Jack in the Box - Could implicate 60 lawmakers

[seemslikeadream]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/blog/2006/01/04/BL2006010400501.html


By Howard Kurtz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, January 4, 2006; 9:09 AM

It's not a happy new year for anyone who had anything to do with Jack Abramoff.

The plea agreement he struck yesterday means he's now expected to sing like a canary to minimize his jail time. And that means a number of members of Congress, and some of their top aides, should be sweating bullets. Their onetime ally is now, for prosecutorial purposes, their enemy.


This is hardly good news for such Republicans as Tom DeLay and Bob Ney, and Abramoff was a major Bush fundraiser. But he also did business with a few Democrats such as North Dakota's Byron Dorgan, some of whom have been rushing to return the campaign cash he gave them.

Back in 2002, before we knew Abramoff was a big-time sleazebag, the New York Times ran a piece on how he was using his ties to DeLay to become a $500-an-hour lobbyist, which included this howler:

"Unlike many lobbyists who take almost any client who is willing to pay their fee, Mr. Abramoff says he represents only those who stand for conservative principles. They include three Indian tribes with big casinos and, until recently, the Northern Mariana Islands. 'All of my political work,' he said, 'is driven by philosophical interests, not by a desire to gain wealth.'"

Uh, right. The guy loved money, as his piles of e-mails made clear. He milked his clients, particularly Indian tribes, even as he disparaged them as "morons" and "troglodytes." Oh, he said he's sorry yesterday. Prosecutors said they would recommend a 10-year sentence.



BANDULU: bandit, criminal, one living by guile
BANDULU BIZNESS is a racket, a swindle



JAH BLESS

[henslee]

1. Jackie boy better get some bodyguards...anda food taster.

[seemslikeadream]

3. I wonder

Is that a bullet proof hat he's wearing?

[henslee]

5. You are probably right. Why else dress like Boris (and Natasha)

[trogdor]

27. You gave me a Beverly Hillbillies flashback.

There was this one episode in the black and white era where Jethro was trying to become a double-naught spy like James Bond, and he had lined his hat with some kind of heavy metal (probably lead). When he put it on his head, it went kabong and knocked him out.

[DS1]

11. My question, too

[NFL80]

26. He dresses in the style of Hasidic Judism

because he is a Hasidic Jew.

[sattahipdeep]

16. Where is the little turd?

http://store1.yimg.com/I/genius-babies_1878_4159384

[seemslikeadream]

17. sattahipdeep sattahipdeep sattahipdeep!

How are you? I have missed you.

[sattahipdeep]

30. The Prince and Princess of Darkness...Abramoff...Ledeen

:hug:

[Beetwasher]

2. ABRAMOFF DID NOT DO BUSINESS W/ ANY DEMOCRATS

Fuck you Howie, HE did not do business w/ any Dems. Some of his clients ALSO donated to Dems. Big big difference you fucking whore.

[seemslikeadream]

7. All I see are R's here

[NFL80]

24. Here is another list

http://www.capitaleye.org/abramoff_recips.asp

[sandnsea]

4. His philisophical conservative principles

Finally, one of them admits it. Their philosophy makes them a bunch of racist slugs who think everyone is a moron and beneath them and should therefore be exploited in any and every way possible.

[alarcojon]

6. That quote needs to be spread far and wide

as the media continue to try to spin this as a bipartisan issue.

[TheWraith]

18. Conservative principles? The Northern Marianas?

Aren't the people that he represented from there mostly slavers and con artists?

Conservative principles?

Yeah, that sounds about right.

[henslee]

19. For someone so connected, he sure is disconnected.

[NewWaveChick1981]

8. Caption for the pic of Jackie....

Love of money is the root of all evil, and Jack's the evil...and everyone who has come in contact with him is evil too, or at least extremely corrupt. May he go down in flames and take all of his corrupt cohorts with him.

[InsultComicDog]

9. Reminds me of...

<img src="">

Drudge

[RubyDuby in GA]

10. When will they learn

that giving it back now doesn't make everything ok? You still took it in the first place.
Every damn one of them is like the thief that isn't the least bit sorry they stole, but they are oh so sorry they got caught.

If this doesn't make the Culture of Corruption meme stick, then nothing will.

[NewWaveChick1981]

12. RubyDuby, you hit the nail on the head...

...Taking it and giving it back doesn't make it ok. It makes you a crook who got caught and a party to influence peddling.

[DemNoir]

13. Baloney

Why even post this Howard Kurtz drivel. He makes it sound 50/50.

[seemslikeadream]

15. Why?

Because if I had not posted the article we would not have the opprotunity to be discussing and refuting Kurtz Krap!

