{"id":146,"date":"2005-11-18T12:50:08","date_gmt":"2005-11-18T18:50:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/?p=146"},"modified":"2005-11-18T13:02:14","modified_gmt":"2005-11-18T19:02:14","slug":"abramoffs-tentacles-reach-far-and-wide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/nada\/dump-duhbya\/abramoffs-tentacles-reach-far-and-wide\/","title":{"rendered":"Abramoff’s tentacles reach far and wide"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Republicans say liberals are “criminalizing <\/p>\n

conservatives.” There is no doubt Abramoff is both a conservative and a criminal. Now his “victims” cry they were duped — what’s that <\/p>\n

about “the party of personal responsibility”? Reminds me of Krusty the Klown crying that he didn’t want to lend his name to cheap <\/p>\n

products but “they dumped a truck full of money in my driveway. What was I supposed to do?!” mjh<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Seattle Times: Nation & World: Lawmakers <\/p>\n

pressured Interior while taking donations from Abramoff tribes<\/a> By John Solomon, The Associated Press<\/p>\n

WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 While <\/p>\n

Congress investigated Jack Abramoff’s efforts to win influence inside government, its members held a secret: Nearly three dozen <\/p>\n

lawmakers pressed to block a Louisiana Indian casino while collecting large donations from the lobbyist and his tribal clients<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Many, including leaders in both parties, intervened with letters to Interior Secretary Gale Norton within days of receiving money <\/p>\n

from tribes represented by Abramoff or using the lobbyist’s restaurant for fundraising, an Associated Press review of campaign reports, <\/p>\n

IRS records and congressional correspondence found.<\/p>\n

Lawmakers said their intervention had nothing to do with Abramoff and that <\/p>\n

the timing of donations was a coincidence<\/em>. They said they wrote letters because they opposed the expansion of tribal gaming, <\/p>\n

even though they continued to accept donations from casino-running tribes.<\/p>\n

Many of the lawmakers involved lived far from <\/p>\n

Louisiana and had no constituent interest in the casino dispute.<\/strong><\/p>\n

House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., held a fundraiser <\/p>\n

at Abramoff’s Signatures restaurant in Washington on June 3, 2003, that collected at least $21,500 for Hastert’s Keep Our Majority <\/p>\n

political action committee from the lobbyist’s firm and tribal clients.<\/p>\n

Seven days later, Hastert wrote Norton urging her to <\/p>\n

reject the Jena tribe of Choctaw Indians’ request for a new casino. Hastert’s three top House deputies also signed the letter. …<\/p>\n

In the midst of the congressional letter-writing campaign, the Bush administration rejected the Jena’s casino on technical <\/p>\n

grounds<\/strong>. …<\/p>\n

The Coushattas wrote two checks to Rep. Tom DeLay’s groups in 2001 and 2002, shortly before the GOP leader <\/p>\n

wrote Norton. But the tribe was asked by Abramoff to take back the checks and route the money to other GOP groups<\/strong>. In <\/p>\n

all, DeLay received at least $57,000 in Abramoff and tribal donations between 2001 and 2004. [mjh: this is known as <\/p>\n

“money laundering”]<\/span>
\n—–<\/p>\n

Big <\/p>\n

Donations From Abramoff’s Tribal Clients Probed – Los Angeles Times<\/a> By Mary Curtius, Times Staff Writer<\/p>\n

WASHINGTON — The <\/p>\n

head of a Republican environmental organization clashed repeatedly today with senators who accused her of trying to use her friendship <\/p>\n

with an Interior Department official to further the business interests of super-lobbyist Jack Abramoff’s tribal clients.<\/p>\n

Italia <\/p>\n

Federici, president of the Council of Republicans for Environmental Advocacy, told an incredulous<\/em> Senate Indian Affairs <\/p>\n

Committee<\/strong> that she believed Abramoff’s tribal clients donated $500,000 over a three-year period to her organization <\/p>\n

because they were generous<\/strong>, not because they hoped she would help them thwart the efforts of competing tribes to open <\/p>\n

casinos. …<\/p>\n

Echoing other Abramoff associates who have testified before the committee in hearings that began more than a year <\/p>\n

ago, Federici insisted that she had been duped by the lobbyist.<\/p>\n

“I had no reason in 2002 to believe that Mr. Abramoff was anything <\/p>\n

other than a truthful, friendly, charismatic, well-liked and well-respected Republican advocate in Washington<\/strong>,” Federici <\/p>\n

said.<\/p>\n

When she found out that Abramoff had funded the anti-casino campaign, Federici said, “I felt tremendously manipulated.” <\/p>\n

—–<\/p>\n

Committee on Indian Affairs<\/a><\/p>\n

Exhibits <\/p>\n

released to the public as part of the Oversight Hearing on Lobbying Practices.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Republicans say liberals are “criminalizing conservatives.” There is no doubt Abramoff is both a conservative and a criminal. Now his “victims” cry they were duped — what’s that about “the party of personal responsibility”? Reminds me of Krusty the Klown crying that he didn’t want to lend his name to cheap products but “they … Continue reading Abramoff’s tentacles reach far and wide<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-146","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dump-duhbya"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=146"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}