Former Burns(R-Mont.) aide confirms Super Bowl trip is under investigation

[Newsjock]

http://missoulian.com/articles/2006/01/18/news/local/news04.txt

By JENNIFER McKEE of the Missoula State Bureau

HELENA - A former top aide to Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., has confirmed that Justice Department investigators are looking into a 2001 Super Bowl trip attended by two Burns staffers and organized by confessed felon Jack Abramoff.

“That whole trip has been the subject of investigation,” Will Brooke, Burns' former chief of staff, told the Lee Newspapers State Bureau. “Investigators have requested that we not discuss those interviews.”

Brooke, who left Burns' staff in late 2003 to take a lobbying job with Abramoff's Greenberg Traurig firm, attended the trip along with Ryan Thomas, a Senate staffer assigned to the Interior Appropriations Subcommittee, which is chaired by Burns.

His explanation came in response to a question about $500 in poker chips Abramoff allegedly offered to staffers like Brooke who attended the trip, which included a jaunt on an Abramoff-owned SunCruz gambling ship. The Washington Post has reported on the gambling, citing anonymous sources in the Justice Department.

more

[havocmom]

1. And a former Burns aid happens to be the only registared lobbyist

of the charity group Burns gave Amramoff related donations to.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x2376074

How many other pols caught up in the Abramoff morass 'returned the money' by giving it to charities they have ties to?

Conrad Burns complains that 'the Democrats' are out to get him. Can't speak for 'the DEMS'
but I do know THIS one is after his ass. :evilgrin:

::havocmom wanders off singing Chestnuts Burn-ing in an open fire...::

edited cuz this got me so excited I typed worse than usual

[havocmom]

2. A kick for exposing Burns & his crew

:kick:

[swag]

3. You're going down, Conrad, you crooked mofo.

[rainbow4321]

4. Burns changed vote on bill about the Marianas islands

http://www.missoulian.com/articles/2006/01/21/news/mtregional/news06.txt


U.S. Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., met with a Marianas official who had close ties to disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff in the weeks before Burns received an Abramoff-related $5,000 contribution from the Marianas and reversed his earlier position on a bill about the islands.

The politician, Gov. Benigno Fitial, has said he will cooperate with the Justice Department's ongoing investigation into potential bribery of public officials involving Abramoff, a man Fitial once described as a “close friend,” according to Pacific Magazine, a Hawaii publication that covers the Pacific region. Burns' records show the senator met with Fitial for 15 minutes on the afternoon of April 3, 2001.

Campaign finance records and reports in Pacific Magazine show Fitial is a former executive of Tan Holdings. Eloy Inos, another Tan Holdings executive, donated $5,000 to Burns' Friends of the Big Sky on April 20, 2001, a little more than two weeks after Fitial's meeting with the senator.

Burns spokesman James Pendleton said the senator couldn't know how Fitial became speaker in 2001. As far as Burns knew, Pendleton said, Fitial was a duly elected official and it made sense that he would want to talk to Burns, who served as chairman of the subcommittee that holds the purse strings to the U.S. office that oversees the islands. Pendleton said the senator may have known Abramoff represented the island government at the time, but was unsure.

[wiley]

5. Call Those Offices Today

and let them know you oppose Alito. And that we'll be watching them very closely. Isn't Montana ashamed that Burns has not resigned yet?

[radfringe]

6. everyday someone else gets implicated....

forget about connecting the dots - just hook-up the monkeys

reminds me of that old game I played as a kid -- Monkeys in a Barrel where you hook one monkey to another and make a chain

[Democat]

7. Yet Democrats still don't seem to have turned this into the big story

Democrats don't seem to be able to make this into the huge scandal it should be.

The press is part of the problem, but Democratic strategy doesn't seem to exist. Even when it came to introducing legislation to clean up the mess, Democrats let Republicans announcing their first.

This should be bigger than any of the so-called Clinton scandals, but it still doesn't seem to get American excited. Democrats need to find a way to make this seem as big as it really is.

[radfringe]

9. during SOTU would be a good time

I know Will Pitt is pushing for Dems to walkout - would love to see that

but specific to the "don't know Jack" scandal...

last year Repugs waved purple fingers as a show of support for Iraqi elections. Well, how about if the Dems wave dollar bills?

Whenever there is a mass leaping out of seats and wild clapping by the repugs, Dems should remain seated and wave dollar bills

during House/Senate sessions - Dems could drop a dollar into a bucket before speaking

When repugs block Dems from speaking/holding meetings etc. they should be asking "How much do I pay to be able to speak? What's the fee? $1,000, $2,000? Will $10,000 do it?"

[Judi Lynn]

8. So I'm wondering if they counted the $500.00 in chips as income,

and, if they gambled and won, did they report their winnings? Hey, I'll bet they forgot.

Years and years ago, I once got a $35.00 check from an employer for a Christmas bonus (don't spend it all in one place.) I was horrified to see that the tax on that check was around $10.00!

I believe tax is due on those goddamned chips. They should not have accepted them in the first place. It probably slipped their "minds."

WHEN is karma finally going to catch up with just one, even, of these Republican idiots? We've been watching and hearing about their errors, mistakes, sins, crimes for years, and not one of them has gotten what he's got coming to him YET.