{"id":59,"date":"2005-10-05T23:06:19","date_gmt":"2005-10-06T05:06:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/?p=59"},"modified":"2005-10-05T15:07:27","modified_gmt":"2005-10-05T21:07:27","slug":"its-not-bribery-its-a-payback","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/nada\/dump-duhbya\/its-not-bribery-its-a-payback\/","title":{"rendered":"It’s not bribery — \r\n\r\nit’s a payback"},"content":{"rendered":"

Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Bush ally stung <\/p>\n

by new charge and questions on favours for lobbyist<\/a><\/p>\n

The new charge came as it became clear that Mr DeLay was being <\/p>\n

investigated in a separate scandal, in which politicians are under scrutiny for doing legislative favours for a powerful lobbyist, Jack <\/p>\n

Abramoff, in return for expensive gifts such as golfing trips to Scotland – a possible violation of federal anti-bribery laws.<\/p>\n

Lady Thatcher’s office confirmed that it had been contacted by police to “clarify” details of a meeting the former prime minister held <\/p>\n

with Mr DeLay in May 2000. Mr DeLay went golfing at St Andrews during the same visit, but has said he was unaware Mr Abramoff paid for <\/p>\n

the trip, and that it was made for professional reasons, such as the meeting with the retired leader. Lady Thatcher had described the <\/p>\n

meeting as a “courtesy call”. …<\/p>\n

If the bribery inquiry into Mr Abramoff also reaches Mr DeLay, who once numbered the lobbyist <\/p>\n

among his “closest and dearest friends”, the consequences for the Republicans could be even more serious.<\/p>\n

Mr DeLay has said he <\/p>\n

thought his British trip was paid for by a thinktank, the National Centre for Public Policy Research, of which Mr Abramoff was a board <\/p>\n

member. But there is evidence the lobbyist reimbursed the centre for some expenses and paid others directly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Bush ally stung by new charge and questions on favours for lobbyist The new charge came as it became clear that Mr DeLay was being investigated in a separate scandal, in which politicians are under scrutiny for doing legislative favours for a powerful lobbyist, Jack Abramoff, in return for … Continue reading It’s not bribery — <\/p>\n

it’s a payback<\/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-59","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dump-duhbya"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59","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=59"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}