Jack Abramoff

George and Jack

davidswanson — Mon, 08 Jan 2007 23:30:33 -0500

Meet the New Part-Time RNC Chair - Senator Mel Martinez (Repugnant-FL)

CactusPat — Wed, 15 Nov 2006 06:44:10 -0500

It's official, Kenny (BoyToy) Mehlman's replacement has been anointed by our Dear Smirkin' MisLeader. Mel (Empty-Suit) Martinez is the new partime RNC Chair. He of the infamous Terry Schiavo memo. And, yes, another Lobbygate - Bob Ney - Jack Abramoff tainted Republican. Oh, and he's also caught up in a little campaign finance scandal of his own involving corporate embezzlers in S. Fl. But I'm sure that's someone else's fault.... Great choice Smirky! I'm enjoying the hell out of watching you flush your Repugnant crime syndicate down the ol' swirly slip and slide...

Bush Announces Sen. Martinez Next RNC Chairman
Sen. Mel Martinez (R-Fla.), a close WH ally and a Cuban American, will take the job of general chairman of the RNC, Bush announced to reporters at the WH this afternoon. The appointment comes in the wake of an election that yielded shrinking GOP support from Hispanic voters. Martinez, a first-term senator, will remain in office and serve as the party's chief spokesman and fundraiser heading into the 2008 elections. Mike Duncan, the RNC's current general counsel and a former party treasurer, will manage day-to-day operations and be elected chairman in January, Bush said. The current co-chair, Jo Ann Davidson, will continue in that post... (more)

Counsel to GOP Senator Wrote Memo On Schiavo Martinez Aide Who Cited Upside For Party Resigns
The legal counsel to Sen. Mel Martinez (R-Fla.) admitted yesterday that he was the author of a memo citing the political advantage to Republicans of intervening in the case of Terri Schiavo, the senator said in an interview last night. Brian H. Darling, 39, a former lobbyist for the Alexander Strategy Group on gun rights and other issues, offered his resignation and it was immediately accepted, Martinez said. Martinez, the GOP's Senate point man on the issue, said he earlier had been assured by aides that his office had nothing to do with producing the memo. "I never did an investigation, as such," he said. "I just took it for granted that we wouldn't be that stupid. It was never my intention to in any way politicize this issue."

Martinez, a freshman who was secretary of housing and urban development for most of President Bush's first term, said he had not read the one-page memo. He said he inadvertently passed it to Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), who had worked with him on the issue. After that, officials gave the memo to reporters for ABC News and The Washington Post. Harkin said in an interview that Martinez handed him the memo on the Senate floor, in hopes of gaining his support for the bill giving federal courts jurisdiction in the Florida case in an effort to restore the brain-damaged Florida woman's feeding tube. "He said these were talking points -- something that we're working on here," Harkin said...

The bonus of this flawed selection is that it has the base (AL Qaida, pun intended) in an uproar. Seems he's soft on them criminal illegal immigrant types. A kos blogger has posted a few gems gleamed from various flying monkey blogs, or you can read what they are howlin' 'bout here and here.

Added bonus, AmeicaBlog points out that while he puts on an anti-gay homohysterical public face, he has no propblem whith gay republican staffers....

Who are the 18 members of Congress that signed Abramoff letter to Customs Trademark division?

Lori_Price_CLG — Sat, 28 Oct 2006 20:21:05 -0400

Citizens for Legitimate Government Exclusive: Who are the eighteen members of Congress that signed Abramoff letter to Customs Trademark division? By Lori R. Price 28 October 2006 Bob Ney (R-Ohio) and seventeen other members of Congress signed a letter to Customs in 2002 advocating special consideration to allow Stolichnaya (Stoli) Vodka to import vodka that was illegally labeled "Made in Russia" when in fact, it was made in Latvia. In an unprecedented move, Customs gave dispensation authority to Stoli to import the improperly labeled vodka less than a month after the request by Abramoff and the Eighteen. Who pushed the extra-judicial action which appears completely outside the normal review procedure for such requests?

