Bob Ney: Victim of the Man?

Journalist Ellen Ratner, writing on Rep. Bob Ney’s (R-OH) behalf to the judge who will sentence him, reports on her conversations with the “many” lawmakers who “would like to support former Congressman Ney, but because of the political climate in Washington, they dare not.”

One jewel in particular (read the full letter here):

One of the members I spoke with told me how much then-Congressmen Ney had cared, and how other members of Congress had done far worse things. That member told me that those members are getting off with fines and so forth, but Congressman Ney did not act in lockstep. His voting in congress angered the powers that be in the majority, and he is paying for it unfairly. [Her emphasis]

Hard to know where to start here. But I’ll settle with the image of Ney stuffing his pockets with gambling chips in a London casino, a bribe from a Syrian businessman known as “The Fat Man.”