Last evening, the Firedoglake hosted another installment of their Sunday Book Salons, where John Anderson took questions online about his new book Follow the Money: How George W. Bush and the Texas Republicans Hog-Tied America, released earlier this fall. In the book Anderson gives an overview of the connections between elite Houston law firms, Karl Rove, Grover Norquist, Tom DeLay and his K Street Project to Jack Abramoff. I haven’t read the book yet, but last night’s discussions makes me want to.

As an Austin American-Statesman review states, Anderson used previously reported or exposed facts to retell this story. By following Deep Throat’s advice, Anderson shows the overarching network that put George W. Bush in the White House, DeLay out of a job, Abramoff in prison, and the GOP in the minority.

In last evening’s salon, Anderson said that he originally set out to write a book on high-end Texas law firms, but got interested in their connections to DeLay and Abramoff. He started keeping month-to-month computer files on the two lions of K Street. "But then it dawned on me: They were joined at the hips," he wrote. "There was surely no Jack without Tom, and Jack was a vital cog in DeLay Inc." Their "endless gaming of the system" with zero oversight allowed the Republican Congressional leadership to "always deliver the goods" despite tiny Congressional majorities.

Anderson says that his first thought was to compare the Abramoff scandals to the Teapot Dome scandal. "I’m quite sure now that the scandals of this administration are Teapot Dome, Crédit Mobilier, the Whiskey Ring, the Indian Ring, Watergate, all rolled into one," he wrote. "And far, far worse than any of them or all of them combined."

Check out the book and the fascinating discussion at Firedoglake.