GOP Scandal Watch: 10/11/06

Bob Fertik — Wed, 11 Oct 2006 10:50:41 -0400

Just 28 days to Election Day - how many GOP scandals can we count today?

Wayne Madsen compiled a beautiful state-by-state GOP Scandal Scorecard - send it to your friends!

Rep. Bob Ney (R-OH) will plead guilty on Friday the 13th for his Abramoff bribes and go directly to jail - but he will pass Go! and he will collect ~~$200~~ $165,200! And to make matters worse, he will still collect his full Congressional pension for the rest of his life!! (CREW)

Rep. Richard Pombo (R-CA) insists he never was lobbied by Abramoff. But new documents from the Northern Mariana Islands show Abramoff lobbied Pombo personally.(CREW)

Rep. Mark Foley (R-FL) visited Pages outside their dorm in 2000 and 2002-3, forcing the Page supervisor to intervene. (ABC)

Rep. Jim Kolbe (R-AZ) said today he did not read the sexual emails from Mark Foley to a page and did not confront Foley personally. But two days ago, Kolbe's spokesperson said he did read those emails and did confront Foley personally. (John Aravosis)

Sen. Mike Dewine (R-OH) is under investigation by the Army for illegally using a uniformed soldier in his campaign ad. (Greg Sargent)

Rep. Charles Taylor (R-NC) has used earmarks to directly benefit his own companies. (CREW/Wall Street Journal)

Abramoff Scandal Reaches Into the WH, Claims Rove's Top Aide

CactusPat — Sat, 07 Oct 2006 17:11:29 -0400

It was bound to happen sooner or later. Fortuitous that it comes before the election...

Rove Aide Linked To Abramoff Resigns
A top aide to WH strategist Karl Rove resigned yesterday after disclosures that she accepted gifts from and passed information to now-convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff, becoming the first official in the West Wing to lose a job in the influence-peddling scandal. Susan B. Ralston submitted her resignation to avoid causing political damage to pResident Bush a month before the midterm elections, officials said. "She did not want to be a distraction to the WH at this important time," said WH spokeswoman Dana Perino... (No distraction at all, yeah right!)

A congressional report showed last week that Ralston accepted sometimes-pricey tickets to nine sports and entertainment events from Abramoff while she provided him with inside White House information. The bipartisan report said there is no evidence that Rove knew of or approved of Ralston's actions, and sources said yesterday that the White House was surprised by the report's revelations. The WH counsel's office conducted a review of the report, but with Ralston's departure it closed its inquiry yesterday. "Nothing more will come from the report, no further fallout from the report," Perino said....

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...The sprawling Abramoff investigations have triggered prosecutions on Capitol Hill and on K Street, but Ralston's resignation brought the scandal into the White House proper. The only other White House official caught up in the probe has been David H. Safavian, the procurement chief for the Office of Management and Budget, who was convicted in June of lying about his ties to Abramoff. As right hand to the president's most important adviser, Ralston was closer to the center of the Bush operation. She was a key organizer of presidential events, coordinating with White House political, scheduling, advance and public liaison offices. "She will be missed because she solves problems, and finding people in government who solve problems" is rare, a colleague said.

Ralston, who earned $122,000 a year, had been a minor player in the scandal for more than a year, but it was not until her e-mails with the lobbyist were released by the House Government Reform Committee last week that her role became known...

--------------------

As a former Abramoff assistant, Ralston played intermediary between the lobbyist and Rove. The congressional report found 66 Abramoff contacts with the White House, more than half of them with Ralston. In addition, Abramoff's lobbying colleagues contacted Ralston 69 times. On Oct. 21, 2001, Ralston e-mailed Abramoff that Rove had read an Abramoff memo about a political endorsement in the Mariana Islands governor's race, a little-noticed election but one important to Abramoff because he had lucrative clients there. Ralston reported to Abramoff that Rove had agreed, writing the next day: "You win :)."...

more WaPo...

