| Topic: |
Politics > Politics-USA |
| User: |
"Harry Hope" |
| Date: |
08 Jun 2005 12:50:08 PM |
| Object: |
Gifts gained tribes Bush access |
From The Associated Press, 6/7/05:
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/washington/stories/060805dnnatabramoff.126e6d21e.html
Gifts gained tribes Bush access
Lobbyist in inquiry solicited donations for anti-tax group's event
Associated Press
WASHINGTON --
At the behest of a lobbyist now under criminal investigation, two
American Indian tribes paid $25,000 each to a conservative tax-exempt
group to underwrite an event that got tribal leaders a private meeting
with President Bush.
The arrangement in 2001 among the tribes, lobbyist Jack Abramoff and
Americans for Tax Reform, a group led by Bush supporter Grover
Norquist, was confirmed by tribal lawyers and documents showing the
solicitation of money and promise of a meeting.
"The exposure would be incredible and would be very helpful," Mr.
Abramoff wrote to one of the tribe's attorneys in asking for the
donation.
"One of the things we need to do is get the leaders of the tribe
(ideally the chief) in front of the president as much as possible."
At the time, the Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana and the Mississippi Band
of Choctaw were seeking to protect their casino gaming revenues from
tougher labor regulations and to block changes in federal gaming laws
that might interfere with their casinos.
A federal grand jury is investigating whether Mr. Abramoff and a
lobbying partner overcharged Indian tribes millions of dollars for
their work.
Abramoff spokesman Andrew Blum declined to discuss the 2001 White
House meetings.
____________________________________________________
Harry
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| User: "Smirks" |
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| Title: say, brother. can you spare a dime? |
08 Jun 2005 03:11:01 PM |
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Harry Hope posted:
lobbyist Jack Abramoff
getting to be a popular guy...
~~
"Only a genius like Abramoff could make money lobbying against an Indian
tribe's casino and then turn around and make money defending that tribe
against himself. Only a giant like Abramoff would have the guts to use one
tribe's casino money to finance a Focus on the Family crusade against
gambling in order to shut down a rival tribe's casino.
"Only an artist like Abramoff could suggest to a tribe that it pay him by
taking out life insurance policies on its eldest members. Then when the
elders dropped off they could funnel the insurance money through a private
school and into his pockets.
"This is sleaze of a high order. And yet according to reports in The
Washington Post and elsewhere, Abramoff accomplished it all," wrote David
Brooks in the March 22, 2005, New York Times.
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Jack_Abramoff
~~
The Story of Casino Jack
Posted by
Monday, November 8, 2004 at 10:22 AM
The Washington Post gives a brief, ugly bio, which stands as a disturbing
parallel / metaphor for the evolution of the "conservative revolution."
Here's just one step along the way:
In 1986, Abramoff became chairman of the International Freedom Foundation,
which was secretly financed with $1.5 million a year from the white South
African government, according to sworn testimony to the South African Truth
and Reconciliation Commission. Mirijanian said Abramoff denies receiving
money from the South African government.
Now on to more current events:
Abramoff took a job as a Washington lobbyist for the firm Preston Gates
Ellis & Rouvelas Meeds in 1994. In its hiring announcement, the firm said
that Abramoff "maintains strong ties to Speaker Newt Gingrich, Majority
Leader ***** Armey, Majority Whip Tom Delay and [House] Republican Policy
Committee Chairman Chris Cox and their staffs."
Using His GOP Ties
Those ties brought the Choctaws to Abramoff. To win their battle, Abramoff
sought out DeLay. The two had become friends and allies in the course of
Abramoff's work for conservative causes, and Abramoff had supported DeLay's
bid to become whip. Abramoff also turned to Norquist.
Norquist formed a coalition of anti-tax organizations to oppose the tax on
Indian casino gambling. The coalition lobbied lawmakers, wrote letters and
called editorial writers. The Washington Times, a conservative newspaper,
ran an editorial declaring that "Republicans should not be in the business
of increasing anybody's taxes" and should "jettison the House tax on Indian
gambling."
The Choctaw began contributing hundreds of thousands of dollars to
Americans for Tax Reform and similar groups. Norquist won't disclose how
much, but Abramoff told the Wall Street Journal in 2000 that the Choctaw
have given "several million dollars" to outside groups, and that Americans
for Tax Reform was a leading recipient.
Abramoff convinced the House whip that not only did the proposal raise
taxes, but also that Indian tribes could become Republican allies . Noting
that some Indians were moving toward the GOP, DeLay said in 1995 that
"people recognize that Jack Abramoff has been an important part of this
transition."
Later, Abramoff brought in Reed, who was paid $4.2 million from 2001 to
2003 to mobilize Christians to oppose the plans of those threatening
Abramoff's Indian gaming clients. In 2001, Abramoff left Preston Gates and
joined the Miami-based law firm Greenberg Traurig LLP.
In 1995, Abramoff took on another major client, the Commonwealth of the
Northern Mariana Islands, an American protectorate in the Pacific. Again,
he capitalized on his ability to exploit conservative ideology.
The Marianas sought to retain exemptions from U.S. immigration and labor
laws to import laborers from China at $3.05 an hour -- $2 under the federal
minimum wage -- to make garments labeled "Made in the U.S.A." Abramoff
portrayed the Marianas as a case study of the success of the free market
unfettered by wage and immigration laws.
DeLay became Abramoff's strongest ally, leading the fight against
Democratic efforts to impose wage, hour and immigration regulations on the
protectorate. On a trip to the Marianas, DeLay told officials, according to
media accounts:
"When one of my closest and dearest friends, Jack Abramoff, your most able
representative in Washington, D.C., invited me to the islands, I wanted to
see firsthand the free-market success and the progress and reform you have
made."
Now, however, DeLay and many of Abramoff's past friends and allies are
keeping their distance. DeLay's staff has issued a statement in his name
declaring that "if anybody is trading on my name to get clients or to make
money, that is wrong and they should stop it immediately."
In an e-mail, Mirijanian said that Abramoff "hopes that eventually his
actions will be seen in context and this difficult period will pass. When
that happens, he will assess how he can best serve the causes and community
he cherishes."
~~
A Lobbyist in Full
By MICHAEL CROWLEY
Published: May 1, 2005
Can you smell money?!?!?!'' Jack Abramoff wrote.
It was December 2001, and he was a kingpin of Republican Washington, one of
the city's richest and best-connected lobbyists. His former personal
assistant had gone to work for Karl Rove, the new president's top political
adviser; he was close friends with the powerful Republican congressman from
Texas, Tom DeLay, a relationship most of his competitors would kill to
boast of. He was making millions on fees of up to $750 per hour; he was the
proprietor of two city restaurants; and he was even a man of good works --
a charitable giver and the founder of a private religious school in the
Maryland suburbs. Dressed in expensive suits, he moved around the capital
in a BMW outfitted with a computer screen, often headed to one of the
countless fund-raisers he gave for Republican congressmen and senators at
Redskins and Orioles and Wizards games in his private sky boxes. Jack
Abramoff was a man in full.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/01/magazine/01ABRAMOFF.html
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