The Man Who Bought Washington (FBI E-mail: Abramoff Case "Far From Over")

[johnfunk]

Joy! The games have just begun...

The Man Who Bought Washington
From deep inside the Republican elite, Jack Abramoff brought new excesses to the lobbying game. Who is he, and how did he get away with it for so long?
By KAREN TUMULTY / WASHINGTON
Posted Sunday, Jan. 08, 2006

There were two qualities that Jack Abramoff looked for in a prospective lobbying client: naivete and a willingness to part with a lot of money. In early 2001 he found both in an obscure Indian tribe called the Louisiana Coushattas. Thanks to the humming casino the tribe had erected on farmland between New Orleans and Houston, a band that had subsisted in part on pine-needle basket weaving was doling out stipends of $40,000 a year to every one of its 800-plus men, women and children. But the Coushattas were also $30 million in debt and worried that renewal of their gambling compact would be blocked by hostile local authorities—and that their casino business would be eaten away by others looking to get a piece of the action. So tribal leaders were eager to hear from the handsome, dandily dressed visitor who had flown in from Washington with his partner on a private jet, shared some of their fried chicken in the council hall, then waited for them to turn off the tape recorder.

...

The Abramoff scandal has already taken down the political player who invented the system that has helped keep Republicans in power for more than a decade. The once feared [Tom] DeLay—whose office had been Abramoff's biggest claim to access and influence on Capitol Hill—announced he would resign as House majority leader. "I have always acted in an ethical manner within the rules of our body and the laws of our land," DeLay wrote in a letter to his G.O.P. colleagues, but added, "I cannot allow our adversaries to divide and distract our attention."

...

The Coushattas' tale is only a small piece of an investigation that, with the 46-year-old Abramoff's agreement last week to cooperate with federal prosecutors, could become one of the biggest corruption probes in U.S. history, possibly putting dozens of lawmakers in legal or political jeopardy. It has already netted Scanlon, 35, who pleaded guilty to similar charges in November and is also cooperating. In an internal e-mail obtained by Time, the director of the FBI's Washington field office, Michael Mason, congratulated some 15 agents and 15 support staff members under him on the case for "a huge accomplishment" in squeezing Abramoff to make a deal after 18 months of investigation and negotiation, one that made "a huge contribution to ensuring the very integrity of our government." But he added that "the case is far from over."

Subscription required to read the entire article, alas, but it looks like corporate media finally gets it:
1) They have to report on the pathological corruption of Republican senators and congressmen;
2) they need to get the worst out of the way to clear the way for the GOP to try to deflect, reframe, lie, and, of course, scare voters to the greatest extent possible.

[0007]

1. I use to think that I was against the death penalty.

I'd pay top dollar for a ring side seat. This man, Jack Abramoff, is what's wrong with this country and its people.

Many Americans love these kind of guys and fashion their lives accordingly. Jack Abramoff will be idolized, books will be written, movies will be made.

Guess what? This mustache will be walking the streets within five years and having dinner with Kenny Boy Lay.

[stop the bleeding]

2. Here is some interesting research on this from the GD forum about Griles

Both of these threads really tie into this as well. These threads and aspect of this story have been virtually ignored in the MSM and DU as well.

Please go to these and tell me what you think. BTW I am not the author of these but I feel like this is a HUGH set of facts that is being overlooked. This guy makes "heckuva job brownie" look like a girl scout compared to how much this guy has done.

Also Randi Rhodes has been trying to hammer this story with no luck.


Further on down in the article here is where Griles is mentioned.

Sources at the Interior Department tell TIME that its inspector general, Earl E. Devaney, has been conducting a wide-ranging investigation into Abramoff’s dealings with the Cabinet agency — which oversees many of the Indian-related issues Abramoff built most of his career around. In particular, the agency is looking into the ties between Abramoff and former Deputy Interior Secretary J. Steven Griles, who has been accused of intervening in agency deliberations on behalf of the Coushattas. Griles has denied it, and his attorney says Abramoff was wildly exaggerating their relationship when he referred to Griles in an e-mail to lobbying colleagues as his man at Interior, TIME reports.

Meet James Steven Griles - former Deputy Secretary of Interior

NYT: "Coal's Power Over Politicians" - Fight Bush for stronger unions!

K&R!

[MasonJar]

3. I worry about this crisis being handled by Alito; there is no

doubt that he will whitewash as much as he can. And the Congress is a total washout in the oversight dept.

[0007]

4. Disquesting

You got it!

[TheGunslinger]

5. Culture of Corruption.