[woodsprite]

14. Loved his comment yesterday regarding his "mistakes".

Mistakes are accidental. All this crap was done on purpose. He should be slapped down just for his pissy-assed statement of apology yesterday. Like I said in another post - read his apology statement again and add "for getting caught" to the end of each line. THEN it reads more truthfully.

Wonder if Rove wrote it? ;)

[emad]

20. Lobbyist to reveal all in Congress bribes scandal: GUARDIAN

· Senior politicians alleged to have accepted favours
· Republicans likely to suffer most damage

Julian Borger in Washington
Wednesday January 4, 2006
The Guardian

SNIP:

"This is potentially the biggest congressional scandal in history," said Melanie Sloan, a former federal prosecutor and the head of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a watchdog organisation. "Abramoff knew everybody. He knows how Washington works."

The White House spokesman Scott McClellan was unable to say yesterday whether George Bush had ever met Mr Abramoff, but he denounced the lobbyist. "What he is reportedly acknowledged doing is unacceptable and outrageous," he said. "If laws were broken, he must be held to account for what he did."

..........................


"Words will not ever be able to express my sorrow and my profound regret for all my actions and mistakes," Mr Abramoff told the judge in a Washington courtroom. "I hope I can merit forgiveness from the Almighty and those I've wronged or caused to suffer."

.....................

Prosecutors are reported to be focusing on about 20 politicians and their staff, including the biggest recipients of Mr Abramoff's largesse. As well as Mr DeLay and Mr Safavian, they include Bob Ney, the Republican head of the House administration committee known as "the mayor of Capitol Hill" for his extensive influence, and Democratic senator Byron Dorgan of North Dakota. The three men have all denied any wrongdoing. Mr Dorgan and several other members of Congress have returned political donations received from Mr Abramoff and his clients, in a rush to distance themselves from the man who was once a popular socialite.

Despite the involvement of some Democrats, Stanley Brand, a former congressional lawyer, said Republicans were likely to feel the brunt of any public backlash in the November congressional elections.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1677515,00.html

[NVMojo]

22. Abramoff's job was to make sure he helped flood the US with Repukes

in public office ...probably to support the Bush agenda nationwide ...

[Triana]

21. Does he look like a MOB boss or what?

Mafia? Look at him. Crook in black.

[wordpix]

23. MSNBC last night: Hasturd returns $69,000 from Abramoff; C. Matthews said

Hasturd isn't giving the $$$ back to Abramoff ("why not?" he asked) but is giving to a charity. Matthews didn't know which one.

[wordpix]

25. Love this: "Mr. Abramoff says he represents only those who...

stand for conservative principles. "

LOL, principles like bribery, graft, corruption, sweatshops, fraud and murder!

[robertpaulsen]

28. Recommended!

:hi:

Have you seen this?

The DeLay-Abramoff Money Trail
Nonprofit Group Linked to Lawmaker Was Funded Mostly by Clients of Lobbyist

By R. Jeffrey Smith
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, December 31, 2005; Page A01

The U.S. Family Network, a public advocacy group that operated in the 1990s with close ties to Rep. Tom DeLay and claimed to be a nationwide grass-roots organization, was funded almost entirely by corporations linked to embattled lobbyist Jack Abramoff, according to tax records and former associates of the group.

During its five-year existence, the U.S. Family Network raised $2.5 million but kept its donor list secret. The list, obtained by The Washington Post, shows that $1 million of its revenue came in a single 1998 check from a now-defunct London law firm whose former partners would not identify the money's origins.

Two former associates of Edwin A. Buckham, the congressman's former chief of staff and the organizer of the U.S. Family Network, said Buckham told them the funds came from Russian oil and gas executives. Abramoff had been working closely with two such Russian energy executives on their Washington agenda, and the lobbyist and Buckham had helped organize a 1997 Moscow visit by DeLay (R-Tex.).

The former president of the U.S. Family Network said Buckham told him that Russians contributed $1 million to the group in 1998 specifically to influence DeLay's vote on legislation the International Monetary Fund needed to finance a bailout of the collapsing Russian economy.

more...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/30/AR2005123001480.html

[emad]

29. US solicitor who committed suicide in London yesterday was

an accredited UK legal business consultant to Abramoff during Bush1/Quayle's unsucessful 1992 WH Campaign.

And in 1996 was his official adviser to UK-based Republicans Abroad campaigning for election funds to get Clinton out of office.
SOURCE: StrategyReview, bi-monthly US/UK political newsletter published in London since 1979.

Sorry no internet link, but I thought this item was of interest given the circumstances.

Times story on death of Katherine Ward:
Mystery of leading lawyer's suicide leap from hotel
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-1970806,00.html

[depakid]

31. Kurtz is NOT a credible source

Neither is the Post, for that matter- they're both just part of the right wing spin machine so I wouldn't place much stock in their "analysis."

You'd do as well watching Fox.