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flamin lib Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jun-27-07 12:50 PM
Original message
Another Republican bites the dust
Steven Griles, number 2 at the Interior Department, has been sentenced to 10 months in jail for lying to the Senate. In a plea bargain hoping to avoid prison Griles pleaded guilty to the charges last month. The plea bargain called for 5 months in prison and 5 months in a half way house but the judge rejected the bargain and sentenced him to ten full months in prison. This brings the total number of convictions in the Abramoff scandal to eleven, including Abramoff and his partner Adam Kidan.

David Lopez, former chief of staff to Rep. John Doolittle (R CA), has turned over campaign finance records to the FBI as part of the on-going Abramoff investigation. Lopez’s name came up in emails about Doolittle’s wife possibly taking a position in Abramoff’s law firm. I predict that before it is over Lopez and perhaps Doolittle will join the other eleven Republicans in jail. Lest we forget, Tom Delay is still under investigation for money laundering and other allegations related to the K Street project that spawned Jack Abramoff.

If we count Duke Cunningham and Scooter Libby the number of high-level government officials currently in jail is the highest ever and they are virtually all Republicans. Why is that? Allen Raymond, former high-ranking official in the RNC, campaign manager for Steve Forbes and RNC phone bank manager in the 2002 senate race, may have an idea. Allen and two other RNC officials were sentenced to prison for interfering in the New Hampshire senate election. In an interview with the Boston Globe Mr. Raymond describes a ruthless political machine that bends and if necessary breaks the law to suppress voter turnout. "A lot of people look at politics and see it as the guy who wins is the guy who unifies the most people. I would disagree. I would say the candidate who wins is the candidate who polarizes the right bloc of voters," he told the Globe. He went on to describe how the Republican Party has monitized not only politics but policy. According to Raymond the Republican Party sees both politics and policy as a business and looks for the same kind of return. Measuring success in dollars raised in campaign contributions has resulted in legislation that heavily favors business over people. Big business has big money to donate, and in cases like Duke Cunningham, to bribe. That may explain why oil company executives write “suggestions” for energy policy that are incorporated word for word in Presidential Executive Orders issued a few weeks later or the credit card industry can write bankruptcy legislation and have it taken directly to the floor of the House.

Most of us on the left side of politics have known for a long time that the GOP is bought, paid for and a wholly owned subsidiary of the military industrial complex. It’s refreshing to have someone like Allen Raymond who has operated at the highest levels of the party say it out loud in public.


http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/G/GRILES_ABRAMOFF?SITE=WSPATV&SECTION=NATIONAL&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2007-06-26-16-41-55 Griles sentenced

http://www.twincities.com/national/ci_6234209 convicted so far (Abramoff)

http://www.sacbee.com/111/story/241795.html Rep Doolittle investigated (Abramoff)

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2006/06/10/fallen_star_blames_self_gop_tactics/ GOP tactics

http://www.scandalist.info/ Bush Cheney scandal list
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underpants Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jun-27-07 12:51 PM
Response to Original message
1. Add Griles to the list
Indicted / Convicted/ Pled Guilty

* Scooter Libby - Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff - resigned after being indicted for Obstruction of Justice, Perjury, and Making False Statements in connection with the investigation stemming from the leak of a CIA operative's identity.

* Lester Crawford - Commissioner, FDA - resigned after only two months on the job. Pled guilty to conflict of interest and making false statements.

* Brian Doyle - Deputy Press Secretary, DHS - Resigned in wake of child sex scandal. Pled no contest to 32 criminal counts.

* Claude Allen - Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy- resigned, pled guilty to shoplifting from Target stores.

* David Safavian - former head of the Office of Federal Procurement Policy at the Office of Management and Budget - convicted of lying to ethics officials and Senate investigators about his ties to lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

* Larry Franklin - intelligence officer, Defense - resigned, pled guilty to passing secrets to Israel.

* Roger Stillwell - desk officer, Interior Department - pled guilty to failing to report Redskins tickets and free dinners from Jack Abramoff.

