Locals only?

Nope. I think a lot of people would be interested in Rick Anderson's examination of the northwest connection in the ever-expanding DeLay scandal saga. Writing in the Seattle Weekly, Anderson brings the story to my hometown...

The wide-ranging federal investigations into the influence peddling of D.C. lobbyist Jack Abramoff now include a Senate inquiry related to his work for Seattle's Preston Gates Ellis law-and-lobbying firm. The Senate Finance Committee this week was awaiting a response from Abramoff to a request for records on two nonprofit groups he chaired or helped run during his Preston Gates years. The documents could shed more light on a questionable overseas trip, arranged by Abramoff for then-House Whip Tom DeLay and paid for mostly by two Preston Gates clients. Abramoff also reportedly directly billed some of DeLay's travel costs to Preston. The trip funding and expense billing could both be violations of congressional ethics rules...

...and reminds us that this could all fall in the lap of ...

...new House ethics chair Rep. Doc Hastings, the Pasco, Wash., Republican who has received money from DeLay's political action committee.

Not the kind of thing you'll find in a local Chamber of Commerce press release, maybe, but it's an interesting look at one of the northwest's premiere law firms and their activities in the political sphere.

They make the PI lawyers with late night TV ads seem like paragons of legal propriety.