The House that Grover Built

Is the White House that Grover Norquist built falling down? Steve Soto at The Left Coaster directs us to a couple of articles this morning that would indicate it might be. The first comes from Bloomberg, Abramoff Probe May Threaten Leading Republicans as It Expands.

Sept. 22 (Bloomberg) -- The widening investigation of lobbyist Jack Abramoff is moving beyond the confines of tawdry influence-peddling to threaten leading figures in the Republican hierarchy that dominates Washington.

This week's arrest of David Safavian, the former head of procurement at the Office of Management and Budget, in connection with a land deal involving Abramoff brings the probe to the White House for the first time.

Safavian once worked with Abramoff at one lobbying firm and was a partner of Grover Norquist, a national Republican strategist with close ties to the White House, at another. Safavian traveled to Scotland in 2002 with Abramoff, Representative Robert Ney of Ohio and another top Republican organizer, Ralph Reed, southeast regional head of President George W. Bush's 2004 re-election campaign.

House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, who once called Abramoff ``one of my closest and dearest friends,'' already figures prominently in the investigation of the lobbyist's links to Republicans. The probe may singe other lawmakers with ties to Abramoff, such as Republican Senator Conrad Burns of Montana, as well as Ney.

And lots of contacts in the WH.

``Safavian is a small fish, but in combination with Abramoff and his ties to Norquist and DeLay, it presents a very inviting target to Democrats,'' said Ross Baker, a political scientist who studies congressional politics at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey.

Safavian was one of three former Abramoff associates who joined the Bush administration. Another was Patrick Pizzella, assistant secretary of labor for administration and management. The third was Susan Ralston, special assistant to White House deputy chief of staff Karl Rove.

Josh Marshall explains that Safavian is a small fish but:

A quick look at the criminal complaint strongly suggests that Safavian is a low-level player in the Abramoff scandals and that he’s been indicted in an effort to compel his cooperation against bigger fish — certainly Abramoff, though the feds probably have more than enough on him, possibly Ney and quite probably Norquist, his former business partner in the lobbying firm of Janus-Merritt Strategies.

So can the Gonzales Justice Department do the job when the fish start getting bigger?

But eventually the prosecutors working this case are going to move higher on the totem pole — high-level staffers at the White House, top advisers to the White House, members of Congress the White House relies on to move its agenda on Capitol Hill. What happens then? Those indictments will need sign off Al Gonzales, the attorney general, himself. What will he do? Do we really believe folks at the White House won’t get any sort of heads up?

Gonzales isn’t just any attorney general. He is not only the president’s former White House counsel. He is a Bush loyalist who owes his entire career to Bush and Rove. To say he has an appearance of a conflict in judging the Abramoff case is a laughable understatement. His conflict is real. And someone should start talking about it.