Democratic corruption du jour

Soon, I'm going to have to change this to a minute by minute update of corruption....

This story is just breaking. Hank Morris, a top confidant of U.S. Senator Charles Schumer, has been indicted for pension fraud for using political connections to steer N.Y. State Pension Fund business for a fee:

A political consultant and a former deputy comptroller pled not guilty this morning to enterprise corruption and other charges stemming from an alleged state pension fund scandal.

Hank Morris and David Loglisci were arrested and arraigned this morning in a Manhattan court on 123 counts of enterprise corruption and other felonies.

Prosecutors allege the two engaged in a three-year criminal enterprise to pocket more than $35 million in middleman fees.

They are the first to be charged in a case that took nearly two years to uncover.

State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo's office investigated whether financial firms were using politically-connected consultants in an effort to get business with the state pension fund.

Morris is a top political consultant to former Comptroller Alan Hevesi and Senator Charles Schumer.

The ties between Morris and Schumer go back over a decade, to a time when Schumer considered running for Governor of New York. Schumer defended Morris as troubles regarding the Pension Fund began to swirl in 2007:

more....