Like the Mafia, Only Dumber

[WilliamPitt]

Link to original: http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/101806J.shtml

Like the Mafia, Only Dumber
By William Rivers Pitt
t r u t h o u t | Perspective

Wednesday 18 October 2006

Obviously crime pays, or there'd be no crime.

- G. Gordon Liddy

Josh Marshall, who runs the excellent blog Talking Points Memo, recently posted a reader's take on "The 5 Stages of Republican Scandal." As follows:

1. "I have not been informed of any investigation or that I am a target."

2. "I am cooperating fully, but this whole thing is a political ploy by the Democrats."

3. "I'm SHOCKED by the mistakes made by my subordinates."

4. "I'm deeply sorry for letting down my friends and family. I now recognize that I am an alcoholic. I will be entering rehab immediately, so I have no time for questions."

5. "Can I serve my time at Eglin Federal Penitentiary (aka Club Fed)?"

We have seen a fair amount of this already, and will soon see a lot more of it. The news media is all abuzz about Republican scandals, from Foley to Abramoff, but simply hearing about it from the television does not do the situation justice, if you'll pardon the bad pun. You have to see it all in one place to understand the depths to which the GOP has sunk.

Bear in mind, as you peruse the following roll call, that these guys are getting busted for this stuff while their party has absolute control over the House, the Senate, the White House and the Justice Department. Huffington Post columnist Stephen Elliot pegged it recently when he wrote, "The fact is if you control the Senate, the White House, and the courts, and you're still getting busted for bribery, stalking children, and money laundering, then something is really sick at the Republican core."

Indeed. Thus, without further ado and in no particular order ...

Jack Abramoff: The disgraced "super-lobbyist" has been nailed for wire fraud, and is cooperating in the investigation into the bribing four Republican members of congress.

Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Texas): Once the most powerful man in the House of Representatives, Texas congressman DeLay now stands indicted on three counts of money laundering, charges stemming from his all-out attempt to secure a permanent Republican majority in the House. His story isn't finished; the Abramoff investigators have been sniffing around his door for months now.

Rep. Bob Ney (R-Ohio): Ney has pleaded guilty to accepting bribes from Jack Abramoff. Ney pulled #4 out of the bag of GOP excuses above, announcing that he has entered a rehab clinic for alcohol addiction.

Tony Rudy: Once the deputy chief of staff for Tom DeLay, Rudy has pleaded guilty to bribing a Republican House member, said member widely assumed to be Bob Ney. Rudy also pleaded guilty to accepting bribes from Abramoff in return for favorable actions on Abramoff's behalf by his former boss.

Mike Scanlon: Another Republican lobbyist and former DeLay press secretary, Scanlon has pleaded guilty to stealing millions of dollars from Native American tribes, on whose behalf he was supposed to be lobbying Congress regarding casinos. Scanlon is also cooperating with federal investigators.

Rep. Randy Cunningham (R-Calif.): The California congressman has pleaded guilty to accepting $2.5 million in bribes, in exchange for steering federal contracts to a number of defense firms. Cunningham is currently staring down the barrel of eight years in prison.

Rep. Mark Foley (R-Fla.): There isn't much more to say about this fellow, who has joined Rep. Ney in the I'm-an-alcoholic-going-to-rehab club.

Rep. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.): Long considered to be little more than the mush-mouthed front man for Tom DeLay, Speaker of the House Hastert has found himself swept up in the Foley scandal. Several fellow congressmen have said that they warned Hastert about Foley's improper behavior, but nothing was done about it until the Foley emails went public. The watchword for today is "cover-up."

I. Lewis Libby: Cheney's former chief of staff, "Scooter" Libby, has been indicted on five counts of lying to investigators regarding the outing of deep-cover CIA agent Valerie Plame.

David Safavian: Once the head of the White House Office of Federal Procurement, Safavian has been convicted of four counts of lying to investigators regarding a bribe he took from Abramoff.

Claude Allen: Formerly a domestic policy advisor to the White House, Allen was arrested for shoplifting thousands of dollars worth of merchandise from various retail stores.

Brian Doyle: Formerly the Department of Homeland Security's deputy press secretary, Doyle was arrested for attempting to seduce a 14-year-old girl over the internet.

James Tobin: Tobin, who served as the northeast field director for the Republican Senate Campaign Committee, has been convicted on two counts of conspiracy stemming from a phone-jamming scheme in New Hampshire during the 2002 midterms. Tobin made dozens of phone calls during this time to the White House political affairs office. He was sentenced to ten months in prison.

