Back in early January (which seems eons ago) Eve Fairbanks opined that the Democratic corruption scandals (then Blago, Bill Richardson, Kwame Kilpatrick, and a sprinkling of Charlie Rangel news) didn’t “matter” because the scandals were on the state or local level, weren’t intertwined, didn’t involve top leadership, and didn’t arise in a political atmosphere where the president was already in political hot water. ( An interesting admission that “The Abramoff stuff [and then, towards the end, Mark Foley] only made a difference because the bloom was already off the GOP rose anyway, thanks to George W. Bush.”) She did allow for these factors to change, and recently they have.

So far damage control isn’t going well for the Democrats. The scandals are increasingly national and do involve top leadership. Charlie Rangel’s problems have multiplied. Chris Dodd (with new scandals breaking every day) is the poster boy for Democrats’ financial scandals, and Jack Murtha is now front and center in a growing web of Abramoff-like corruption.

The New York Times reports on the emergence of lobbyist Paul Magliocchetti, head of the lobbying firm PMA Group, as a central player in a network of corruption after a series of FBI raids:

And many on Capitol Hill, recalling the scandal that mushroomed around the lobbyist Jack Abramoff, are wondering who else will be ensnared in the investigation as prosecutors pore over the financial records and computer files of one of K Street’s most influential lobbyists, known both for the billions of dollars in earmarks he obtained for his clients and for his open hand toward those he sought to influence.

Former PMA staff members familiar with the inquiry say prosecutors’ initial questions have focused on the possibility that Mr. Magliocchetti used straw campaign contributors — a Florida sommelier and a golf club executive, for example, appear to have given large sums in coordination with PMA — as a front to funnel illegal donations to friendly lawmakers, a felony that could carry a minimum sentence of five years.

Other reports have suggested that the trail of PMA lobbying activities is taking investigators to “Democrats Peter Visclosky of Indiana, Jim Moran of Virginia and others on the defense appropriations subcommittee that Murtha chairs.”

So far we’re three for three on Fairbanks’s list. It’s true that Obama’s polling numbers are nowhere near George W. Bush’s. But they are floating down to earth. More to the point, even a popular president is unlikely to save Congressional colleagues snared in a web of corruption and self-dealing. (Bill Clinton’s popularity was in the mid to high 40s in 1994 when his party lost 54 seats in the House.)

So perhaps the corruption is starting to matter.