom around his old buddy, Jack Abramoff, the now-famously corrupt lobbyist.

There was no mention of Mark Foley, the Florida congressman who resigned in late September amid revelations he sent sexually explicit e-mail to teenage pages, or Jack Abramoff, the corrupt lobbyist, or anybody else who makes Republicans cringe.

It played up stories of corrupt lobbyists and wacko longshot candidates-and sprinkled it with the occasional fistfight in the Korean and Taiwanese legislatures-all part of an unsubtle message from Party propagandists about the dangers of rampant democracy.

And what you're assuming is that that makes the recipient of the lobbying corrupt, or the lobbyist himself corrupt.

The former No. 2 official in the Interior Department has been notified by federal prosecutors that he will most likely be indicted for lying about his relationship with the corrupt lobbyist Jack Abramoff, people with knowledge of the investigation said Wednesday.

This can only be destructive, particularly for the separate criminal investigations of Jack Abramoff, the corrupt lobbyist, and Randy Cunningham, the imprisoned former congressman.

A18 Lobbyist's White House Links A bipartisan Congressional report documents hundreds of contacts between White House officials and the corrupt lobbyist Jack Abramoff and his partners.

As leadership decisions go, it was a no-brainer: everyone in the room knew that the Jack Abramoff scandal was festering, and that the issue of corrupt lobbyists was not going away.

He does have some wealthy natural allies: American Indian casino owners, who appreciate his investigation of schemes by corrupt lobbyists to bilk tribal clients, have supported him eagerly in the past.

This gleefully chaotic novel, in which a deranged eco-terrorist takes aim at a corrupt lobbyist (and litterbug), is populated by depraved and awful Floridians of all stripes, from crooked politicians to swamp-dwelling vigilantes.