Group calls on Bush to release source of contributions (Abramoff)

[sabra]

http://www.dfw.com/mld/startelegram/news/state/13557170.htm

Group calls on Bush to release source of contributions

Associated Press

WASHINGTON - A Texas watchdog group on Thursday called on President Bush to disclose the sources of the at least $100,000 in campaign contributions that lobbyist Jack Abramoff collected for Bush's 2004 campaign.

Abramoff was one of Bush's fundraising "Pioneers," a name the campaign gave to fundraisers who collected at least $100,000.

Craig McDonald, director of Texans for Public Justice, said Americans have the right to know who gave the lobbyist money to pass on to Bush's campaign in light of Abramoff's guilty pleas to federal charges in a congressional corruption investigation.

As a pioneer, Abramoff would have solicited donations from other people and sent them to the Bush campaign in bundles. He was credited with any contributions he collected.
"Let's see if they are from Abramoff's clients," McDonald said. "Let's see if they were seeking something. We have a right to know where that money came from in the midst of this scandal."

[biscotti]

1. Great

thanks for posting this.

[amitten]

2. Ooooooooooh yeah. Glad they're doing this!!!

Texas politics is dir-tay!

[UpInArms]

3. Bush refuses to give the money back ($100,000 to $200,000)

http://smh.com.au/news/world/abramoff-scandal-a-charities-windfall/2006/01/05/1136387576073.html

excerpt:

A Republican National Committee spokeswoman, Tracey Schmitt, said the money Abramoff raised as a "pioneer" for the Bush-Cheney re-election campaign would be kept. "There is nothing to indicate that those contributions reflect anything but support for the re-election campaign," she said.

Abramoff earned "pioneer" status in the 2004 Bush-Cheney campaign by raising between $US100,000 and $US200,000.

...more...

[maseman]

5. OK That's Fine...

Don't give it back. That gives us even more reason to go after Bush. My God could you imagine...DeLay, Hastert, Ney and Bush.

[DoYouEverWonder]

4. Especially, since Bush claimed that his Pioneers were his friends

and since they were friends they didn't break any finance rules back in 1999 when the question came up during his campaign.



Bush says 'Pioneers' are friends, not evading finance rules

AUSTIN, Texas (July 20, 1999) -- In an attempt to pacify accusations of evading finance limitations, GOP presidential front-runner George W. Bush released late Monday a list of the 115 people who have raised at least $100,000 for Bush's presidential effort.
Bush
Gov. George W. Bush

A citizen group, Texans for Public Justice, asked the Texas governor for a list of the people, known as Pioneers, "who each pledged to bundle together for you at least 100 checks worth $1,000 apiece."

The group contends that the use of a small group of people to accumulate large sums of money is a way to get to circumvent laws that limit campaign contributions to $1,000 per individual.

At a news conference Monday, Bush described the "Pioneers" as a group of friends and political supporters. He said they are a grass-roots network and follow federal campaign finance laws.

http://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/stories/1999/07/20/president.2000/briefs/

[UpInArms]

7. Jack A. Abramoff Occupation: Lobbyist Employer: Cassidy & Associates

http://www.tpj.org/docs/pioneers/pioneers_view.jsp?id=834

Jack Abramoff’s long GOP career includes stints chairing the College Republican National Committee, sitting on the Republican National Committee and heading Reagan lobby group Citizens for America (see David Carmen). This orthodox Jew helped build the political power of the Christian Coalition and Pioneer Ralph Reed. He ostensibly founded the International Freedom Foundation (IFF) in 1985.

<snip>

He helped the U.S. Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands kill a 1998 bill to revoke its exemption from U.S. minimum wage laws. For $100,000 a month, Abramoff helped block legislation to help women who make “Made-in-USA” garments for $3 an hour. Abramoff compared the proposed Mariana reforms to Nazi laws that restricted the movement of Jews. Bringing some old clients when he switched firms in 2001, Abramoff helped make Greenberg Traurig the nation’s No. 5 grossing lobby firm in 2002. Greenberg Traurig (see James Miller and Fred Zeidman) quickly capitalized on the September 11th attacks, creating a “Government Contracts and Homeland Security Team.”

...more...

Abramoff and Bush go back to at least 1997 - Bush wrote ltr for Abramoff

Posted 5/6/2005 8:35 AM Updated 5/7/2005 8:19 AM

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2005-05-06-abramoff-bush_x.htm

excerpt:

Abramoff, a $100,000-plus fundraiser for Bush, is now under criminal investigation for some of his lobbying work. His firm boasted its lobbying team helped revise a section of the Republican Party's 2000 platform to make it favorable to its island client.

<snip>

The records from Abramoff's firm, obtained by The Associated Press from the Marianas under an open records request, chronicle Abramoff's careful cultivation of relations with Bush's political team as far back as 1997.

In that year, Abramoff charged the Marianas for getting then-Texas Gov. George W. Bush to write a letter expressing support for the Pacific territory's school choice proposal, his billing records show.

"I hope you will keep my office informed on the progress of this initiative," Bush wrote in a July 18, 1997, letter praising the islands' school plan and copying in an Abramoff deputy.

White House spokeswoman Erin Healy said Thursday that Bush didn't consider Abramoff a friend. "They may have met on occasion, but the president does not know him," she said.

...more...

[Laura PourMeADrink]

6. excellent. Hmmm, maybe a new hope on a way to take this

criminal out of our lives?