Harry Reid: “in recent months, the public has been shocked and outraged over stories dealing with abusive and, I believe, criminal…”

“in recent months, the public has been shocked and outraged over stories dealing with abusive and, I believe, criminal practices--and so do various prosecutors--by lobbyists, senior administration officials, Members of Congress, and even congressional staff. A number of these participants in these schemes that breached the public trust have pled guilty--Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff, former staffer for the recent House Republican Majority Leader Michael Scanlon, Republican Member of Congress Duke Cunningham, and one of his coconspirators, Michael Wade. Others are under indictment, including President Bush's political appointee David Safavian. The guilty pleas, indictments, and documents released to date suggest wrongdoing or improper behavior by many others, including a former Deputy Secretary of the Interior, other former aides to the recent House Republican majority leader, former aides to Republican Senators; Grover Norquist, a close ally of the Bush White House; Ralph Reed, long-time political operative for the Republicans--in fact, he has been State chair of at least one State party--and, of course, the heads of two other groups closely associated with the Republican Party. The American people understand these are not one or two isolated incidents. They understand this is a clear pattern of wrongdoing-- wrongdoing that can only be explained by an alarming sense of impunity. The public understands these individuals felt that they were above the law.…”