Paul Kiel October 13, 2006, 12:18 PM

In a statement issued after his guilty plea today, Bob Ney said that he was “[accepting] responsibility,” but then explained, “I never acted to enrich myself or to get things I shouldn’t, but over time, I allowed myself get too comfortable with the way things have been done in Washington, D.C. for too long.”

He also seemed to indicate that he wasn’t a totally willing participant in Jack Abramoff’s “schemes,” saying “I accepted things I shouldn’t have with the result that Jack Abramoff used my name to advance his own secret schemes of fraud and theft in ways I could never have imagined.”

Full statement below the jump…

The full statement:

I accept responsibility for my actions and I am prepared to face the consequences of what I have done. While I have tried my best during my 12 years in Congress to serve the country in bipartisan ways, I have made mistakes of judgment and acted in ways that I am not proud of. I never intended my career in public service to end this way, and I am ashamed that it has. I never acted to enrich myself or to get things I shouldn’t, but over time, I allowed myself get too comfortable with the way things have been done in Washington, D.C. for too long. I accepted things I shouldn’t have with the result that Jack Abramoff used my name to advance his own secret schemes of fraud and theft in ways I could never have imagined.

I want to thank all of the people who have been so personally supportive of my family and me over the last months and weeks. We have received messages of support and acts of kindness that we will never forget.

The treatment and counseling I have started have been very helpful, but I know that I am not done yet and that I have more work to do to deal with my alcohol dependency.

As I have said before, I am truly sorry for having let down my constituents, colleagues and friends. The expressions of support people have given me recently have reminded me that people have good hearts and I hope that over time and with treatment, I can earn the forgiveness of the people I have hurt.

Having now appeared in court, I need to close up my congressional office. I want to make sure that my staff members are okay and that any open constituent matters and obligations are taken care of. Once I have done these things, I will be resigning from Congress. This will be done in the next few weeks.

Bob Ney, Jack Abramoff