Sleaze in the Capitol

[Jon8503]

One of the sorriest chapters of American history, the gulling of native Indian tribes, is continuing apace in Washington, where two Capitol insiders close to the House majority leader, Tom DeLay, are being investigated for allegedly fleecing six tribes of more than $80 million with inflated promises of V.I.P. access. The shameful dealings of Jack Abramoff, a Republican power lobbyist, and Michael Scanlon, Mr. DeLay's former spokesman, are coming to light as Senate and Justice Department investigators follow leads from nouveau-riche tribes whose casino profits spurred a new category of lucre and greed in the hyperkinetic world of Washington lobbying.

Even as the two fast-talking political brokers banked large profits for three years of minimal labor, it was found, they were exchanging gleeful private messages mocking tribal leaders as "morons," "troglodytes" and "monkeys." "I want all their MONEY!!!" Mr. Scanlon exuberantly e-mailed in the midst of one deal.

The outrageous affair includes evidence that the two sought to manipulate tribal elections to ensure their lobbying boondoggles, while dropping the names of Mr. DeLay and other leaders and urging tribal contributions to Republican political funds. In the latest high-roller abuses laid bare by The Washington Post, Mr. Abramoff was found to have prodded the tribes to pay for his luxury skyboxes at Washington sports arenas - yes, even at the home of the football Redskins - so he could impress Capitol politicians, staff members and fund-raisers with swank perches to push causes unrelated to tribal issues. A colleague pronounced Mr. Abramoff a master of schmooze, but sleaze seems a far better word.

While the Senate Indian Affairs Committee is continuing its inquiry, the Republican House leadership remains mute. The gulling of the casino tribes is a blot on Congress and the lobbying industry that cries out for a thorough public vetting. But no one is taking any bets, particularly at tribal casinos, that Capitol politicians can fully face the task.

[papau]

1. This story must be dead in national media if Weekly Standard tells truth!!

http://indianz.com/News/2004/002939.asp
http://www.thedesertsun.com/news/stories2004/local/20041117004639.shtml
http://blog.dccc.org/mt/archives/001677.html
http://www.larouchepub.com/other/2004/3139delay_scandal.html
http://www.pbs.org/neighborhoods/news/feature/redir/now/politics/indiangaming.html
http://www.opednews.com/toenjes_101504_Bush_DeLay.htm
http://www.borderlandnews.com/stories/borderland/20041118-195931.shtml
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/09/29/opinion/meyer/main646298.shtml
This Against the Grain commentary was written by CBSNews.com's Dick Meyer. <SNIP>At the turn of this century, the great new celebrity was a Republican named Jack Abramoff. “In between running a restaurant, starting a private school, and helping his wife raise five children of their own and seven boarders, Jack Abramoff has somehow found time to become one of Washington's most sought-after lobbyists and political strategists,” gushed The Hill, a close chronicler of these things. Today, Abramoff took the 5th in front of a Senate committee. He did it lots of times actually.<SNIP>


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A53609-2004Jul15.html

Ex-Lobbyist Is Focus of Widening Investigations

By Susan Schmidt AT FIRST I THOUGHT GOP STENO SUE WAS FINALLY WRITING TRUTH - BUT THE ARTICLES ARE A LIST OF REASONS THAT THE GOP GAVE HER ON WHY THERE WAS NO GOP EVIL IN THIS STORY!
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, July 16, 2004; Page A19
Former powerhouse lobbyist Jack Abramoff and public relations entrepreneur Michael Scanlon are the focus of widening investigations this summer, one by Congress and the other a criminal probe involving five federal agencies
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A58186-2004Sep28.html
Parties Bicker Amid Abramoff Inquiry
GOP Lawmakers Dispute Democrats' Talk of Damage to DeLay's Credibility
By Susan Schmidt and Thomas B. Edsall
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, September 29, 2004; Page A07

IN ANY CASE ON 12-20-04 THE WEEKLY STANDARD SPOKE TRUTH - I AM STILL IN WONDER AT THEIR DARING TO NOT JUST TOE THE GOP LINE - I THINK IT MEANS THEY ARE CERTAIN THAT THE STORY IS NOW BURIED AS TO HURTING ANY GOP OFFICE HOLDER.

http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/005/022nwtca.asp

<SNIP>IN SEPTEMBER 2003, a reporter for the daily Town Talk in Alexandria, Louisiana, wrote a story about a local Indian tribe, the Louisiana Coushattas, who run a casino in nearby Kinder. An internal audit, the reporter learned, had revealed that the tribe had been spending an inordinate sum on Washington lobbyists. In one year's time, they had paid $13.7 million to Michael Scanlon's firm Capitol Campaign Strategies, another half million to a "think tank" called the American International Center, $2.4 million to Abramoff's firm Greenberg Traurig, and another $485,000 to Abramoff himself. Though the tribe's casino generates about $300 million a year, the tribal government was running a $40 million deficit, and no tribe member, according to the newspaper, could quite explain what the lobbyists had done for the money. With a follow-up a month later, the Town Talk story found its way into the email queues of Washington lobbyists early this year, and eventually inspired the stories in the Washington Post, which inspired the Senate hearings.

<SNIP>In an interview about Abramoff for National Public Radio a couple months ago, his old friend Norquist said, "To this day I can't find anything he did or he's accused of doing that's illegal, immoral, or fattening." A few days later I came across another quote from Norquist, from a profile of Abramoff in the National Journal in 1995, soon after Abramoff had announced he would become a lobbyist, back when the Revolution was still young.

"What the Republicans need is 50 Jack Abramoffs," Norquist said. "Then this becomes a different town."

It was a bold statement, typical for the time, but even then it raised a question we now know the answer to: Would the Republicans change Washington, or would it be the other way around?



Andrew Ferguson is a senior editor at The Weekly Standard.

[HuskiesHowls]

2. I heard about this about a year ago

so evidently it hasn't made much of an impression on anyone. These clowns don't care who they take advantage of-it seems they have absolutely no conscience at all.