Dominoes: Fiancée jilted; Abramoff indicted.

Yes, there is a direct connection!

Remember Emily J. "Stop filming!" Miller? You know, the pushy one who thought she could personally control that NBC Meet The Press interview with Colin Powell?

Well...

It turns out that Emily J.'s boyfriend (Michael Scanlon) had just dumped her for a manicurist when she freaked out on the set of Meet The Press.

Wait! It gets juicier! Emily J. and Michael met and started secretly dating while they both worked for Tom DeLay (R, About to be frog marched)... Miller was the Bug Man's press secretary; Scanlon was the communications director (Ahem. Miller's boss).

Then...

In 2003, Miller went to work for the State Dept. (Hence, the MTP brouhaha), and Scanlon went to work with prison-bound Jack Abramoff. Scanlon, not exactly the best judge of future Republican-approved matrimonial specimens, started running around on Miller with a manicurist, whom he also promised to marry.

In fact, Miller had just been dumped when she caused that MTP melée.

Hell. Fury. You know the rest.

So... What's a jilted Republican whacko to do?

Drop a dime on Scanlon, that's what. Miller called the FBI and became the star witness against Scanlon.

Domino theory in action.

Because Miller had the goods on him and turned him in, Scanlon needed a plea deal...

Which brings us to...

Abramoff, who's just inked his own plea bargain in exchange for info on a whole slew of Republican sleazemeisters.

By the way, keep this in mind when the corporate-owned media tries to make this a bipartisan scandal. From Bloomberg.com:

Between 2001 and 2004, Abramoff gave more than $127,000 to Republican candidates and committees and nothing to Democrats, federal records show. At the same time, his Indian clients were the only ones among the top 10 tribal donors in the U.S. to donate more money to Republicans than Democrats.

(President George W.) Bush's comment about Abramoff in a Dec. 14 Fox News interview was aimed at countering Democratic accusations that Republicans have brought a "culture of corruption'' to Washington. Even so, the numbers show that "Abramoff's big connections were with the Republicans,'' said Larry Noble, the former top lawyer for the Federal Election Commission, who directs the Washington-based Center for Responsive Politics.

"It is somewhat unusual in that most lobbyists try to work with both Republicans and Democrats, but we're already seeing that Jack Abramoff doesn't seem to be a usual lobbyist,'' Noble said.

File this under: Nixon Era II, (Version 2.0)... same old same old, but much more evil.