| Topic: |
Politics > Politics-USA |
| User: |
"Harry Hope" |
| Date: |
25 Jan 2006 08:45:02 AM |
| Object: |
Washington Post: Hey, Bush, come clean about Abramoff. |
From a Washington Post editorial, 1/25/06:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/24/AR2006012401532.html
Mr. Abramoff's Meetings
Wednesday, January 25, 2006; Page A18
HERE ARE SOME things we know about Jack Abramoff and the White House:
The disgraced lobbyist raised at least $100,000 for President Bush's
reelection campaign.
He had long-standing ties to Karl Rove, a key presidential adviser.
He had extensive dealings with executive branch officials and
departments -- one of whom, former procurement chief David H.
Safavian, has been charged by federal prosecutors with lying to
investigators about his involvement with Mr. Abramoff.
We also know that Mr. Abramoff is an admitted crook who was willing to
bribe members of Congress and their staffs to get what he (or his
clients) wanted.
In addition to attending a few White House Hanukkah parties and other
events at which he had his picture snapped with the president, Mr.
Abramoff had, according to the White House, "a few staff-level
meetings" with White House aides.
Here is what we don't know about Jack Abramoff and the White House:
whom he met with and what was discussed.
Nor, if the White House sticks to its current position, will we learn
that anytime soon.
Press secretary Scott McClellan told the White House press corps:
"If you've got some specific issue that you need to bring to my
attention, fine. But what we're not going to do is engage in a fishing
expedition that has nothing to do with the investigation."
This is not a tenable position.
It's undisputed that Mr. Abramoff tried to use his influence, and his
restaurant and his skyboxes and his chartered jets, to sway lawmakers
and their staffs.
Information uncovered by Mr. Bush's own Justice Department shows that
Mr. Abramoff tried to do the same inside the executive branch.
Under these circumstances, asking about Mr. Abramoff's White House
meetings is no mere exercise in reportorial curiosity but a legitimate
inquiry about what an admitted felon might have been seeking at the
highest levels of government.
Whatever White House officials did or didn't do, there is every reason
to believe that Mr. Abramoff was up to no good and therefore every
reason the public ought to know with whom he was meeting.
Mr. McClellan dismisses requests for the information as an effort to
play "partisan politics," and no doubt there is more than an element
of partisanship in Democrats' efforts to extract this information.
But Republicans wouldn't stand for this kind of stonewalling if the
situation were reversed.
____________________________________________________________
C'mon, Georgie spit it out.
Harry
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| User: "gerry" |
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| Title: Re: Washington Post: Hey, Bush, come clean about Abramoff. |
25 Jan 2006 09:08:06 AM |
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Casino Jack Abramoff's case is a tough one for Bush because of one fact
not mentioned in the Washington Post editorial: Abramoff is involved
with the murder for hire Mafia hit of Gus Boulis. Abramoff forced
Boulis to sell his gambling boat line, SunCruz Casinos, to Abramoff
(35% owner) and Kidan. When Boulis complained about being paid a bogus
down payment, a $23 million worthless wire transfer, he was killed in
an ambush. One of the killers was paid over $150,000 from SunCruz
Casino's bank account, controlled by Abramoff. Boulis's relatives
found this fact out after taking control of the then-bankrupted casino
line. The Federal and Florida State authorities (George Bush, Jeb
Bush) sat
on the Boulis murder investigation for four and one-half years.
The Bushs' actions in suppressing the Boulis murder investigation make
Watergate look like child's play.
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