More often than not, scandals in Washington run their course: apologies, resignations, jail time, followed by book deals and CNN interviews. But not the Jack Abramoff scandal. The Associated Press gives word that the former deputy chief of staff of the Department of Justice’s Criminal Division, Robert Coughlin, is being charged for accepting gifts from Abramoff and his law firm as they tried to woo him to join their team.

In court papers filed Monday in federal court in Washington, prosecutors accused Coughlin of providing assistance to a lobbyist and the lobbyist’s firm while receiving gifts from the firm and discussing prospective employment there. The lobbyist isn’t named but The Associated Press has previously reported that Coughlin was lobbied during the period in question by Kevin Ring, a member of Abramoff’s lobbying team who also is under investigation.

In the spirit of the season: What makes this scandal different from every other scandal? Jack Abramoff was a central piece of a political power structure that funneled money from Indian tribes and American protectorates into the campaign coffers of high ranking and vulnerable members of Congress. Abramoff wasn’t just some joe selling himself for yachts and prostitutes, he made the money run on time. And apparently he was making the money, and tickets to the MCI Center, run into the Justice Department that eventually snared him.

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When President Bush signed the Open Government Act of 2007 on New Years Eve, the first reform of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) in a decade, one might have been tempted to believe the administration was reevaluating its embrace of hyper secrecy and warming to more openness and transparency. No such luck.

Over the weekend, Think Progress reported how the administration is now attempting to "neuter" the new law, which Congress wrote to open up government to more accountability. The law sets up the Office of Government Information Services (OGIS), designed as an ombudsman to provide independent oversight and settle disputes over FOIA requests. The law authorized funds to address backlogs in the requests and resolve the requests in a timely manner.

But the administration’s 2009 budget outline proposes shifting funds for the OGIS, estimated to be about $6 million, from the National Archives to the Department of Justice, where it would essentially die. Sens. Pat Leahy and John Cornyn, sponsors of the new law, are united in opposition to Bush’s efforts. Think Progress cites a Congress Daily (subscription required) report that quotes a Leahy aide as saying if the funds were shifted to Justice, the Office of Management and Budget "would effectively eliminate the office, because it appears no similar operation would be created there." National Archives officials are relatively independent of political pressure, the staffer said. Justice, on the other hand, is "hostile to efforts to improve FOIA responsiveness, in part because it represents agencies sued by FOIA requesters," Think Progress writes.

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