Rats Running For Cover

Bloomberg has a preliminary assessment of the nuclear Abramoff plea bargain.

"Some 220 lawmakers received at least $1.7 million in political donations from Abramoff, his associates and nine tribal clients between 2001 and 2004, according to a review of Federal Election Commission and Internal Revenue Service records. Of those, 201 are still in Congress. Republicans received $1.1 million, or 64 percent of the total.

"When this is all over, this will be bigger than any (government scandal) in the last 50 years, both in the amount of people involved and the breadth to it,'' said Stan Brand, a former U.S. House counsel who specializes in representing public officials accused of wrongdoing. "It will include high-ranking members of Congress and executive branch officials.''

Delay, Ney, Doolittle, Burns, Hastert, the list goes on and on.