The saga continues!

You heard Greg Sargent’s story about the Iowa farm couple, Jerry and Deb VonSprecken, that Rudy Giuliani snubbed because they ended up not being as rich as his campaign thought.

Now there’s more. Today John McCain personally put in a call to the Deb VonSprecken to “apologize on behalf of all politicians” for Rudy’s atrocious behavior.

There’s more and Greg’s got the latest.

BREAKING: New charges brought against Cunningham case bigwigs Brent Wilkes and Kyle “Dusty” Foggo.

Schlozman to Senate Judiciary Committee: I can’t make the hearing next week. I’m on vacation. Let’s try again in June.

More from the Times on Monica Goodling’s work making sure no one with ‘liberal leanings’ got jobs at the Department of Justice.

And then there were 10?

A former West Virginia federal prosecutor said Friday the White House fired him in 2005 in the middle of a corruption and vote-buying investigation but never told him why.

Karl K. “Kasey” Warner said he has “concerns” and sees parallels between himself and eight other ousted U.S. attorneys. Congress and an internal Justice Department agency are investigating whether those firings were politically motivated.

Warner told the AP that he refused to resign when the Justice Department asked him to, adding, “Next thing I know, I get a letter from the president’s counsel, Harriet Miers, saying I’d been fired, no reason given.”

The details on this one are still a little murky, and the AP notes a 2003 controversy in which Warner offered via email to skirt campaign finance law (an offer on which he did not follow through).

So, what was Warner working on in 2005 when he was sacked? According to the AP, he won’t comment on whether he was pressured by higher-ups and would not say who was being investigated when he was fired.

We do, however, have a fired U.S. Attorney who was investigating some kind of corruption who sees a parallel between his case and the other purged prosecutors. Developing….

Update: One tidbit the AP article neglected to mention is that James Comey seems to believe Warner deserved to be fired.

When a lawmaker is accused of corruption, and he or she is prepared to pronounce their innocence, they should generally avoid huge caveats. It appears Rep. Paul Gillmor (R-Ohio) hasn’t quite learned the tricks of the trade.

As Al Kamen reported, Gillmor has a luxurious new home, alongside a golf course designed by Arnold Palmer, in suburban Columbus, Ohio. It’s not Gillmor’s official residence, however, because it’s not in his congressional district.

Curiously, Gillmor pays the mortgage and taxes on the $1 million house, but the home isn’t in the congressman’s name, which appears nowhere on the property records. This gets a little tricky, but the house is apparently owned by trading company, Zenith Holding & Trading Corp, which has contributed to Gillmor’s campaigns.

That’s when it gets amusing.

Gillmor’s office initially declined to confirm the address, saying Capitol Police suggested for security that lawmakers not give out such information, the paper reported.

But Gillmor acknowledged that he retained Zenith to buy the property on his behalf.

“There’s nothing unethical or unusual,” he told the paper. “It’s all pretty much aboveboard.” He said the deal was transparent because the Blade was able to trace it back to him, the paper said.

First, just because a newspaper reporter was able to eventually connect the dots doesn’t make the deal “transparent.”

Second, “pretty much” aboveboard?

If a Republican presidential candidate snubs some working-class farmers, and the media doesn’t report it, does it really make a sound?

When Greg Sargent first noted on Thursday that Rudy Giuliani’s campaign cancelled an event at Deb and Jerry VonSprecken’s family farm because they’re not millionaires, he asked in his first paragraph, “[W]ill the haircut-obsessed political media cover it?”

I’ve been wondering the same thing. The blogs have been all over this story, and I’ve heard that John McCain’s campaign has been sending information out to its email lists, but how’s the coverage been in the traditional media?

Based on searches on Lexis-Nexis and Google News, it seems the political establishment doesn’t care. I found one article — in the Des Moines Register, which presumably appreciated the local angle.

That’s it. The story hasn’t been mentioned in any of the major dailies, the wires, or on any national TV broadcasts.

C’mon, assignment editors, this is an easy one. It obviously isn’t nearly as fascinating as a Democrat getting an expensive haircut, but couldn’t CNN send a camera crew to the VonSpreckens’ farm?