* Frank Figueroa - senior DHS official, former head of anti-sex-crime Operation Predator - pled no contest to exposing himself to 16-year-old girl in Florida mall. Girl says he fondled himself for ten minutes. Figueroa forfeited his badge, gun, and access to databases; employment status pending internal DHS review.

* Darleen Druyun - senior contracting official, U.S. Air Force - pled guilty and sentenced to nine months in prison for her role in the Boeing tanker lease scandal.

* John Korsmo - chairman, Federal Housing Finance Board - pled guilty last year to lying to the Senate and an inspector general. He swore he had no idea how a list of presidents for FHFB-regulated banks were invited to a fundraiser for his friend's congressional campaign. On the invites, Korsmo was listed as the "Special Guest." Got 18 months of probation.

* P. Trey Sunderland III - chief, Geriatric Psychiatry, Nat'l Institute of Mental Health - admitted to a criminal conflict of interest charge for failing to report $300,000 received from Pfizer, Inc. *As of 12/11/06, still employed by NIMH.

Resigned Due to/Pending/After Investigation

* Carl Truscott - Director, Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Bureau - resigned. A report by the Justice Department's Inspector General found that Truscott wasted tens of thousands of dollars on luxuries, wasted millions on whimsical management decisions and violated ethics rules by ordering employees to help his nephew with a high school video project.

* Joseph Schmitz - Inspector General, Defense - Resigned amid charges he personally intervened to protect top political appointees.

* Steven Griles - Deputy Secretary at the Interior Department - resigned, currently under investigation by the Justice Department for his ties to Jack Abramoff.

* Susan Ralston - assistant, White House - resigned amidst revelations that she had accepted thousands of dollars in gifts from Abramoff without compensating him, counter to White House ethics rules.

* Dusty Foggo - Executive Director, CIA - stepped down following accusations of corruption in connection to the Duke Cunningham scandal. Under investigation.

* Janet Rehnquist - Inspector General, Department of Health and Human Services - resigned in the face of allegations she blocked a politically dangerous probe on behalf of the Bush family.

* Ken Tomlinson, Board Chairman, Corporation for Public Broadcasting; member, Broadcasting Board of Governors - resigned at the release of an inspector general report concluding he had broken laws in spending CPB money to hire politically connected consultants to search for "bias" without consulting the board. At BBG, a separate investigation found he was running a "horse racing operation" out of his office, and continuing to hire politically-wired individuals to do "consulting" work for him. He's still there.

* George Deutsch - press aide, NASA - resigned amid allegations he prevented the agency's top climate scientist from speaking publicly about global warming.

* Richard Perle - Chairman, Defense Policy Board - resigned from Pentagon advisory panel amid conflict-of-interest charges.

* James Roche - secretary, U.S. Air Force - resigned in the wake of the Boeing tanker lease scandal, after it was revealed he had rather crudely pushed for Boeing to win a $23 billion contract.

* Marvin Sambur - top contracting executive, U.S. Air Force - Druyun's boss, Sambur resigned in the wake of the scandal. Investigations cleared him of wrongdoing.

* Philip Cooney - chief of staff, White House Council on Environmental Quality - a former oil industry lawyer with no scientific expertise, Cooney resigned after it was revealed he had watered down reports on global warming.

* Thomas Scully - Administrator, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services - shortly after Scully resigned in 2003, an investigation by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General found that Scully had pressured the agency's actuary to underestimate the full cost of the Medicare reform bill by approximately $100 billion until after Congress passed the bill into law. Scully was also charged wtih conflict of interest allegations by the U.S. attorney's office for billing CMS for expenses incurred during a job search while he still headed the agency. He settled those charges by paying $9,782.

* Michelle Larson Korsmo - deputy chief of staff, Department of Labor - Helped her husband (see Frank Korsmo, above) with his donor scam. Quietly left her Labor plum job in February 2004, about two weeks before news broke that she and her husband were the targets of a criminal probe.

* David Smith - Deputy Assistant Secretary for Fish, Wildlife, and Parks, Interior Department - resigned after shooting a buffalo and accepting its remains as an illegal gratuity. He eventually paid over $3,000 for the dead buffalo, but only after the internal inquiry had commenced.

