It was almost a year ago that I held the fundraiser to start TPMmuckraker.com. Don't worry, this isn't a lead in to a new fundraiser. I bring it up because this story from yesterday on Muckraker is just the kind of piece I was hoping the site would be putting out.

Ralph Hall is a long serving member of the House of Representatives. He used to be a Democrat, by far the most conservative in the caucus. He finally became a Republican in 2004.

Back in the 1990s he was apparently one of Jack Abramoff's go-to guys. And in 1997 Abramoff was trying to help his clients in the Marianas deal with reports of the active sex trade they had going on the Islands. That and indentured servitude and a bunch of other stuff. But in this slice of the story it's the sex trade. And at the time, attention was focusing on the story of a girl called "Katrina" (to protect her identity) who was snatched "away from her parents in the Philippines at the age of fifteen to work at a nightclub in the Northern Marianas. Once there, she was forced to sell drinks, dance naked, and perform videotaped 'sex acts on stage with customers.'"

That really didn't go down very well. So Abramoff went to Rep. Hall to take "Katrina" down a few notches.

See the rest of the story here.