Doug Feiger is the musical genius who, with his group the Knack, created such '70s New Wave classics as "My Sharona" and "Good Girls Don't."

Doug's brother Geoffrey Feiger, on the other hand, is a multimillionaire trial lawyer who is now accused of using straw donors to funnel illegal contributions into the campaign coffers of fellow trial lawyer Sen. John Edwards:

Attorney Geoffrey Fieger and one of his law partners have been indicted by the U.S. government, which accused the pair of making $127,000 in illegal campaign contributions to the 2004 presidential campaign of John Edwards.

The indictment was unsealed today at the U.S. District Court in Detroit and accuses Fieger and Vernon Johnson of violating the $2,000 per election federal limit on individual contributions to presidential candidates.

The indictment accuses them of soliciting 60 "straw donors" to also contribute the $2,000 maximum to Edwards and then reimbursing them for their contributions through funds from their Southfield-based Fieger, Fieger, Kenney & Johnson PC firm.

Tab Turner, of Turner & Associates, Little Rock, Arkansas, agreed to raise a total of $200,000 for the Edwards campaign. ... FEC investigators found that Turner had "knowingly and willfully" contributed $12,000 to the Edwards campaign on behalf of his brother, his sister-in-law, and four Turner & Associates paralegals ... all cited with Federal Election Campaign Act violations for allowing Turner to make $2,000 contributions on their behalf. After reimbursing Turner for the $12,000 that he contributed illegally, and after paying a civil fine of $9,500, a mere slap on the wrist, the Edwards campaign came away with not $200,000, but $52,000.

Turner ... was fined $50,000 for illegally reimbursing his employees and for allowing them to work hundreds of hours on arrangements for the fundraisers while on company time.

Hollrah suggests that the mutual fingerpointing between Feiger and the Edwards campaign might prove interesting:

The indictment alleges that the Edwards campaign was unaware of Fieger and Johnson's actions ... and that Edwards and his campaign staff have "cooperated fully" with the investigation. Edwards has been campaigning full time for the presidency since he was defeated in his run for vice president in 2004. Is there any chance at all that, as a trial lawyer, he would not "roll over" on any fellow trial lawyer indicted in the massive fundraising scheme?

Meanwhile, Feiger -- the indicted lawyer, not the '70s rocker -- issued a statement (written in ALL CAPITAL LETTERS and online in PDF format) describing his indictment as part of a "political charade" masterminded by Karl Rove and Attorney General Alberto Gonzales:

Recent investigations by both the House and Senate have revealed that Alberto Gonzales is both corrupt and has repeatedly deceived Congress and the American people.

In 2005, Gonzales, with the encouragement of Karl Rove and others in the Bush administration, began a campaign to destroy the fund raising ability of Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards by attempting to intimidate his supprt by trial lawyers. ...

The timing of these unprecedented charges ... is solely intended to intimidate Democratic supporters around the country.

In fact, Feiger's indictment is unlikely to have any real legal or political impact on John Edwards or his campaign. The history of campaign finance regulation shows that illegal contributions are more dangerous to the donor than to the recipient.

Think about the illegal contributions to the Clinton-Gore '96 campaign in the "Chinagate" scandal -- several people went to prison, none of whom were named "Clinton" or "Gore."

What to make of Feiger's contention that the indictment is politically-motivated? Well, none of Edwards' Democratic presidential rivals have complained about their campaign donors being targeted by Rove and Gonzales. Wonder if Feiger will suggest that Obama and Hillary are part of this conspiracy -- this mystery -- or is it just a game in my mind, Sharona?

-- Robert Stacy McCain, assistant national editor, The Washington Times