Writing that "because of Boehner’s promise, I stepped aside,’’ Ney added that Boehner never came through with either a job or help for his legal bills.
"I had been lied to and ditched,’’ Ney writes. At the time, Boehner was the Republican majority leader.
The book, "Sideswiped – Lessons Learned Courtesy of the Hit Men of Capitol Hill,’’ was obtained yesterday by at least three news organizations, including the National Journal of Washington. The Dayton Daily News was able Tuesday night to obtain a copy of the book.
Ney pleaded guilty in October of 2006 to charges of accepting thousands of dollars in expensive trips from lobbyist Jack Abramoff and a Syrian businessman. He resigned his seat just days before the November election where Democrat Zack Space defeated Republican Joy Padgett.
Aides to Boehner dismissed the accusations in the book. Michael Steel, a Boehner spokesman said "this is a convicted felon with a history of failing to tell the truth making a lot of baseless accusations to try and sell books. More than anything else, it’s sad.’’
Ney, who writes candidly about his alcoholism, asserts that he has not had a drink in years. And though he writes that "in the end, I was and am responsible,’’ he insists that he "did not accept cash, gifts, cars, furniture or trips in exchange for anything."
Although Ney writes in scathing terms about Boehner, he also lobs barrages against Barry Jackson, a onetime Boehner aide; Karl Rove, a political adviser to former President George W. Bush, and Assistant Attorney General Alice Fisher, who he nicknamed "Pretty Alice’’ because of her "staged, Hollywood-esque press conference where she announced my plea.’’
"Alice Fisher was undoubtedly the most covert, manipulative, cunning, stealth, vicious, cold-hearted instrument of evil that Karl Rove and the Bush administration had,’’ Ney writes.
But he aims much of his anger toward Boehner, his fellow Ohio Republican. He describes Boehner as "a bit lazy,’’ and writes that he "was considered a man who was all about winning and money.’’
"He was a chain-smoking, relentless wine drinker who was more interested in the high life.’’ He charges that "two or three nights a week for years – either after or in between votes – Boehner sat with prominent, powerful tobacco lobbyists’’ at the Capitol Hill Club near the Capitol building.
"Boehner drank red wine, smoked cigarettes, and snacked on hors d’oevres,’’ Ney writes. "If someone had held a gun to Boehner’s head and told him to produce receipts proving that he paid for all those years of drinking . . . or he would be shot – he would have wound up in a body bag.’’
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