Another reason to hate that scumbag Jack Abramoff

[globalvillage]

Charles W. Jarvis, who managed Gary Bauer’s presidential campaign, joined Abramoff on the board of United Seniors Association. The group has supported pharmaceutical company positions on prescription drugs and oil companies’ positions in the fight over the energy bill. It also contributed to the “Swift Boat” veteran’s anti-Kerry campaign.
http://www.forward.com/campaignconfidential/archives/week_2005_05_08.php

[TayTay]

1. Did anyone see Hardball tonight?

There was a very funny exchange between Chris Matthews, Richard Ben-Veniste and Ben Ginsberg (who looks like a shark, only meaner.) Matthews asked if the Abramoff scandal was really dirty. Ginsberg, consultant to SBVT (remember) replied that it wasn't that corrupt to which Ben-Veniste said it was dirty enough 'to choke a maggot.' That was great. My husband and I were chuckling over that one for the rest of the show. Ben-Veniste just kept nailing the Repubs over this scandal while SharkBoy just kept trying to do the 'nothing to see here, move along' dodge.

This is one whale of a scandal. It's just keeps getting juicier and juicier. I just hope we can nail all the Rethugs who did business with Abramoff. That would make this election easier. (Motivate Dems to go out and vote and depress the Rethugs so they stay home, same as in '94 but in reverse.)

[ginnyinWI]

2. I did

--now I know why Ginsberg made my skin crawl! The SBVT-- of course! I knew he has a RW operative from the campaign of some sort or other.

It looked like Chris Matthews was having fun with him, seeing what he'd say. And Ben-Veniste being a Watergate prosecutor--he's got to be enjoying this, too. There is just no way 'round this one--all those involved are going to have to pay a price for this scandal.

[ProSense]

3. You're right!

It's the tip of the iceberg. I see a massive network from Ohio to Texas to Florida to the WH to Sanscrotum Territory. I'm waiting for more names, including Rep. Feeney in (R-FL) to surface in connection with Abramoff and certainly DeLay.

[globalvillage]

4. I'm watching this bitch on CSPAN right now

To buy influence at the White House, GOP operative Jack Abramoff gave $500,000 in tribal loot to a Gale Norton pal who heads an "environmental" nonprofit.

Italia Federici swears in before the Senate Indian Affairs Committee in Washington Thursday.
(Photo: Photo Yuri Gripas / AP Photo)

Italia Federici is a minor Republican player in Washington, the sort of dime-a-dozen functionary who can build a career trading favors in backrooms and producing political campaigns for moneyed interests. Her specialty is the environment. She leads a conservative front group called the Council of Republicans for Environmental Advocacy, or CREA, a tiny outfit, originally founded by Interior Secretary Gale Norton, that argues it is healthy for forests to clear-cut trees, good for the air to weaken air-quality controls, and "environmentally responsible" to drill for oil in the Alaskan wilderness.

For the past five years, Federici has limited her public activities to supporting President Bush's environmental plans. She claims that traditional environmentalists, groups like the Sierra Club and Democrats like Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., are dishonest and deceptive.But that is just the public face of Federici. In private, she has played a very different role in Washington, one that has now put her in the middle of one of the largest political ethics scandals in a decade.

"We are also going to do something mean to Senator John Kerry," Federici wrote Abramoff, a few days before the ad ran. She then described a video CREA had packaged that showed Sen. Kerry leaving an Earth Day celebration and stepping into a gas-guzzling sports utility vehicle. She sent the video to at least two television programs on the Fox News Network, "The O'Reilly Factor" and "Hannity and Colmes." "I am letting EVERYONE know that you are the only reason we have the funding to do this," she gushed to Abramoff in the same e-mail.


http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/printer_111805C.shtml



BITCH IS GOING DOWN.

[TayTay]

5. These people hate Kerry with a great big passion

Go back and look up their ass-kissing of that traitor and drug-runner Ollie North. They loooooved Ollie North. These people are scum-sucking vermin.

[wisteria]

6. Hi Globalvillage!

I don't remember much about this video. Is there any truth in it? Was it footage that was spliced together? Did the camp respond to it or let it go? This seems to me to be a very dirty trick, but I guess I shouldn't be surprised with anything the Republicans stoop too. It anything goes in order to win.

[globalvillage]

7. Hey!

I do know that the video of Sen K was old when it was shown during the campaign. About four years old, I think. A video of Sen K getting into an SUV? So fucking what?
They are just a bunch of freaking liars. And Federici is a HUGH!!1!!liar, funded by Abramoff.
You should have seen Dorgan and McCain. They were incredulous at the sheer volume of her 'disassembling'. The hearing was a replay from Nov, but it was something to watch. I have never heard anyone string lies together like that without showing any sign of a conscience. When all the dots are connected, this lying little bitch is going down with her scummy pal Jack and all the rest of the theives.

When we doing lunch, anyway?

[wisteria]

8. Thanks for the information. I hope she gets what she has coming.

Lunch? Yeah, that sounds good.

[JI7]

9. remember what Kerry said

about the most crooked, lying bunch of people. he knew what he was talking about.

[Dr Ron]

10. More info

From The Democratic Daily--see original post for links:

http://blog.thedemocraticdaily.com/?p=1552

Abramoff Not Equal Money Dispenser; Even Donated to Swift Boat Liars

Republicans try to spin Abramoff as supporting both Democrats and Republicans, but his choice was clear. While Republicans claim he donated to both parties, Bloomberg reports that this is untrue:

U.S. President George W. Bush calls indicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff “an equal money dispenser'’ who helped politicians of both parties. Campaign donation records show Republicans were a lot more equal than Democrats.

Between 2001 and 2004, Abramoff gave more than $127,000 to Republican candidates and committees and nothing to Democrats, federal records show.

The Washington Post provides some information on his background:

Born in Atlantic City, N.J., Abramoff, 46, graduated from Brandeis University and Georgetown University Law Center. He was a leader of the College Republicans where he met Kidan; anti-tax crusader Grover Norquist; and Ralph Reed, the former head of the Christian Coalition who now is a Republican candidate for lieutenant governor in Georgia.

Wikipedia provides more information on his college years:

In college, Abramoff organized Massachusetts campuses for Reagan’s 1980 presidential campaign. He graduated from Brandeis University in 1981 and earned his JD at the Georgetown University Law Center in 1986.

After a campaign managed by Grover Norquist and aided by Ralph E. Reed, Jr., Abramoff was elected chairman of the College Republican National Committee. “It is not our job to seek peaceful coexistence with the Left,” Abramoff was quoted as saying in the group’s 1983 annual report, “Our job is to remove them from power permanently”. Abramoff “changed the direction of the committee and made it more activist and conservative than ever before,” notes the CRNC.

The Washington Post also reported on how Abramoff bragged about his White House ties.

Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff bragged two years ago that he was in contact with White House political aide Karl Rove on behalf of a large, Bermuda-based corporation that wanted to avoid incurring some taxes and continue receiving federal contracts, according to a written statement by President Bush’s nominee to be deputy attorney general.

Finally, if there’s not already enough reason to dislike him, Forward reports that Abramoff had contributed to the Swifties!