Today's partisan atmosphere creates a situation where political hacks gain
too much power. This also seemed truw in the C;inton administration. Will
Hillary, Kerry, Gore, et al., be any different? Sadly, probably not.
Perhaps, next time you should vote for a man of integrity, Pat Buchanan!
"GW Chimpzilla" <gw@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:10YYe.159337$084.113940@attbi_s22...
Okay, let's fill in a few of the blank spaces in this new Post article
about
Jack Abramoff and Karl Rove.
The story, as we get it in today's article, is that Timothy E. Flanigan is
the
General Counsel of Tyco and now President Bush's nominee for Deputy
Attorney
General. A couple years ago when Tyco was interested in fending off
legislation
that might have required them to pay their taxes, Abramoff was hired to do
a
little of his magic for them and get Tyco off the hook. Abramoff reported
to
Flanigan on the account. And in the course of that work he first boasted
of his
juice with Karl Rove and later claimed he had in fact contacted Rove about
Tyco's needs.
Fair enough.
But this Newsweek article from a few weeks ago notes that Flanigan worked
at the
White House before he went to Tyco. In fact, he was Deputy White House
Counsel.
And Abramoff didn't just report to Flanigan. Flanigan hired Abramoff.
Now, the Post piece treats it as an open question whether Abramoff was
just
puffing or blowing smoke, as lobbyists sometimes will, when he talked
about his
ties to Rove and his ability to get action from him.
But Flanigan had already been Deputy White House Counsel. That tells me he
knew
pretty well how the Bush White House operated and the juice Abramoff had
there.
The odds that Abramoff just bamboozled Flanigan seem surpassingly low.
Another point ...
In the Newsweek article from a month ago, a spokesman said on Rove's
behalf that
he had "never spoken to [Abramoff] about any of his clients." In today's
Post
piece the spokesman says Rove "has no recollection" of Abramoff's
contacting
him about Tyco.
I'm told that in the clinical literature this is called the 'Safavian
effect'.
And one more point ...
The Post reports that Flanigan says that if he's confirmed as Deputy AG
he'll
recuse himself from any decisions relating to Abramoff and Tyco. Imagine
that.
The Justice Department's Public Integrity Section is involved in a massive
investigation of Abramoff, his business affairs and his ties to major
Republican political figures like Rove and Tom DeLay. The investigation
has
already led to the arrest of one White House official. Abramoff himself
has
been indicted in a case that is nominally separate from the Washington
investigation but is in fact closely tied to it.
Flanigan worked at the White House. He then left the White House, only to
turn
around and hire Abramoff to lobby the White House and Rove in particular.
Somebody tell me with a straight face that this guy can ethically deal
with
anything tied to the Abramoff case. Face it: from the word go at DOJ this
guy
has to recuse himself from everything having to do with Abramoff.
-- Josh Marshall
<http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/week_2005_09_18.php#006619>
.
