Republican Corruption and the K Street Crowd

John Boehner is the new Tom DeLay; he took over DeLay's job a few months back and it's still business as usual as reported by Thomas Frank in The New York Times:

Representative Bob Ney, the Ohio Republican who did such generous favors for the casino clients of Jack Abramoff, announced his retirement from Congress on August 7; the next morning the Washington Post reported that he had acted under pressure from his fellow Ohioan John Boehner, who is said to have told Ney that, if he stood for re-election and lost, he "could not expect a lucrative career on K Street."

This is one of those remarkable moments when the rhetoric falls away and the mysteries of consrvative government are briefly revealed: K Street, synonymous with the corporate lobbying industry, will not abide a man whose reputation imperils the Republican majority, even though he has earned that reputation in the service of K Street's leading personality....

Ney can't work for the corrupt money machine if he threatens the money machine by drawing attention to his corruption which stemmed from being part of the money machine . But, on the quiet, he can return as a lobbyist, if he plays along (translation: take a fall for us, Bob, and we'll take care of your children). Isn't Washington lovely these days?