Jack Abramoff and the Anti-Gay Agenda

[struggle4progress]

... Abramoff did more than simply hire anti-gay luminaries—the Reverend Lou Sheldon, who heads up the Traditional Values Coalition, and Ralph Reed, former chief of the Christian Coalition, key among them—with money from his clients and front groups to lobby on behalf of special interests. Abramoff also funded an anti-gay group with close ties to his best buddy and biggest water-carrier, former House Majority Leader Tom Delay—the U.S. Family Network—with laundered money that has been traced to Russian oil interests ...

Sheldon’s Traditional Values Coalition received at least $25,000 from an Abramoff client, eLottery—an online gambling outfit—as part of the $2 million the company spent to defeat an anti-gambling bill. The Washington Post reported that Abramoff referred to Sheldon as “Lucky Louie” ...

Grover Norquist, dubbed “The Lenin of the Right,” as head of Americans for Tax Reform (ATR)—a hard-right lobbying group—convenes and presides over a weekly meeting of the leaders of more than 100 conservative organizations. It was at these meetings that the successful anti-gay strategy targeting same-sex marriage was hatched and refined as critical to Republican victory in 2004. Norquist allowed Abramoff to launder money through ATR to help an Abramoff client—who wanted to sell state lottery tickets online—whip up opposition to an anti-gambling bill that would have put that client out of business ...

In a lengthy piece of Pulitzer-quality investigative reporting on December 31—little-noticed because it ran on a Saturday, which was New Year’s Eve day to boot—the Washington Post’s Jeff Smith exposed how Abramoff arranged funding for the U.S. Family Network, routed through London lawyers, from Russian energy executives who got DeLay to support Congressional funding for an International Monetary Fund bailout of the Russian economy. These Russian oiligarchs forked over a cool $1 million for the Network. Buckham, the U.S. Family Network’s guru, put DeLay’s wife on his payroll—for what the Post painted as a no-show job, and had the Network buy a townhouse DeLay used for fundraising phone calls. DeLay’s staff called it “the Safe House” ...

http://www.gaycitynews.com/gcn_502/jackabramoff.html

[samhsarah]

1. sick bastards. nt

[Ian David]

2. See also: Queer Allies

Jewish World Review Dec. 2, 2003 / 7 Kislev, 5764
Queer allies
By Evan Gahr
The little-noticed alliance between gay marriage opponents and alleged terrorist sympathizers
http://www.jewishworldreview.com/1203/marriage_terrorists.php3