VOLuntarilyConservative

When the FBI spends two years on a sting of Tennessee legislative crooks (codenamed "Tennessee Waltz"), they are going to catch a few greedy traitors of democracy in their trap. That's just what happened today, as 4 legislators, a former state senator, and two "bag men" were indicted on charges of bribery and extortion under the federal Hobbs Act. Blogging for Bryant and Half-Bakered have the incredible blow-by-blow, and Bill Hobbs has linked the actual indictments, which are fascinating to say the least. Brittney at Nashville is Talking saw the same headline from the indictments that I did - Senator John Ford threatening to murder anyone who would dare set him up! The other indictments are good reading, but Ford's is absolutely astonishing!

I had taken my little nephew to Dollywood for a little R&R when I received a call saying that the indicted had been taken away in handcuffs from Capitol Hill. I had heard rumblings that this would be going down soon - possibly this week - in relation to Ford. I assumed that Kathryn Bowers and Ulysses Jones were involved, but Chris Newton's arrest was unexpected, as all I had heard was that he was a witness against Ford's dealings with Doral Dental.

I wonder if Harold Ford, Jr., wishes he had been a bit stronger than sticking with his crooked family yesterday when he said:

"If my uncle has done something wrong, I'm sure they will find out and do something about it. But I'm not going to trash my family to get to the U.S. Senate." (From today's Knoxville News-Sentinel)

Junior didn't throw his uncle under the bus. Now Junior and his uncle get thrown under the bus. This shows that Junior was either a) ignorant of the pending indictments or b) the recipient of poor political advice. If he knew about the indictments, he had to know that someone was going to be thrown under the bus. His handlers should have made sure that he was completely disconnected from his uncle to avoid the treadmarks.

Stay tuned for more on this story, because it's just heating up. Lots of rumors swirling that lead me to believe that the arrests are not over.