Isn't Mark Green Connected To Abramoff/Delay?

[Dinger]

I remember reading something about that a while back. I'll try and find a link (if I can).

[htuttle]

1. Here's one link

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=186x11580

[Dinger]

2. Thanks, Maybe Green Is On "The List"

Then we're stuck with Walker though.

[gizmo1979]

3. Didn't Green refuse to return

the money he recieved back,because it was already spent.Let's see if he changes his tune.

[ewagner]

4. The most direct connection

to Abramoff is through his former Chief of Staff who is now his campaign manager. When he was Chief of Staff he was a frequent user of "skybox tickets" directly from Abramoff. Green's name never appeared in the memos. Talking Points Memo by Josh Marshall had the story.....

There's a thread in the Wisconsin forum about it.....the Manager first denied the story and then said "Well, yeah, I did but so did everybody else"

[sybylla]

5. I'm hoping Abramoff will nail Green in his tell-all testimony

If your chief of staff is picking up skybox tickets, how likely is it that Green went to an event or two? Perhaps Green has enough ethics to realize benies from lobbyists might be a problem and got his COS to arrange the tickets as a cover. GOPpies are good a shucking the appearance of responsibility/culpability on to others.

Oh, I'm just dying from the anticipation.

[RevCheesehead]

6. I'm just dying to get rid of him. n/t

[ewagner]

7. Woohooo! It's heating up

look at today's Talking Points Memo

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/

Graul (the former Chief of Staff is trying to weasel out of his connections to Abramoff and as Josh Marshall rightly points out, that's just making the story worse. Here's a snippet:

Graul said there's no evidence the alleged e-mails are authentic and that he never met Abramoff.

Calvert's relationship with Abramoff as a co-worker ended several years ago, when she left Preston Gates & Ellis to help establish the government affairs business at Washington Strategies, a smaller lobbying firm across the Potomac River from Washington in Rosslyn, Va.

Graul said Thursday that he considered his attendance at the game at the MCI Center in downtown Washington with Calvert primarily a social event. He did not recall what business topics were discussed.

[sybylla]

8. Ah, reviving the Reagan defense, is he.

I don't know the man who gave me the tickets and I don't remember what I talked about with the other people who were in the skybox.

:freak:

Smells to me like he's going down.

[Jimbo S]

9. Will Walker use it against him? (eom)

[ewagner]

10. I'd really like to see that

I'd like to see the fight between Walker and Green turn nasty, nasty, nasty......

[AllyCat]

11. Hey, what's with Doyle and others giving the money to "charity"?

Shouldn't they give the money they received BACK to the tribes? Just wondering...

But I do remember Green saying he wasn't planning to give the money back when the Abramoff thing first broke. He's a slimeball, through and through.

[sybylla]

12. There are regulations in Wisconsin governing this

As Green got the go-ahead from the state elections board to transfer his federal campaign money (normally not allowed) to his state gubernatorial campaign, the funds are now governed by Wisconsin election law.

Campaign finance laws are rather convoluted at the moment. According to a Green Bay Press Gazette article, Green told reporters at a news conference in Madison that he is allowed under state campaign finance law to return only $2,000 of the DeLay money that was converted from his federal account to his state account. He said he wants to return the remaining $29,069 to the state's "rainy day" fund and to some charities, but Wisconsin law prohibits him from doing so.

The DPW pointed out to him last week that he most certainly can divest himself of it now. "Green’s campaign could donate the money today to a nonpartisan campaign to increase voter registration or participation – like the League of Women Voters, for example – according to Wisconsin State Statutes 11.25(2)(a)(b)," they said in their press release. There is a DU thread on it here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=186x12766

Definitely "a slimeball, through an through." Apparently he only wants to get rid of the money in a way that he can use as a campaign gimic.

It's doubtful Republicans in this state would give money back to tribes even if they could. So too, I imagine, with GOPpies in other states as it seems few of them seek to return the money to the tribes even when they can. They've never had friendly relations which is what makes Abramoff's bait and switch so much more detestable. He essentially defrauded the tribes of millions of dollars that he in turn gave to legislators who would work against them. But this disgustingly immoral trick gets very little play in the media.

Doyle's contributions are different in that they are supposedly from an Abramoff associate. From the Journal Sentinal article http://www.jsonline.com/news/state/jan06/384484.asp

Doyle's campaign returned the 2003 contribution (of $1000) from Alan Slomowitz, who used to work at the same firm as Abramoff, said Doyle campaign manager Rich Judge. The law firm, Greenberg Traurig, was hired by the state in 2005 to lobby before the Base Realignment and Closure Commission on behalf of Wisconsin military installments; Abramoff was no longer with the firm at that time.

The problems with Abramoff's scheme is that it had to appear to be a rising tide lifting all boats or it would have been suspect much earlier and wouldn't have survived.


edited to add the Green Bay Press Gazette info and link http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060112/GPG0101/601120492/1207/GPGnews

[AllyCat]

13. Thanks for the explanation.

That makes some sense...well, the explanation makes sense. Their behavior does not. But then I am continually baffled by the actions of corrupt people.

[Bellyboy]

14. Nothing from Abramoff

Green never got any money from Abramoff. Mark Graul went to one game. A Bucks game.

I can't believe we have to use this as our top attack on Green.

Bellyboy

[sybylla]

15. Oh, yeah. That makes it so much better

Taking illegal corporate contributions funnelled through the party machinery and phony PACs specifically for pukes who will turn tricks is by far much more acceptable than than taking Abramoff's fraudulent treats.

I'm so glad you cleared that up.


edited for clarity