Corruption to follow Corruption?
here is a new blog that showed up on google with the low-down on blunt and Boehner, vying to suceed DeLay.

Cortex quoted CBS from 2003

GOP Whip Tried To Aid Tobacco Pals
(CBS) House Majority Whip Roy Blunt is coming under fire for trying to help tobacco giant Philip Morris USA in last November's homeland security bill.

Blunt's ties to the company include large campaign donations from the company - $150,000 since 2001 to committees affiliated with Blunt. His son, Andrew, also works as a lobbyist for Philip Morris back in his home state of Missouri.

The Washington Post reports that just days after he was named to the House's third-highest leadership post, Blunt - who has close personal and political ties to Phillip Morris - tried to slip a pro-tobacco provision into the bill creating the new Department of Homeland Security.

Which all goes to show that even though these episodes were all reported, everyone knew, no-one seemed to care, until the Abramoff scandal broke, and more important, until the big A pled guilty- then DeLay's defenders suddenly had to stop hiding behind the "vendetta" excuse. Interesntingly, conservative blogs are still touting the idea that its not about Republicans, its all politicians.
Political Cortex: Perpetuating Corruption: Tom DeLay's Replacements: "And yet, one of the top contenders is Rep. Roy Blunt of Missouri, one of the most corrupt members of Congress. The other is at best only soft on corruption and at worst, based on the REPUBLICAN view of the Abramoff scandal (not our own), the other, Rep. John Boehner of Ohio, is among the most corrupt Congressmen around. In their blind quest for power, Republicans just don't get it. Americans don't like corruption. "