NYPost: DeLay got Abramoff, Scanlon to bring down Bob Livingston

[quaoar]

It's about halfway down in the column.

http://www.nypost.com/gossip/cindy/cindy.htm

Jack Abramoff's partner Mike Scanlon admitted to digging up former Congressman Robert Livingston's private life. Set to become speaker, Livingston then got sidelined for Tom DeLay's man Denis Hastert. Prosecutors now checking if Abramoff and Scanlon took Livingston down at DeLay's behest.

[OldLeftieLawyer]

1. Well, well, well........

Proof of nothing criminal, actually, but it's always nice to find out that they eat their own.

[quaoar]

8. I'm not a lawyer, but....

wouldn't it be extortion if DeLay went to Livingston and threatened to make his affair public unless he stepped aside from the speaker's race?

I can't think of another reason prosecutors might be interested in this.

[OldLeftieLawyer]

9. Oh, don't we wish?

Naw, just politics, and, if nothing was done illegally in digging up the dish about Livingstone's girlfriend, that's that.

Prosecutors could use it, I would guess, as - maybe - helping to show a pattern of behavior that, ultimately, culminated in something illegal. But, I'm not sure of that. I'd certainly keep it in mind when I went to talk to Mr. Livingstone about what HE knows. Wouldn't you?

heh heh heh

[quaoar]

10. Does extortion require

a demand for money? Can it be for "something of value?" Maybe DeLay was afraid that his criminal enterprise might be less lucrative under Livingston.

Speaking of criminal enterprises, don't you think prosecutors could have made a RICO case against Abramoff and Scanlon?

[GodlessBiker]

16. Yes, kind of like the Cosby case...

Where the chick who claimed to be Cosby's illegitimate daughter told him that she would make her existence public unless he gave her something she wanted ($).

I believe it is extortion to demand something of value under the threat to make something public that would damage someone's reputation, something that you would otherwise have the perfect right to do absent the demand or threat.

[CottonBear]

2. Talking Points Memo has the story too:

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/

:popcorn:

[flamin lib]

3. Republicans eat their young and wounded . . . nt

[Rowdyboy]

4. My, my, my, my, my........

Verrrrry interesting.....

[On the Road]

5. Wow, Wow, Wow...

I was disappointed Livingston did not become speaker. Despite the sordid details that took him down, he seemed like a more honorable person and less open to the kind of corruption that's rampant in the GOP these days.

[dryan]

6. Beyond Juicy.....

Cindy Adams is totally trustworthy. Checks everything 3 or 4 times.

[MrBenchley]

7. Wow....this is very interesting...

Let's keep this one kicked.

[pearl]

11. Larry Flynt dug that stuff up

He may have leaked it though.

[MrBenchley]

12. That was always the rumor....

Of course, since it was there to be dug up, there's no reason Flynt got it exclusively....

[0007]

13. Got a link about Flynt digging that up?

[dryan]

14. If I can recall....

Larry Flynt took out a full page ad in the Washington Post and New York Times offering a reward to anyone that had knowledge or who had been directly involved with a member of the GOP that was involved with the House Managers trying Clinton. Although Livingston was directly involved in trying Clinton, he was the Speaker Designate. I wouldn't put it past Delay and Company to have leaked the story to Flynt.

[yellowcanine]

15. Didn't Repugs blame the Dems for "politics of personal destruction" at the

time?

[dryan]

17. Frankly....

I felt sorry for Livingston because I felt he was truly remorseful for what happened. This was at the height of the Lewinsky scandal.