Ana Marie Cox noted yesterday that Giuliani “could’ve probably gotten away with tap-dancing his way through the abortion issue, but I somehow don’t think any campaign — R or D — could weather this.” It’s actually pretty easy when the media blows it off.

When it comes to the GOP’s culture of corruption, even the loyal GOP base has a breaking point.

When Rep. John Doolittle (R-Calif.) was forced to give up his seat on the powerful House Appropriations Committee due to an acute case of Abramoff-itis, the GOP leadership had a chance to set things right by replacing him with a respected lawmaker of unimpeachable integrity. Instead the leadership tapped Rep. Ken Calvert (R-Calif.), who was himself recently named one of Congress’ most corrupt lawmakers.

Calvert, of course, is the subject on an ongoing FBI probe of his own. As CREW’s Melanie Sloan asked, “Why would the minority choose to replace one member under federal investigation with another member also under federal investigation?”

Some conservatives are starting to ask the same question. RedState, one of the leading far-right blogs, ran an item yesterday under the headline, “An Open Declaration of War Against The House Republican Leadership.” RedState recounts Calvert’s many alleged misdeeds, concluding that the “House Republican Leadership just does not get it.” A variety of conservative blogs endorsed the challenge.

Blogs on the right aren’t the only ones concerned.

The House Republican Conference Thursday ratified Calvert as its choice to replace Rep. John Doolittle (R-Calif.) on Appropriations, even though the lawmaker faced stiff opposition from conference members concerned that ethics allegations against him could hurt the party.

RedState’s Erick Erickson added, “Leadership may be pleased with themselves, but I’ve heard from more than two dozen Republicans on the Hill thanking me for speaking out against Calvert’s appointment…. That tells me Leadership is not in line with those it represents.”

After all the scandals and corruption-related difficulties the GOP leadership has experienced the past few years, you’d think they’d eventually learn a few lessons. Especially after having lost both chambers of Congress, top Republican lawmakers should use this opportunity to clean up their self-created mess and start demonstrating to voters that they care about ethics and integrity in government.

That, of course, would take maturity and some common sense. The Republican leadership apparently has neither.

As a rule, presidential campaigns with a lot of turnover aren’t firing on all cylinders.

Jim Martin, who for months had served as Sen. John McCain’s New Hampshire state director, has left the campaign “effective immediately,” according to an email sent to campaign staffers from Rob Jesmer, McCain’s National Political Director, [Friday] afternoon.

Asked why Martin was departing, McCain communications director Brian Jones said that, “in order for the campaign to be successful in the state we thought it was necessary to move in a different direction.”

This comes less than a week after Michael P. Dennehy, McCain’s national political director, stepped down from his job, saying he wants to spend more time with his family. For that matter, in late April, McCain replaced his longtime finance director and one of his liaisons to the religious right movement.

I can only imagine what the campaign’s internal polls are saying right now.

There’s more on this and other campaign-related stories in the Election Central Saturday Roundup.

Words of wisdom from part of the 28% of Americans who believe the president is doing a great job.

Gov. Sonny Perdue just finished up his talk-radio session with former U.S. secretary of education Bill Bennett on WGKA (920AM), held at the state Capitol.

On his “Morning in America” show, Bennett mentioned that Perdue has been talked about as vice-presidential fodder in ’08, and asked if the governor agreed with other Republicans who think it might be time to put some air between themselves and President Bush — specifically on the topic of Iraq.

Perdue said he did not. In fact, in Spiro Agnew-like fashion, the governor encouraged nattering nabobs of negatism to put a lid on the loose talk.

Perdue acknowledged that the going in Iraq has been tough. But, he said, “until you’ve got a better idea, keep your mouth shut.”

“This president did not choose war. He chose to protect the United States of America, and I’m thankful that he did,” Perdue said.

Who can argue with logic like that? Never mind that period of time — I think it was called 2002 and 2003 — when the president chose to go war. Sonny Purdue, like other Bush friends who create their own reality, remembers things differently, and approves of how everything turned out.