Rep. John Boehner (R-OH) may be the GOP's fresh face in leadership (just how fresh? see below), but there's still a massive investigation into Congress and the administration going on. Let's get back to that.

Momentum is growing among the Democrats to press Alberto Gonzales to appoint a special prosecutor for the Abramoff investigation.

Thirty-five Senate Democrats plus James Jeffords (I-VT) have written to Gonzales, asking him to appoint a special prosecutor for the Abramoff probe. Last week, Sens. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Ken Salazar (D-CO) called for an investigation.

Why? First there's the natural conflict of interest as the Abramoff investigation is reaching into the White House: Bush may not have known Abramoff, but Abramoff certainly knew Bush. Second, there's Frederick Black.

Everyone should know the name Frederick Black.

Regular readers of the Daily Muck and TPM know that in 2002, Black, the U.S. Attorney for Guam began an investigation into Abramoff's lobbying for the Guam Superior Court - the fees were laundered through a California lawyer named Howard Hills. He convened a grand jury, and to begin his investigation issued a subpoena for the Guam Superior Court contract. The next day Black was demoted. The next day.

Ari Berman tells the story in The Nation. Rather than recounting it all here, I'll just say go read. This could go all the way to Ashcroft, Gonzales, or the White House.

"Reportedly, the FBI and the DOJ Inspector General have begun looking into Black's demotion. Sources close to the IG investigation say its findings will be released soon."

Abramoff, Safavian, Tyco, and the White House Counsel

And more on the Administration and Abramoff from ThinkProgress:

Senators Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Dick Durbin (D-IL) sent a letter yesterday to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, questioning him on what he knew about the ties between Jack Abramoff and Timothy Flanigan a former White House lawyer, who withdrew his nomination to be deputy attorney general last October.

The letter was in response to recent revelations that [David] Safavian, Abramoff, and Flanigan [who was then at Tyco] traded insider information.

The New Boss

No doubt you are all suffering Boehner fatigue after John Boehner's (R-OH) upset win over Rep. Roy Blunt (R-MO) yesterday for House Majority Leader. You even know that his name is pronounced BAY-ner. (Here's a basic bio and his votes.)

You know that he was deep ties to K Street, that he handed out checks from big tobacco on the House floor, that he's in Sallie Mae's pocket, etc. But if you're looking for an excellent primer, it would be hard to do better than this. And here's "what every Jew should know about John Boehner."

Read Josh's reaction here, and his reminder of Boehner's plot against the House ethics committee here.

Here's the reaction of a staffer to a senior Dem Congressman - he says that Boehner's win will make Republicans harder to beat in November. Blunt was the status quo, Rep. John Shadegg (R-AZ) was too far right. Boehner is somewhere in between and "harder to demonize."

The NY Times reports inconclusively on Boehner's possible appeal. The AP reports on the GOP's "hope" that Boehner's election will make this whole Abramoff thing go away.

But here's something I haven't seen emphasized. It shows that Boehner knows that playing reformer isn't the real way to win an election. From yesterday's Hill: "Boehner gave $150,000 to 30 Republican colleagues on Dec. 15, according to his filing for the Freedom Project, his leadership PAC." That's even more than Blunt shelled out.

Hotline reports that Boehner's camp is desperately trying to frame Boehner's persona:

Boehner's camp wasted no time in seeking to frame the forthcoming profile pieces more along the lines of "up-by-his bootstraps Cincinnati boy made good" than "chain-smoking, golf-loving, warehouse party-throwing pol's pol." Or, more practially, more "Gang Of Seven" and "No Child Left Behind" than "Sallie Mae" and "Tobacco Checks On House Floor."

Here are some of those profiles: the NY Times (he resembles Dean Martin, he's "cozy with lobbyists," he's "earned his stripes as a legislator); the AP; Knight-Ridder ("a personable, chain-smoking dealmaker"); the Post ("the collegial, heavy-smoking and richly tanned Ohioan").

Duke Cunningham, Wilkes, and ASG

Jeremy Scahill of The Nation draws the links between Alexander Strategy Group, Duke Cunningham, and Cunningham sugar daddy Brent Wilkes. ASG was the lobby shop run by former DeLay aids whose business was providing access to DeLay.

Wilkes had a company called ACDS, which scanned paper documents, basically. That was their business for which they received $90M in contracts over the past decade - which was why Wilkes had "a vanity plate on his jet-black Hummer that read MIPR ME--a reference to Military Interdepartmental Purchase Requests, which authorize funds in the Pentagon."