Susan Ralston: An aide to White House political advisor Karl Rove, Ralston resigned recently after her multiple meetings with Jack Abramoff became public knowledge. Ralston was also in the habit of accepting gifts, such as tickets to sporting events, from the disgraced lobbyist.

Rep. John Doolittle (R-Calif.): Doolittle hasn't been convicted of anything yet, but has rolled out the "not a target" line regarding the investigation into Abramoff's bribery scheme.

Sen. Conrad Burns (R-Mont.): Like Doolittle, Burns has deployed the "not a target" line regarding the Abramoff probe. He is, however, apparently a "target" of the probe, a fact that has his staffers splitting rhetorical hairs at warp speed.

Rep. Jim Kolbe (R-Ariz.): Rep. Dale Kildee, the only Democrat on the House Page Board, dropped an interesting brick the other day. While commenting on a conference call between page board members regarding "other allegations" beyond those directed at Rep. Foley, Kildee said, "It was about other allegations and I'd like to leave it at that. Let me just say, not about Mr. Foley." These "other allegations" appear to be augering towards Rep. Kolbe, who took two former pages on a camping trip several years ago. A federal investigation has been opened to look into the matter.

Sen. Bill Frist (R-Tenn.): The senate majority leader is currently under investigation by the SEC for seemingly taking advantage of insider information to make a killing on stocks, the company attached to said stocks being owned by his family.

Lester Crawford: Once the Bush administration's FDA commissioner, Crawford has been charged in federal court for conflict of interest, and for making false statements related to his investments. He recently pleaded guilty to the charges.

Rep. Curt Weldon (R-Pa.): The home of Weldon's daughter was raided by federal investigators on Monday. The investigators are looking hard at her lobbying firm, and whether her well-connected father improperly steered business her way. Weldon has pulled out #2 above, laying the whole thing off on a Democratic plot to destroy him.

Tom Noe: A four-star Republican fund-raiser in Ohio, Noe has just gone on trial for stealing millions from a fund for injured workers and spending it on himself.

Here's the best part: George W. Bush has officially declared that this is now National Character Counts Week. Seriously. You can't make this stuff up.

"America's strength is found in the spirit and character of our people," reads the Bush proclamation. "During National Character Counts Week, we renew our commitment to instilling values in our young people and to encouraging all Americans to remember the importance of good character." Someone apparently forgot to circulate the "Character Counts" memo among the ranks of the Republican Party, it seems.

At the end of it, you have to think of this crew as being like the Mafia, only a lot dumber. Think about it. The Mafia's criminal enterprises operate under heavy scrutiny from local, state and federal officials, all of whom have subpoena power, not to mention the ability to tap phones and kick down doors.

The Republican criminal enterprise that is currently unraveling in all directions, on the other hand, operated virtually free from restraint or scrutiny. They own the government, from the Oval Office to the FBI to the Capitol Dome, and yet somehow they are managing to get busted left and right.

And, of course, the really serious criminal behavior - lying about weapons of mass destruction to initiate a war of conquest that has enriched White House allies while killing untold tens of thousands of people, including almost three thousand American soldiers, for starters - continues to operate with impunity.

For now. Rumor has it there is an election in November. Depending on how it shakes out, things might get really interesting after the New Year. These people above got nailed even though their allies are running the show. If that should change, several dozen varieties of Hell are likely to break loose.

[MessiahRp]

1. We should start a website that reads like an A to Z encyclopedia

of Republican scandal. Hell if we centralized focus on just the ones involving members of the Bush Administration and current Republican elected officials we'd have a shitton of information to go with.

A-Z would be covered... and all by hundreds of bookmarked names.

Rp

[jwirr]

3. There is also a list of their sexual sins floating around here

somewhere. It is hugh. In 2004 I also saw a list of hypocrites who were hunting Clinton and had affairs/Mistresses. The site would have to be large.

[leveymg]

13. You mean this list of 52 GOP and ERW pedophiles?

http://www.dkosopedia.com/wiki/Examples_of_Republican_hypocrisy_on_moral_values

[skids]

14. Like this one?

There are many others as well, but this one's dedicated to it:

redmorals.com

[stop the bleeding]

2. what a list

god help our country

[Beetwasher]

4. It's The Repubs 50 State Strategy In Action

They are trying to get indictments in all 50 states.

[corkhead]

5. Almost enough criminals for a deck of cards, maybe even a pinochle deck

[Laurab]

6. On the Daily Show last night, Jon Stewart said much the same thing

he also played a message supposedly by the Speaker of the House which left a blank space for the person's name to be filled in, to make it more "personal", a space for the crime, etc. It was funny, but it would be funnier if it wasn't so true.