Read the full report at the House Reform Committee Minoirty Office

Can the GOP Survive So Many Scandals?

Bob Fertik — Tue, 03 Oct 2006 12:01:38 -0400

Christy surveys the ever-expanding list of GOP scandals and shakes her head in disbelief. We have truly gone through the Looking Glass.

We Democrats look at these scandals and assume the normal results will follow. For the individual politician, that means humiliation, resignation, and exile to oblivion. Then his closest colleagues are exposed and follow the same trajectory: humiliation, resignation, and exile. Then the party hangs its head in shame, removes all bad apples, and returns to the path of God.

But the GOP doesn't play by the rules: there is no shame at the GOP.

There is no shame over Tom DeLay, Duke Cunningham, Bob Ney, Mark Foley, or any of the other Republicans who have resigned in disgrace.

There is no shame over the coverup by Speaker Denny Hastert and Majority Leader John Boehner, the two most powerful Republicans in the House.

There is no shame - only attacks on Democrats like Bill Clinton (Hannity lies again!) and long-forgotten former Rep. Gerry Studds.

There is a simple reason why shame has no place in Republican politics: that's because the GOP is a top-down corporation, not (like the Democratic Party) a franchise operation of individual politicians who rise or fall based on their character and accomplishments.

Take George W. Bush. What had he ever achieved before he became the GOP nominee for President? Less than nothing. He went AWOL from the National Guard, failed at several businesses, and was drunk until 40. But Bush Inc. (led by James Baker and Karl Rove) decided he had a winning personality (unlike his dull father) that would make him electable, so they made him Governor (an easy task in solidly red Texas) and got him through the Republican presidential primaries in South Carolina by accusing John McCain of having an illegitimate black child.

Of course Bush didn't win in 2000 or 2004. But Baker and Rove made sure he was declared the victor by their Republican Secretaries of State (and Bush-Cheney campaign chairs), first Katherine Harris and then Ken Blackwell. In 2000, Baker even had to get his 5 Republicans on the Supreme Court to throw out 175,000 never-counted ballots.

That's how the GOP works: it's a corporation and everyone in the GOP is a loyal employee who does whatever (s)he is told.

Mark Foley is a loyal employee. When Karl Rove told him to resign, he did so immediately.

Denny Hastert is a loyal employee. When Karl Rove told him to block an investigation of Foley and his enablers, he did so immediately. When Karl Rove tells him to resign over the Foley scandal to protect the rest of the GOP leaders (Boehner, Reynolds, Shimkus, etc.), he will do so immediately.

Republicans don't care if their actions are immoral or even criminal. They know the Corporation will take care of them, both through the propaganda system (a.k.a. The Media) and through the legal system.

For the first 4 years of the Bush Regime, both of these systems worked perfectly. But in 2005, reality began to bite back. Jeff Gannon was exposed as a rightwing gay prostitute who was placed as a mole in the White House press corps. Iraq turned into a debacle, and the Downing Street Memos exposed the deliberate lies that brought it about. Retired generals exposed Rumsfeld's massive failures and demanded his replacement. Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald got sick of White House lies and put the most powerful officials under oath repeatedly to get the truth, finally indicting Scooter Libby on perjury and exposing the whole character-assassination game.

And Bob Woodward finally woke up and smelled the rotten fish in the Oval Office.

So one by one, top Republicans are being exposed for their most blatant crimes. And one by one, Republican voters are waking up to the corruption at the heart of the GOP.

But will that be enough to cost Republicans control of Congress? Not as long as Republicans control the counting of votes in key states like Florida and Ohio and in thousands of counties where votes are counted by Republican machines programmed by Diebold, ES&S, and Sequoia.

Republicans are in power for two reasons: they control the media and they count the votes. Progressives have broken the GOP monopoly on the media by creating our own - the blogs and Air America radio. But until we break the GOP monopoly on vote counting, Republicans will continue to control our government.

I'll offer solutions to this problem in the days and weeks to come...