We are introduced to a new player in Duke Cunningham's universe - his former chief of staff Patrick McSwain:

A Nation investigation has revealed that, before Wilkes hired ASG to help him grease the Congressional wheels, he enlisted the services in September 1999 of a rookie lobbyist named Patrick McSwain. It was an interesting choice. Until August 1999 McSwain was Duke Cunningham's trusted chief of staff. It is a federal crime for a departed senior Congressional staffer to lobby his former boss for one year after leaving. A review of Congressional lobbying records indicates that the day after leaving Cunningham's staff, on August 9, 1999, McSwain registered as a lobbyist for defense giant General Dynamics, which received $33.2 billion in contracts from 1998 to 2003--mostly no bid contracts. On the registration form, McSwain specifically indicates his intent to lobby on the Defense Appropriations Bill of 2000. Cunningham had enormous control over that bill, serving not only on the Defense and Appropriations committees but also on the conference committee reviewing the bill.

It will come as no surprise that McSwain's second client was Wilkes's ADCS. McSwain now runs a lobby shop called Northpoint Strategies - another former Cunningham chief of staff named Trey Hardin also works there.

According to the Center for Public Integrity, from 2002 to 2004, Northpoint's revenues made a whopping jump from $160,000 to $2.4 million. Its number-one client? The heavily Bush-connected Carlyle Group-United Defense, which paid the firm more than $1 million in 2003-04. Number two: the Titan Corporation (of Abu Ghraib fame).

Those of you wanting a refresher on DeLay's Townhouse of Sleaze, the connection between ASG and Blunt, ASG and Blackwater Security, ASG and Wilkes, etc. - go read.

P-rk

Sens. Trent Lott (R-Miss.) and Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) have introduced a "moderate" earmark reform proposal. It would allow lawmakers to "challenge" individual earmarks on bills, which would trigger a vote on the measure.

It does seem like a "moderate" reform indeed:

Although current Senate rules allow a Member to challenge individual items in conference reports, the objection in effect applies to the entire report.

Lott noted the proposed rules change, which would apply to all committees and not solely to Appropriations legislation, would allow the Senate to "knock out an individual project without killing the whole conference report."

The Mississippi lawmaker acknowledged, however, that the rules change would not affect those earmarks included in legislation with the approval of either the House or the Senate, limiting the number of projects that may be objected to.

"It probably affects a relatively small percentage" of earmarks, Lott said.

The proposal is not intended to eliminate or limit earmarks -- a process Lott has defended vigorously in recent weeks, and that Feinstein also expressed support for Thursday.

The Post has Earmarks for Dummies.

Ronnie Earle's Office Investigates a Democrat?

Jeez, doesn't he know that he's involved in a vast left-wing conspiracy against Tom DeLay? From the AP:

A former aide to U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-TX) has acknowledged embezzling more than $166,000 from the Democrat's campaign fund and from other groups, according to her attorney.

Kristi Willis, 37, has apologized and intends to pay the money back, her lawyer said. Meanwhile, Travis County prosecutors [who work under Travis County DA Ronnie Earle] are investigating.

In Other Muck

In 2003, Rep. Ernest Istook (R-OK) held fundraisers in two of Jack Abramoff's skyboxes - one for an American Idol concert, the other for a Redskins game - but somehow it slipped his mind to pay for them in 2003. The oversight was corrected in late December of last year, when Istook's campaign paid Abramoff's company $5,126. Istook's spokesman was quick to point out that Abramoff himself didn't' arrange the event - it was Team Abramoff member Kevin Ring - but not Abramoff!

The NY Times has more on that corrupt CPA official who stole $1M and got $2M in kickbacks. Robert Stein is cooperating with prosecutors - the investigation continues.

Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA) may have never, ever heard of the "K Street Project," but unfortunately Nexis has. Norman Ornstein, in an article originally published in Roll Call, fires up Nexis and collects reports of Santorum's involvement in the K Street Project - before Santorum knew that it didn't exist.

Also in The Nation, Max Blumenthal profiles Ralph Reed and Abramoff's other "Evangelical Soldiers."

Did we miss something? Was there local coverage in your area we should know about? Email us at talk@talkingpointsmemo.com with the Subject line "Daily Muck" and let us know.