* Sean Tunis - Chief Medical Officer, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) - Last summer, the State of Maryland suspended his medical license because he faked documentation relating to his medical education. Despite that, he stayed on board for several months at CMS, albeit on administrative leave. He has since been replaced, although it's not clear when because CMS did not announce the switch and has not responded to our calls.

Nomination Failed Due to Scandal

* Bernard Kerik - nominated, Secretary, Department of Homeland Security - withdrew his nomination amidst a host of corruption allegations. Eventually pled guilty to a misdemeanor relating to having accepted improper gifts totaling tens of thousands of dollars while he was a New York City official in the late 1990's.

* Timothy Flanigan - nominated, Deputy Attorney General - withdrew his nomination amidst revelations that he'd worked closely with lobbyist Jack Abramoff when he was General Counsel for Corporate and International Law at Tyco, which was a client of Abramoff's.

* Linda Chavez - nominated, Secretary of Labor - withdrew her nomination amidst revelations that an illegal immigrant lived in her home and worked for her.


http://journals.democraticunderground.com/underpants/86
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flamin lib Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jun-27-07 01:09 PM
Response to Reply #1
5. This is the most comprehensive list I've seen. Can I borrow it? nt
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underpants Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jun-27-07 01:24 PM
Response to Reply #5
7. Take it
it's not mine

There is a link at the link to my journal (the bottom)

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flamin lib Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jun-27-07 01:31 PM
Response to Reply #7
8. Gracias. nt
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NewJeffCT Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jun-27-07 01:34 PM
Response to Reply #1
9. fantastic list
And, I imagine it will grow extensively over the next 18 months!

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leftofthedial Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jun-27-07 12:51 PM
Response to Original message
2. the RNC is an organized crim esyndicate
It should be lillegal to be a repuke
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babylonsister Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jun-27-07 12:52 PM
Response to Original message
3. Here's a list of 12 Abramoff 'buddies':
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ellenfl Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jun-27-07 12:58 PM
Response to Original message
4. kick eom
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Elspeth Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jun-27-07 01:14 PM
Response to Original message
6. Kick
:kick:
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loudsue Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jun-27-07 01:57 PM
Response to Original message
10. Sentenced to jail for LYING TO THE SENATE????
Does that mean we can throw gonzo and the entire justice dept. in the slammer, too?

:kick::kick::kick:
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symbolman Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jun-27-07 02:04 PM
Response to Original message
11. Now WAIT A MINUTE
if this asshole can be SENT TO JAIL, Sentenced, then what the HELL is Gonzo doing Walking around, drinking his Starbucks and ANNOYING people in the DOJ after that Hight Profile LYING to Congress?

Jail that bastard, TODAY!
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FloridaJudy Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jun-27-07 03:23 PM
Response to Original message
12. K&R n/t
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MagickMuffin Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jun-27-07 03:35 PM
Response to Original message
13. What timing!
I just did a long post while doing research on the phone jammers punishment compared to a Texas woman (D) who rigged her own election. She is getting 5 years in jail, while the phone jammers have received very light sentences or none at all.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=1192864&mesg_id=1192864

I just gave it a kick. How about you kicking as well. Lots of good info...

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flamin lib Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jun-27-07 05:42 PM
Response to Reply #13
15. I read your post earlier. Good work. nt
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malaise Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jun-27-07 03:36 PM
Response to Original message
14. Doolittle must be sweating about now
Bookmarking your list.
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Mabus Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jun-27-07 06:06 PM
Response to Original message
16. And yet I still don't hear the words "Republican" and "scandal"
as often as I used to hear "Clinton" and "scandal" even though the Republican ones are proving to be real ones!
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lonestarnot Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jun-27-07 08:29 PM
Response to Original message
17. Woot! :applause: and another one gone and another one gone and another bites the dust. Heh!
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jazzjunkysue Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jun-27-07 09:40 PM
Response to Original message
18. (snif) There. I'm over it, now. Here's another noppity for the good foot
soldiers of the anti-christ;
:nopity:
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