Since March, or perhaps even earlier, rumors of corruption have been swirling around California Republican Jerry Lewis, chairman of the extremely powerful House Appropriations Committee. Now we have some details on the story courtesy of Guy McCarthy of the San Bernardino Sun.

Federal investigators have served San Bernardino County with a request for records related to the county's contract with a top D.C. lobbying firm tied to Rep. Jerry Lewis, sources said Wednesday.

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Earlier this year, the Washington D.C.-based Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics called for a federal investigation into Lewis' ties to Lowery, a former Congressman from San Diego, and Lowery's firm, Copeland Lowery Jacquez Denton & White.

The organization pointed out that 37 percent of the $1.3 million raised by Lewis over the past six years is connected to Lowery's firm. Copeland Lowery clients have collected more than $100 million in grants, the watchdog group said.

The organization also raised concerns about Lewis staffers who left to work for Copeland Lowery. One such staffer, Jeffery Shockey, earned $1.5 million over six years and received $600,000 when he left Copeland Lowery to return to work for Lewis.

As if one needed any more proof that the corruption of Congressional Republicans was not limited to the incarcerated former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham, the indicted former Rep. Tom DeLay and the targeted Rep. Bob Ney, the apparent news of an FBI probe into Jerry Lewis shows the extent to which the GOP has been ethically compromised over the past dozen years in control of Congress.

The Democrats must take advantage of this news and make a clear effort to knock of Lewis this fall -- that is, of course, if he does not decide to retire in ignominy first. True, this is a tough district for Democrats to win, but it is very possible for a Republican leaning district to go Democratic when the GOP incumbent proves too corrupt. Just look a little south of Lewis' 41st district to California's 50th where Francine Busby is scaring the bejabbers out of Republicans across the country.

While George W. Bush won Lewis' district, the California's 41st, with roughly 62 percent in 2004, his margin of victory there was significantly smaller in 2000 as he garnered about 56 percent of the vote. Lewis does have quite a bit of cash on hand -- $1.65 million as of just two weeks ago, in fact -- while the Democrat in the race, Louie Contreras, has yet to file any fundraising report, indicating he has little to no money in the bank. (For more information on Contreras, check out this post from reader DownWithTyranny).

Nevertheless, even with these less than encouraging numbers, there is no reason the grassroots shouldn't get involved in this race. If these allegations prove at all founded, it will be clear that Lewis misused both his office as Representative and his position as chairman of the House Appropriations Committee -- a truly fireable offense. So if you're a denizen of the Inland Empire, think about heading over to Contreras' website and his campaign office to offer a few hours of your time. Because, who knows? With Lewis out of the way, the Dems would be one seat closer to controlling the House for the first time since 1994.