Delco's Weldon: Not a crook, just a lousy congressman?

My Daily News colleague Bill Bender had

» READ MORE: something of a scoop the other day,

which is that former Delaware County Congressman Curt Weldon, who lost his seat in 2006 amid reports he and his associates were under federal investigation, increasingly looks like he won't be charged with a crime.

Harper's Ken Silverstein, an authority on all things Weldon since his days at the Los Angeles Times,

» READ MORE: frames the issue nicely

:

In addition to being a buffoon Weldon indisputably helped steer business to the lobby shop of his twenty-something daughter, who had no political experience; he similarly helped out the lobby business of the similarly inexperienced Grimes, a close personal friend; his children had a tendency to get jobs with his campaign donors and defense firms he helped out; he took his family on a European trip paid for by Russian and Serbian interests; and he used huge sums of campaign money to dine out at restaurants and stay at hotels. The list goes on and on.

In short, Weldon used his congressional seat to the great benefit of himself, his family and friends. It's possible he did nothing illegal, but his conduct was clearly unethical.