Dear Friends: Rep. Bob Ney (R-Ohio) is about to plead guilty to two federal charges in connection with the Jack Abramoff scandal. This is good news and bad news.

The good: Ney will be getting his just desserts. The bad: Ney will disappear from the media radar screen, while they focus on current "hot" stories like the next runaway bride or Paris Hilton's latest romance. Brad Friedman connected the dots from Ney to the stolen 2004 election in Ohio via his former aide-turned lobbyist David DeStefano and Diebold (oh, what a tangled web they weave!), but with Congressman Bob no longer on the ballot and now apparently headed to tennis camp somewhere, this part of his story might get lost.

It's up to us to keep it alive. Onward and upward...