WaPo: Lawmaker's Abramoff Ties Investigated (Ney, R-OH)

[Patsy Stone]

Ohio's Ney Has Disavowed Lobbyist

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/17/AR2005101701918.html

By James V. Grimaldi and Susan Schmidt
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, October 18, 2005; Page A01

As federal officials pursue a wide-ranging investigation into the activities of Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff, his arrest on fraud charges in the purchase of a Florida casino boat company has increasingly focused attention on a little-known congressman from rural Ohio.

<snip>

But to members of Congress, Ney is known as the mayor of Capitol Hill. Ney is House Administration Committee chairman, a powerful position that doles out budgets, equipment, offices and parking spaces to House members. These perks are used by House Republican leaders to keep their rank and file in line.

Ney became chairman of the committee thanks to his political patron, Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Tex.), who recently stepped down as House majority leader after he was indicted on a charge of conspiracy to violate a Texas campaign law. Shortly after Ney arrived in the House in 1994, he became a part of DeLay's Retain Our Majority Program (ROMP), a fundraising effort in which GOP colleagues donated to Republicans such as Ney in districts without a safe majority. After lines were redrawn to make Ney's district more Republican, he returned the favor, donating to other vulnerable House Republicans. That helped him earn his chairmanship in 2001, leapfrogging over a colleague with more seniority.

<snip>

[WhiteTara]

1. these two investigations could provide the perfect

storm for the GOPs. I love the drama :popcorn:

[Califooyah Operative]

2. indeed

[jaysunb]

3. And they all fall down...

now, where, have I heard that ?

[EST]

4. I so wish my poor brain would let me view all this

serious-as-a-heart attack bullshit a little more dispassionately. Then, maybe I could enjoy all the melodrama.

[Patsy Stone]

7. It's enough to make you nuts.

I think we need a flowchart. :popcorn:

[WCGreen]

5. Why does a congress person okay a foriegn company

to wire the House... There wasn't an American company available...

This ticks me off... Not that it was Isreal, just that it wasn't American.... I mean come on... Can't the American people at least get special treatment in their own house....


Snip..

Ney approved a 2002 license for an Israeli telecommunications company to install antennas for the House. The company later paid Abramoff $280,000 for lobbying.

[salin]

6. Bob Ney, just two steps less corrupt than... Duke Cunningham

in the sense that Ney - to our knowledge - just takes political $$ for campaigns - and nice junkets rather than houseboats, fraudulent real estate deals as a way of laundering bribes, etc. Wonder if anyone is looking to see if any of the pac money (says $ is given to Ney's campaign and pacs (plural)) - funnels back to Ney - you know ala DeLay's pacs paying HUGE salaries to his wife and daughter for very mundane work.

[Patsy Stone]

8. He's also against investigating e-voting security and Holt's bill.

http://news.com.com/E-voting+hobbled+by+security+concerns/2100-1028_3-5889705.html

<snip>

A congressional bottleneck

In Congress, at least four bills requiring paper trails were introduced in the first few weeks of 2005. All remain bottled up in committee, however, in part because key Republicans view e-voting reform as a Democratic ploy to cast doubt on the last two presidential races.


More and more votes are being cast on electronic machines, thanks to
a federal law giving hundreds of millions of dollars to states to
pay for upgrades. Punched cards' popularity is dropping. "This is one of those circumstances where you have a particular committee chairman, in this case Chairman Bob Ney of the House Administration Committee, who simply does not believe that there is an issue there," said Patrick Eddington, spokesman for Rep. Rush Holt, D-N.J. Holt is backing H.R.550, which requires an "individual voter-verified paper record" and is strongly supported by computer scientists.

Ney replied through a representative that states were free to set their own standards--including voter-verifiable ballots--under the 2002 HAVA law. "The congressman does not believe there should be a national federal mandate at this point in time," said Brian Walsh, a spokesman for Ney, an Ohio Republican. "In his view, the Help America Vote Act has not been implemented yet, and he's not supportive of reopening the bill until it has been fully implemented."

<snip>

He was against the hearings about voting irregularities in December 2004, if you remember.

[femrap]

9. Anything that shows more corruption in Ohio has got to be

KICKED AND NOMINATED! Ohio has an election next month....Issues 2,3,4, and 5 (Reform Ohio Now)....If you know people in Ohio tell them to VOTE YES ON ISSUES 2, 3, 4, AND 5.

WWW.REFORMOHIONOW.ORG!!!

Get your yard signs and hit the streets with a lit drop! Write LTTE!

CLEAN UP OHIO....END THE CORRUPTION!

[Blue for Ohio]

13. Amen (nt)

:hi:

[donkeyotay]

10. Pay to play politics. The GOP has sold America out

The link is well worth reading as it meticulously documents instances of how the GOP works and goes a long way toward explaining what's happened to our country under the tender mercies of Republican Darwinism.

[donkeyotay]

11. self delete for asking a stupid question

[Patsy Stone]

12. shameless afternoon kick. n/t

[Judi Lynn]

14. Lawmaker's ties to lobbyist Abramoff under investigation

Oct. 18, 2005, 8:47PM

Lawmaker's ties to lobbyist Abramoff under investigation
Federal prosecutors looking into a casino deal focus on Ohio Republican

By JAMES V. GRIMALDI and SUSAN SCHMIDT
Washington Post

WASHINGTON - As federal officials investigate the activities of Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff, his arrest on fraud charges in the purchase of a Florida casino boat company has focused attention on a little-known congressman.

Rep. Robert Ney, R-Ohio, 51, a six-term congressman, placed comments in the Congressional Record favorable to Abramoff's 2000 purchase of the casino boat company, SunCruz Casinos. Two years later, Ney sponsored legislation to reopen a casino for a Texas Indian tribe that Abramoff represented.

Ney approved a 2002 license for an Israeli telecommunications company to install antennas for the House.

The company later paid Abramoff $280,000 for lobbying. It also donated $50,000 to a charity that he used to secretly pay for his lobbying activities.

Meanwhile, Ney accepted many favors from Abramoff, among them campaign contributions, dinners at the lobbyist's downtown restaurant, skybox fund-raisers, and a golfing trip to Scotland in August 2002.
(snip/...)

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/nation/3402738
(Free registration required)

[Tiggeroshii]

15. Is Abramoff the Jimmy Hoffa of today?

Just wondering... smells fishy if you ask me