E&P: White House Briefing: Reporters Zero in On Rove's Abramoff Connection

[UpInArms]

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001847442

excerpt:

But another theme emerged today.

As the fallout from indicted Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff continues, reporters are now trying to hone in on Abramoff's White House connections, specifically looking for details on his meetings with President Bush's staff. But so far presidential spokesman Scott McClellan isn't budging.

On Tuesday, McClellan admitted Abramoff had "a few staff-level meetings" at the Bush White House, but he declined to say with whom Abramoff met, which interests he was representing, or how he got access to the White House.

Here is the Abramoff-related portion of Tuesday's press gaggle with McClellan:

Q Another topic, if you would. Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid and others sent a letter to the President today regarding Abramoff, asking for the President make public any contacts that he had with Abramoff, as well as senior administration officials; and any kind of benefits or access that they may have gained from this connection. They said, "The American people need to be assured that the White House is not for sale." Is there any plan for the President or the administration to make that information available?

...much more...

(Note to Mods: I see that I am 45 minutes past the 12 hour rule, but this is the first MSM story that ties Rove to Abramoff. Do as you will and thank you for all that you do. UIA)

[SpiralHawk]

1. E & P has done excellent reporting on BushCo and the Bended Knee media

for several years now. They have earned a wig-wag salute of the Hawk wings.

This is an interesting development, always is when you detect some faint breath of life in the corporate media.

and k & r - fer sure...

[snooper2]

6. They have before, but for this piece they didn't report anything...

They copy&pasted the trascript into a "news" article....


:eyes:

[Canuckistanian]

2. "just don't get into discussing White House staff-level meetings"?

Why the hell not? If it's extremely relevant AND you've got nothing to hide.....

And is this a strict rule? I think not.

[DrZeeLit]

27. Just whose govt is this? Of the people, by the people, for the people???

They so do NOT get the Constitution.
WE own the records. Not them.
Period.

[Lerkfish]

3. funny, I thought bush never met the man.

if these guys ever uttered the truth, their tongues would fly right out of their mouths in surprise.

[xxqqqzme]

19. and their lips would fall off.

flying tongues and alling lips - now that's a sight.

[Dhalgren]

4. Man! Scotty is in full "defense by stupidity" mode!

The press should ask direct questions -

"Did Abramoff meet with Karl Rove at any time in the WH or elsewhere between the dates 1/1/2001 and the present?"

"Did any of the meetings taking place in the WH or elsewhere with WH staff pertain to any of Abramoff's clients, businesses, or fund raising endeavors?"

"Who attended the meetings with Abramoff from the WH?"

"Did anyone from outside the WH attend those meetings with Abramoff?" "If so, who?"

The press corp could ask better questions, but Scotty told them (in essence) that he would tell them nothing. To paraphrase Scotty: "If you already know of something that might incriminate the WH, tell me and I will try to counter it. But, if you are just asking for information, get fucked!"

[jazzjunkysue]

25. That's in the pre-hiring screening: The idiot test. You gotta fail to get

the gig. But it's not a problem, cause the Bushinistas are too stupid to understand how stupid they are.

[truth2power]

5. Why do they even have WH press briefings?

Why do we even have a Congress?

Why do we even have a Supreme Court?

Snotty never tells us anything of significance and the other two branches are unnecessary because That Insect is a law unto himself. Think of the taxpayer money that could be put to better use, like to invade another country or three. I'm so sick of this sh*t! :banghead:

[wordpix2]

14. to obfuscate, evade and lie their way out of the trouble they're in

[truth2power]

15. Heh heh. that'll work.

:rofl:

[AnneD]

17. It must be my sadistic streak....

but I love to watch them go after Scotty (they have been doing it more now). It's like watching a spider dance on a hot skillet til they curl up. It is better with Scotty though, 'cause no spiders are killed and he curls up so nicely before he scurries off.

[truth2power]

23. lol! Love that analogy. n/t

[jazzjunkysue]

26. At least the press is getting back a little bite, instead of butt licking,

like usual. i think even they are getting tired of having nothing to report.

"Then he had breakfast. Then he cleared brush. Then he went to a fund raiser...."

[tuvor]

7. "Staff-level": What a convenient term!

Everyone who works at the White House is "staff," but Socky is not about to discourage any assumption that he means "low-level staff level".

So, I guess JACKabramOFF met with bush after all.

[robbedvoter]

8. "Stop saying that!" Scotty channeling Bob Boudelag there....

So he has a few staff level meetings - but NOTHING HAPPENED - so stop saying that!

[Hyernel]

9. Haven't heard from Fitzy for awhile...

...When will he indict that smug asshole and frogwalk him to the nearest, dankest prison cell available?

[Hyernel]

10. I heard they've renamed the Lincoln Bedroom...

...to the Jack Abramoff Suite.

[Hyernel]

11. Oh crap...I replied to myself!!

Oh DOUBLE CRAP!!! I've done it again!!

[wordpix2]

16. where IS Fitz these days? Looking forward to Fitzmas in Jan. or Feb.

[hootinholler]

12. Note to press peoples:

WTF are you going on about staff meetings for? Fer chrissakes J.A. was on the Booosh transition team in 2001. How much closer do you need?

