How's this for a sign of serious trouble: For every campaign dollar Rep. Bob Ney (R-OH) spent last quarter, 40 cents went to cover his "legal fees."

From January to March of this year, Ney spent $96,500 in legal fees to the law firm of Vinson & Elkins, FEC documents show. (V&E partner Mark Tuohey is Ney's attorney.) That's nearly 40 percent of his total campaign spending for the period -- $250,098.

Is the guy running for Congress, or running from jail? What do his supporters think?

Ney was notified last October that he was the target of a federal investigation for allegedly taking bribes from Jack Abramoff and his crew. Since then, he's spent over $230,000 in legal fees to Vinson & Elkins, according to his FEC filings.

In the last three months of 2005, Ney's campaign spending actually dropped by 50 percent -- apparently because his lawyers didn't send him a bill.

Neither Ney nor Tuohey immediately returned our calls on the matter.

At what point does a guy admit to his funders that they're not paying to keep him in the race, they're keeping him out of prison?