According to the Chinese zodiac, the next "year of the rat" is not scheduled to appear until 2008 AD. Still, 2006 may prove to be the banner year for people to “rat” on their former and current bosses, their clients and their associates. That’s my gut instinct, election-year prediction for the Washington beltway crowd.

Three high-profile “rat” cases come to mind - the ongoing " Brownie" (of FEMA infamy) Senate hearings,  the upcoming Scooter Libby trial and the smoldering Jack Abramoff scandal. Brownie, Libby and Abramoff will now entertain the nation with a three-rat circus.

Brownie apparently tried to blackmail the White House recently into extending the shield of “executive privilege”, so as to avoid the Senatorial grilling, but Bush offered no aid to the embattled former FEMA chief and Katrina fall guy. Brownie threatened to release emails and name names. Squeezing Brownie will subject the Bush administration to a risk of unwanted splatter stains, as the brown stuff hits the fan. This should be quite entertaining. Click here.

Scooter Libby now claims that his superiors authorized the Valerie Plame leak. It appears that the once popular Scooter will not take the fall guy role after all. He may play the role of rat. If by “superiors” Libby means the Vice-President or the President, then the President and/or the Vice President broke the law that protects our CIA agent’s identity. Click here.

Deliberately exposing a CIA agent’s identity is a real crime; it is a bit more serious than lying about a blowjob. And we all know that lying to Congress about a sordid extramarital tryst was recently deemed to be an impeachable offense.

Jack Abramoff, the disgraced lobbyist, is facing a long stretch behind bars. He too may squeal like a trapped rat, in exchange for leniency and adequate accommodations in a comfortable federal rat-house.

The real rap that I have on Mr. Abramoff is not his lobbying efforts on behalf of his American clients, unsavory as they may have been; it is his unholy relationship with the State of Israel that causes my greater concern.

Two of Mr. Abramoff’s former, high-level staffers, Sam Hook and his wife, Shana Tesler, have fled to Israel and have claimed citizenship there. Was Jack also planning to bailout on America and claim Israeli citizenship? Click here.

Jack lobbied for and won a lucrative contract for an Israeli telecommunications company for services rendered to the US House of Representatives. Ohio Rep. Ney was a key part of that strange deal. Click here.

Jack’s so-called “charity work” in the occupied territories was known as the Capital Athletic Foundation. According to informed sources, the Israeli group that Jack funded was actually a well-armed, extra-judicial vigilante group working in the illegally occupied territories. Click here.  Ironically, it seems that the scam was primarily funded by donations from several American Indian tribes, the victims of colonialism.

Nobody seems to be connecting the dots here. Jack Abramoff acted as a de facto Israeli agent with real influence in American politics, but there has been no discernable outrage over his questionable links to Israeli interests. To me, that silence is quite deafening.