It's not easy trying to put a bright face on things when you've been fingered in five separate guilty pleas as part of a sprawling bribery investigation, when your entire senior staff resigns within a matter of weeks, and when another one of them gets subpoenaed.

But Rep. Bob Ney (R-OH) is a champion. Last week, we learned that his three senior staffers resigned, because "there is inevitably turnover" on a Congressman's staff.

And this week, in the midst of U.S. News & World Report's story on Republican pressure on Ney to step down, we learn that getting subpoenaed is really a good thing:

Aides say that in the end, the Justice Department investigation might actually cause a public backlash that helps keep Ney in office.

"They are now issuing subpoenas [to Ney aides], which they could have done at any point over the last year,'' says a person close to the lawmaker. "This could well influence the election in his favor.''