Why did Jack Abramoff finally stop running from the law? Maybe it was because he blew out both of his knees playing racquetball. Roll Call reports that Abramoff had knee surgery on Thursday, the day after he pled guilty to fraud in Florida, and this only five months after having surgery on the other knee. Boy, when it rains it pours, doesn't it?

Roll Call also reports on a more likely source of Jack's downfall - a re-energized Public Integrity Section at the Justice Department. Under the leadership of Noel Hillman, who took over in 2002, the department "has more than doubled the number of federal corruption cases it has brought to the courts in the past four years."

TPM readers who are wishing, hoping, and praying that Abramoff, like Duke, wore a wire, will be cheered by this passage:

"Hillman told Roll Call that along with inspectors general and the FBI, federal investigators have adopted a more widespread use of wiretaps, surveillance and other secretive investigative techniques.

'If we've been more aggressive, and I think we have, one of the ways we've done that is to be more aggressive in the ways we investigate the cases: the more effective use of cooperators, the more effective use of undercover techniques, the consensual recordings.'"

Hillman says his office began investigating Abramoff in the spring of 2004.

Time's cover story reports that "investigators are viewing Abramoff as 'the middle guy'--suggesting there are bigger targets in their sights." And maybe this isn't just a bribery investigation:

"A high-level source tells Time that prosecutors will also focus much of their energies on the lesser and easier-to-prove charge of 'honest services mail fraud,' for which they have to show only that a lawmaker has acted in his personal interest or that of another individual but not of his constituents in return for improper gain."

Time also reports on the White House asking, "Tom who?" Once a golfing buddy, DeLay has been demoted to "useful servant." Read Matt Yglesias's take on it here.

There are a host of articles about the jockeying for leadership positions in the House. Rep. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) and Rep. John Boehner (R-Oh.) both announced their candidacy for Majority Leader yesterday and seem likely to be the only candidates. Both Blunt and Boehner are assuming the mantle of reform: Blunt advocates "new lobbying reforms and enhanced penalties for those who break the public trust," and Boehner touted his "commitment to cleaning up problems and to accountability," but cautioned on Fox News yesterday that "adding more rules isn't the answer." Roll Call charitably characterizes Boehner's position as "more complicated" than Blunt's.

Boehner also took a shot at the messenger Friday, challenging "the Center for Responsive Politics to remove his name from a database that the watchdog group had posted on its Web site tallying amounts that Members of Congress have received from Abramoff and his clients." Boehner says he had nothing to do with Abramoff doesn't like the implication that he did.

In the event that Blunt wins the race, his Whip position will open up. Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.) seems likely to claim that. The vote is scheduled for Feb. 2nd.

Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) tapped Rep. David Dreier (R-Cal.) yesterday to lead the GOP's ring of the lobbying reform circus.

In other muck:

In Newsweek's cover story on Abramoff shows Isikoff, Bailey and Thomas to be unimpressed by all this hullabaloo: "It's doubtful that congressmen sold their votes any more or less than before. Most lawmakers who take money from lobbyists would vote that way regardless."

The NY Times' piece on Abramoff's firm Greenberg Traurig ("Lobbyist's Firm Escapes Fallout From a Scandal") notes their successful strategy of cooperating and laying low.

The Times also has a story ("Lobbyist's Work for Publishers of Magazines Under Scrutiny") on the Magazine Publishers Association's role in the Abramoff scandal. "It turns out that some of the association's money may have been funneled to Mr. Abramoff's political allies," namely: a $25K check made out to Toward Tradition eventually made its way to Tony Rudy's wife. Abramoff's plea agreement contained a reference to $50K in payments to Rudy's ("Staffer A") wife. The other $25K came from another Abramoff client, eLottery, Inc.

Roll Call notes that Ney would lose his chairmanship of the House Administration Committee if he were indicted.

And finally, Al Kamen is holding a contest to properly name the Abramoff scandal. "Names ending in -gate, while not automatically rejected, are frowned upon." Any ideas?