Last week, Bob Schaffer, candidate for Senate in Colorado, claimed he shut down a sweatshop in the Mariana Islands. The problem, of course, is he doesn't have much evidence to back up this claim.

Public Campaign Action Fund's Campaign Money Watch has a new ad in Colorado and is back on the air in Alaska.

The Abramoff Ax fells another. Kevin Ring, former minion of Jack Abramoff and once upon a time chief of staff to former Rep. John Doolittle has been indicted on ten counts of bribing public officials to take action on behalf of his clients. Insert your own "corruption ring" puns here. Somewhere Doolittle is scanning the sky nervously for signs of a dropping shoe.

It appears that convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff's extensive cooperation with federal investigators is paying off. He received a reduced sentence in connection with the corruption investigation that has ended the careers of a handful of politicians and government officials.

Let's assume that John McCain did in fact have Alaska Governor Sarah Palin thoroughly vetted before selecting her as his running mate. One can only further assume then that he really savors a challenge, because in addition to the more high-profile news that has leaked about the Governor over the weekend, several questions have been raised about just how ethically sound this "reformer's" credentials are.

Heh. As a follow up to yesterday's news that Congress' favorite influence-peddler Jack Abramoff might be getting out of jail early we have this delightful item about how Abramoff has been spending his time in prison. He's caught the teaching bug and has been instructing other inmates in subjects such as, according to TPM Muckraker, "Parenting from a Distance," and "Cinema Studies." I hear an additional course, "Buying Congress for Dummies" is in the works for next semester. Enroll now!