Okay, I think the preliminaries are over. Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-CA), Chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, is in a heap of trouble. NBC's Lisa Myers got government contractor, Tom Casey, who has a cameo role in the Duke Cunningham/Brent Wilkes scandal, to admit that Lewis shook him down for money and stock options for his lobbyist pal William Lowery.

We'll be bringing you more details about this shortly. But Lowery is the lobbyist who brings together Wilkes, Cunningham, Lewis and many others all into one nexus of bad acts.

The kettle might be coming to a boil on this one.