BOB NEY CUTS AND RUNS!

mikekohr — Mon, 07 Aug 2006 22:29:37 -0400

Another rotten Republican piece of fruit falls from the tree of corruption.

Jack Abramoff's "golf buddy," pudgy Bob Ney, ® OH, has announced that he will not be running for re-election. Predictably Ney, claims he is cutting and running, for the sake of his family.

read article:
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/080706J.shtml

2591 soldiers KIA
18,777 maimed and wounded
+44,191 Iraqi dead
Reject the culture of death! Embrace hope, vote Democratic!

mike kohr

ABC Insists Denny Hastert is Under FBI Investigation

Bob Fertik — Thu, 25 May 2006 00:42:15 -0400

Despite a fierce counterattack from House Speaker Denny Hastert, ABC News is sticking to its story: that Hastert is under investigation by the FBI for his role in the Abramoff scandals:

Despite a flat denial from the Department of Justice, federal law enforcement sources tonight said ABC News accurately reported that Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert is "in the mix" in the FBI investigation of corruption in Congress.

Speaker Hastert said tonight the story was "absolutely untrue" and has demanded ABC News retract its story.

Law enforcement sources told ABC News that convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff has provided information to the FBI about Hastert and a number of other members of Congress that have broadened the scope of the investigation. Sources would not divulge details of the Abramoff’s information.

"You guys wrote the story very carefully but they are not reading it very carefully," a senior official said.

One focus involves a letter Hastert wrote in 2003 urging the Secretary of the Interior to block an Indian casino that would have competed with tribes represented by Abramoff.

The letter was written within days of a fund-raiser held for Hastert at Abramoff’s restaurant in Washington. Federal campaign records show more than $26,000 was raised at the time from Abramoff and his clients.

Hastert has denied doing anything unlawful and says he has a long history of opposing certain types of Indian casinos.

ABC’s law enforcement sources said the Justice Department denial was meant only to deny that Hastert was a formal “target” or “subject” of the investigation.

"Whether they like it or not, members of Congress, including Hastert, are under investigation," one federal official said tonight.

The investigation of Hastert’s relationship with Abramoff is in the early stages, according to these officials, and could eventually conclude that Abramoff’s information was unfounded.

Officials said the next logical investigative step would be for the FBI to seek a wide range of documents from the members of Congress named by Abramoff, including letters and business documents.

A spokesman for Hastert said the office had received no subpoenas or requests for documents.

Click here to read the statement issued by the Office of Speaker Dennis Hastert.

No wonder Hastert went ballistic over the FBI's unprecedented search of Rep. Bill Jefferson!

As a Constitutional matter, I think the Justice Department must be extremely careful when investigating Congress - and it absolutely should not be recruiting spies to report "potential crimes," whether in Congress or anywhere else.

But at this stage of the Abramoff investigation, there is more than enough evidence to get a subpoena for Hastert's records.

And as BradBlog reminds us, they should also be investigating Hastert for taking as much as $500,000 in campaign bribes in October 2000 to kill a Congressional resolution designating the killings of Armenians in Turkey between 1915 and 1923 a genocide.

DeVos Had Personal Meetings with Abramoff

Ted Kahl — Fri, 31 Mar 2006 18:15:38 -0500

From MichiganDems.com:

LANSING–In light of Jack Abramoff’s sentencing to nearly six years in prison for fraud, Michigan Democratic Party Chair Mark Brewer today revealed that Abramoff has long been an ally to GOP gubernatorial candidate Dick DeVos. Business Week and the Associated Press reported in 1999 that Abramoff was “first to sign up” for a meeting with GOP House conservatives hosted by DeVos on the Amway yacht. Brewer demanded that DeVos abide by his own words on accountability and release the photographs of him and Abramoff at that event and from other meetings they had.