-Hoot

[OrangeCountyDemocrat]

21. Please Don't Confuse The Press With Facts & Details nt

[UpInArms]

13. The Pimping of the Presidency

http://www.texasobserver.org/showForPrint_new.asp?ArticleID=13




Four months after he took the oath of office in 2001, President George W. Bush was the attraction, and the White House the venue, for a fundraiser organized by the alleged perpetrator of the largest billing fraud in the history of corporate lobbying. In May 2001, Jack Abramoff’s lobbying client book was worth $4.1 million in annual billing for the Greenberg Traurig law firm. He was a friend of Bush advisor Karl Rove. He was a Bush “Pioneer,” delivering at least $100,000 in bundled contributions to the 2000 campaign. He had just concluded his work on the Bush Transition Team as an advisor to the Department of the Interior. He had sent his personal assistant Susan Ralston to the White House to work as Rove’s personal assistant. He was a close friend, advisor, and high-dollar fundraiser for the most powerful man in Congress, Tom DeLay. Abramoff was so closely tied to the Bush Administration that he could, and did, charge two of his clients $25,000 for a White House lunch date and a meeting with the President. From the same two clients he took to the White House in May 2001, Abramoff also obtained $2.5 million in contributions for a non-profit foundation he and his wife operated.

Abramoff’s White House guests were the chiefs of two of the six casino-rich Indian tribes he and his partner Mike Scanlon ultimately billed $82 million for services tribal leaders now claim were never performed or were improperly performed. Together the six tribes would make $10 million in political contributions, at Abramoff’s direction, almost all of it to Republican campaigns of his choosing. On May 9, 2001, when he ushered the two tribal chiefs into the White House to meet the President, The Washington Post story that would end his lobbying career and begin two Senate Committee investigations was three years away. (When the Post story broke in February 2004, however, Abramoff and Scanlon, a former Tom DeLay press aide, were already targets of a U.S. Attorney’s investigation in Washington.)

Abramoff brought the Coushatta and Choctaw chiefs to Washington at the request of Grover Norquist. Norquist is founder and director of Americans for Tax Reform, the advocacy group committed to slashing taxes until the federal government is so small you “can drown it in the bathtub.” Norquist started ATR in 1985. His power increased exponentially in 1994, when Republicans took control of the House of Representatives and he collaborated with then-Majority Whip Tom DeLay to launch the “K Street Project”—a coordinated campaign to compel lobbyists to contribute only to Republican candidates and ultimately to hire only Republicans. Like Abramoff and Rove, Norquist considered George Bush’s victory over Al Gore the culmination of a project the three Washington insiders started 30 years ago as national leaders of the College Republicans.

<snip>

According to a source close to the tribal majority, Chairman Poncho recently “revisited that issue” of his visit to the White House. He had previously denied it because he thought he was responding to press inquiries that implied he had a one-on-one meeting with Bush. He now recalls that he in fact did go to the White House on May 9, 2001. Tribal attorney Kathryn Fowler Van Hoof went with him, although she did not get into the meeting with the President. That meeting lasted for about 15 minutes and was not a one-on-one meeting. At the meeting, Bush made some general comments about Indian policy but did not discuss Indian gaming. Abramoff was at the meeting—for which he charged the Coushatta Tribe $25,000. The change in Poncho’s position is odd in light of the fact that he and his spokespersons have maintained for more than a year that he did not meet with President Bush in May 2001.

...more...

[MagickMuffin]

18. A couple of good articles of reference:

In President Bush's first 10 months, GOP fundraiser Jack Abramoff and his lobbying team logged nearly 200 contacts with the new administration as they pressed for friendly hires at federal agencies and sought to keep the Northern Mariana Islands exempt from the minimum wage and other laws, records show.

The meetings between Abramoff's lobbying team and the administration ranged from Attorney General John Ashcroft to policy advisers in Vice President Dick Cheney's office, according to his lobbying firm billing records.

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.

In addition, two of Abramoff's lobbying colleagues on the Marianas won political appointments inside federal agencies.
"Our standing with the new administration promises to be solid as several friends of the CNMI (islands) will soon be taking high-ranking positions in the Administration, including within the Interior Department," Abramoff wrote in a January 2001 letter in which he persuaded the island government to follow him as a client to his new lobbying firm, Greenberg Traurig.
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.

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

The two appointees appear to be Patrick Pizzella and David Safavian. Safavain is already indicted on several charges, while Pizzella is still working @ the WH.


http://rawstory.com/admin/dbscripts/printstory.php?story=1709

[xxqqqzme]

20. so what's pizzella connection?

he is no heavy contributor according 2 newsmeat

www.newsmeat.com/

and this:

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Patrick_Pizzella

Patrick Pizzella was nominated (http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/nominations/1118.html) March 6, 2001, for Assistant Secretary for Administration and Management at the Department of Labor by President George W. Bush. His nomination was sent to the Senate on April 25, 2001, and he was confirmed on May 9, 2001.

A piece (http://slate.msn.com/id/109358) from the June 18, 2001, New Republic "wonders why unions failed to organize against Patrick Pizzella's appointment as an assistant secretary of labor. Now responsible for protecting workers' rights, Pizzella spent four years as a lobbyist on behalf of the Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands, 'a notorious haven for foreign-owned sweatshops'."

[MagickMuffin]

28. I don't understand your question ;-P

Do you care to explain?:shrug:

[Bushies gotta go]

22. What is the problem with Abramoff visiting

the White House? He only wanted to work out his upcoming pardon.

:sarcasm:

[tinfoilinfor2005]

24. JackOffGate is SO HUGH, there's no way Snotty could possibly

wrap his brain around it. But as long as he has his tap shoes on, he meets the administration's needs: entertainment and distraction.