White House Watch: GOP advisers urge resignations in Abramoff scandal
As the Abramoff-Scanlon lobbying scandal unfolds with greater speed, congressional Republican advisers are urging leadership officials to call on those linked to it to consider resigning long before the 2006 midterm elections.
"They should step aside now," said one adviser with ties to the House Republican leadership and the White House. "If they leave now, we could still hold their seat."
GOP officials are worried that the lobbying affair could include more than a dozen lawmakers and potentially spell disaster for the Republican majority in the House. Political strategists said that if members suspected in it leave early enough, they won't become issues in the fall 2006 election. One Republican strategist cited the New Jersey governor's election, in which Democrat Jon Corzine was able to replace a scandal-hit Democratic governor, Jim McGreevey, who had resigned months earlier.
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