“The public needs to know Dick DeVos has had meetings with criminally corrupt GOP lobbyist Jack Abramoff. They probably swapped soft money corruption stories. DeVos’ personal relationship with Abramoff adds to the ethical baggage that DeVos brings to the race for governor- huge soft money contributions, hidden tax breaks for Amway and now dealings with a criminal like Abramoff,” said Brewer. “DeVos should release all the photos of him and Abramoff so that the public can judge their relationship for themselves."

Abramoff attended the meeting of GOP conservatives called the “Potomac River Cruise” hosted by Dick DeVos on the Amway yacht Enterprise in the summer of 1999. Abramoff was the first person to sign up for DeVos’ meeting. Indicted Rep. Tom DeLay, another leader along with DeVos and Abramoff of the GOP culture of corruption, also attended the meeting.

Through his Amway fortune, DeVos helped finance the New Right network of think tanks, pressure groups and media outlets. Members of his family and the other Amway founders, the Van Andels, have sat on the boards of think tanks such as the Heritage Foundation, and backed groups such as the Council for National Policy.

The Council for National Policy (CNP) is a secretive forum, which was first formed in 1981, for leading US conservative political leaders, financiers and religous right activist leaders to organize their respective agendas.

While those involved are from the United States, their organizations and influence cover the globe, both religiously and politically. Members include corporate executives, television evangelists, legislators, former military or high ranking government officers, leaders of 'think tanks' dedicated to molding society and those who many view as "Christian" leadership. Members in many cases are owners or leaders from industry such as lumber, oil, mining, commodities, real estate, the media, including owners of radio, television and print, with all aspects of life covered. Many are involved in education, determining to influence society's direction by direct input with children and youth.

In its 2002 Internal Revenue Service (IRS) return the CNP describes its activities and purpose as "Educational conferences for national leaders in the fields of business, government, religion and academia to explore national policy alternatives. Weekly newsletters are distributed to all members to keep them apprised of member activities and public policy issues. A semi-annual journal is produced from membership meeting speeches," it states .[1]

The CNP, which meets three times a year, gathered ahead of the 2004 Republican National Convention. "The real crux of this is that these are the genuine leaders of the Republican Party, but they certainly aren't going to be visible on television next week," the executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, Barry W. Lynn, told the New York Times.[2]

According to ABC News, "The CNP describes itself as a counterweight against liberal domination of the American agenda." [3]

More directly it has been described as "a highly secretive... a theocratic organization -- what they want is basically religious rule" (Mark Crispin Miller, A Patriot Act).

Jim Ryun is Running Scared from Townhouse Scandal

Bob Fertik — Tue, 28 Mar 2006 18:42:28 -0500

When I ran track in high school in the 1970's, one of my heroes was Jim Ryun, who set the world mile record of 3:51.1 in 1967 and held the record until 1975. But then Ryun became a rightwing Kansas Republican and gained fame for speaking in tongues.

Now Ryun is running again - but now he's running away from investigative bloggers at TPMMuckraker.com. That's because TPM is on the scent of a sweetheart deal between Ryun and the U.S. Family Network (USFN), a sham nonprofit controlled by former DeLay Chief of Staff Ed Buckham and funded by Jack Abramoff's lobbying clients.

Just How Sweet Was Ryun's Townhouse Deal?
By Paul Kiel

USFN bought the house in January of 1999 for $429,000. Almost two years later, they sold it to Ryun for $410,000...

Don Boucher, an appraiser who focuses on residential properties in the D.C. area, said that the property should have appreciated "about 15% or more" during that time period, meaning that it would have sold around $500,000.

Another appraiser, who preferred to remain anonymous because he often works with members of Congress, said that the townhouse should have appreciated "by $100,000 at least." He said the low sale price "wouldn't make sense at all unless there was a fire and the place was gutted." He added, "It looks like they gave it away."

Of course we know that Vietnam ace Duke Cunningham's bribery conviction began with a similar sweetheart real estate deal.

The heroes of the 1970's are ending their careers as jailbirds.

Where have you gone Joe DiMaggio, a nation turns its lonely eyes to you.