DNC: Vanity Fair: Ney Was Abramoff's 'Fixer on Capitol Hill'

[RedEarth]

WASHINGTON, March 9 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Republican Congressman Bob Ney's effort to distance himself from Jack Abramoff is about to get much more difficult. Next month's issue of Vanity Fair magazine includes a revealing profile of the scandal-plagued lobbyist that sheds new light on his relationship with Ney. While Ney has worked hard to paint himself as a victim of Abramoff, the story shows that Ney was a willing participant in Abramoff's scheme to trade campaign contributions for policy outcomes.

In the article, Abramoff details the legislative favors provided by Ney, referred to as "Representative No. 1" in the plea deal Abramoff reached with federal prosecutors earlier this year, in exchange for $37,500 in campaign contributions and "a stream of things of value," including "lavish" golf trips, seats in Abramoff's sports boxes, and free dinners at Abramoff's restaurant. In return, Ney intervened on behalf of Abramoff's clients, helped a relative of one of Abramoff's Russian clients get an American visa, and defended Abramoff's shady business partners in the Congressional Record. The two worked so closely together, that Vanity Fair referred to Ney as Abramoff's "fixer on Capitol Hill." (Vanity Fair, April 2006) "These new revelations undermine Congressman Ney's effort to distance himself from the Republican culture of corruption in Washington," said Democratic National Committee spokesman Damien LaVera. "Far from a victim, Ney was a leading participant in the Republican effort to sell policy outcomes for political contributions. "Ohioans deserve better. Democrats are committed to ending the culture of corruption epitomized by Republicans like Bob Ney, and to fighting for real reform that provides Ohio voters with the honest leadership and open government they deserve."

ABRAMOFF AND NEY, SO HAPPY TOGETHER

Ney and Abramoff Were Close. "In their heyday, he and Abramoff played golf together, traveled together, philosophized together. Ney was one of the few elected officials Abramoff invited to the Bar Mitzvah of one of his three sons." (Vanity Fair, April 2006)

Ney Helped Abramoff. "According to the plea agreement, Ney threw a lucrative contract to an Abramoff client, intervened with agencies and offices to seek favors for other Abramoff interests, helped a relative of one of Abramoff's Russian clients obtain an American visa, agreed to introduce legislation that would help reopen the Tigua casino, and, to assist Abramoff in buying the SunCruz line, read two statements into the Congressional Record, one in which he described Abramoff's main partner in that deal, Adam Kidan-a man who'd been disbarred, declared bankruptcy, and had Mob ties-as a man of the utmost integrity." (Vanity Fair, April 2006)

http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=62104

[Peace Patriot]

1. I knew it! These are the two crooks who cooked up HAVA: the $4 billion

electronic voting boondoggle for Diebold and ES&S, two incestuously related, rightwing, Bushite corporations, who ended up completely corrupting our election system with NON-TRANSPARENT, "TRADE SECRET," PROPRIETARY programming code--code so secret that not even our secretarties of state are permitted to review it--and with no paper trail requirement, no controls on partisan vendors, no controls on lavish lobbying and "revolving door" employment, no controls on secret industry 'testing' of the machines, and underfunded regulators.

Diebold, headed by Bush/Cheney campaign chair and major fundraiser Wally O'Dell, and its spinoff ES&S, initially funded by rightwing billionaire Howard Ahmanson, who also gave a million dollars to the Chalcedon Foundation (which touts the death penalty for homosexuals, among other things), and run by two brothers, Todd and Bob Urosevich, and together "counted" 80% of the nation's vote in 2004--a coup they pulled off in a very short space of time (2002-2004).

Non-transparent elections are not elections. They are tyranny.

Throw Diebold and ES&S election theft machines into 'Boston Harbor' NOW!

:think: :patriot: :woohoo: :patriot: :think:

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

Some resources:

www.votersunite.org (MythBreakers - easy primer on electronic voting--one of the myths is that HAVA requires electronic voting; it does not.)
www.verfiedvoting.org (great activist site)
www.UScountvotes.org (monitoring of '06 and '08 elections)
www.solarbus.org/election/index.shtml (fab compendium of all election info)
www.freepress.org (devoted to election reform)
www.TruthIsAll.net (analysis of the 2004 election)
Sign the petition (Russ Holt, HR 550, great bill-has 169 sponsors). http://www.rushholt.com/petition.html
www.debrabowen.com (Calif Senator running for Sec of State to reform election system)
www.votepa.us (well-organized local group of citizen activists in Pennsylvania, where important legal issues are at stake, including state's rights over election systems)

Also of interest:

Bob Koehler (-- four recent election reform initiatives in Ohio, predicted to win by 60/40 votes, flipped over, on election day, into 60/40 LOSSES!--the biggest flipover we've seen yet; the election theft machines and their masters are now dictating election policy!)
www.tmsfeatures.com/tmsfeatures/subcategory.jsp?file=20051124ctnbk-a.txt&catid=1824&code=ctnbk

Amaryllis (Diebold, ES&S, Sequoia lavish lobbying of election officials - Beverly Hilton, Aug. '05)
www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x380340