This morning’s Washington Post profiles Will Heaton, former chief-of-staff to disgraced Congressman Bob Ney (R-OH). At the age of 23, Heaton became the youngest chief of staff on the Hill. And why’d he get promoted?

"Heaton’s lawyer, John N. Nassikas III, said his client was an “earnest, moral and at times naive” congressional staffer taken advantage of by “a corrupt, deceitful and manipulative public official.” Nassikas said that Ney “intentionally hired and quickly promoted young, inexperienced staffers — who did not receive any formal ethics training from Congress — so that staffers would have neither the knowledge nor the maturity to question Ney’s conduct."

Heaton, a government major at the College of William and Mary with a passion for American politics and history, was hired in part because he was inexperienced and deferential, Ney told Neil Volz, Heaton’s predecessor. Volz later became a lobbyist for Abramoff and then a cooperating witness for the government."

I wonder how many younguns are hired on Capitol Hill that way?

Another amusing bit from the article:

"He frequently “fired” Heaton when under the influence of alcohol, only to rehire him “once Ney was sobered up," Knapp said.

The Late Blog