I think things might get real interesting after the New Year. I hope that hell does break loose, and I mean, in a kind of good way, not because of something this administration does. They're backed into a corner and they scare me.

[Tennessee Gal]

7. Excellent!

:kick:

[KittyWampus]

8. You forgot Larry Franklin, leaking classified info

[Sugarcoated]

9. I sent this list to my RW brother

and his response was that

"We have weeded and flushed these guys out and they are no longer in power, unlike many of the corrupt democrats who the party has protected and with their culture of corruption and kept in office."

First of all, "they" haven't weeded them out, they've been exposed by ethics groups, Democrats in the House, the media, the victims of the sexual abuse. "They" have had nothing to do with bringing the thug criminals to light.

And does anyone have a list of all the current Democrats under investigation or indicted? I'm sure it doesn't even come close to the thuggies.

[VelmaD]

10. kickety

This was too fun.

[AntiFascist]

11. The effect of the international mafiya runs deep....

and may seep directly into the justice department, involving the illegal international funding and distribution of weapons of mass destruction. In the fullness of the sins committed by Bush and his cronies against the US, this could be the gravest because it may involve providing nuclear capabilities to potential terrorists. While Bush waves his left hand and warns about possible nuclear mushroom clouds on the horizon, the right hand, hidden from view, may be working to enable that outcome so that the US is forced to fight a series of wars against terror in its quest for world domination and oil exploitation.

For example, on the surface the corruption involving Rep. Ney may look like a series of relatively harmless bribes accepted from Abramoff, including golfing trips to Scotland and such. But take a closer look:

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Robert_W._Ney

Corrupt actions to aid airplane sale to Iran

In January 2006, Newsweek reported that Ney's lawyer confirmed that federal prosecutors have subpoenaed records on an expenses paid February 2003 trip to London that Ney and a top aide took. The trip was paid for by "Nigel Winfield, a thrice-convicted felon who ran a company in Cyprus called FN Aviation. Winfield was seeking to sell U.S.-made airplane spare parts to the Iranian government—a deal that would have needed special permits because of U.S. sanctions against Tehran," and that "Ney personally lobbied the then Secretary of State Colin Powell to relax U.S. sanctions on Iran." <55> (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10857676/site/newsweek /).

Ney's plea agreement cites a "foreign businessman," who was identified by the Associated Press as Fouad al-Zayat. Al-Zayat is a Syrian-born partner in the Cyprus-based FN Aviation company, which also has offices in London. Al-Zayat is apparently a prominent gambler in Britian nicknamed "The Fat Man." <56> (http://www.forbes.com/infoimaging/feeds/ap/2006/09/15/a... ) <57> (http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/docs/ney-fact-basis/?r... ) Al-Zayat had been trying to sell U.S.-made airplanes and airplane parts to Iran and, through FN Aviation, hired two DC-based lobbyists to seek an exemption from the Iran arms embargo to allow the sale and to gain a visa to enter the U.S. <58> (http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/docs/ney-fact-basis/?r... ) <59> (http://www.forbes.com/infoimaging/feeds/ap/2006/09/15/a... )

The reason neocons may have turned against Ney is that he was getting a bit too close to the nexus of international shady characters who are aiding the distibution of weapons of mass destruction throughout the Middle East and South Asia. If the justice department won't even touch this with a 10 foot pole, what recourse of justice do we have left? Any Republicans who continue to support this deepest of corrupting influences within the culture of corruption need to be run out of Washington permanantly.

[Generic Other]

12. I wrote ya a song Mr. Pitt to commemorate your splendid essay!

National Character Counts Week???
(apologies to Tom Lehrer.
The words might fit the tune of "National Brotherhood Week." Or not...)

Oh, the Gop hate the Democrats
Think they're better than the left
It is an old established rule
They learned it back in business school

But during National Character Counts Week
National Character Counts Week
Ken Lay and Mother Theresa
Are dancing cheek to cheek
Gee but it's fun to criticize
Immoral people you despise
Especially when you always do what's right

Oh, the poor folks have no character
And the rich folks have too much
All of my folks look down on your folks
Your morals are a joke

But during National Character Counts Week
National Character Counts Week
Red states can chastise blue states
because it's very chic
Step up and shake the hand
Of someone you can't stand
Because you know he's not as good as you

Rightwingers hold your heads up high
You'll only kill the ones who die
The right-to-life for those who think like you
And everybody else can kiss your ass

But during National Character Counts Week
National Character Counts Week
National Everyone-Look-Down
On-Someone-Lower-Than-You Week
Remind the people who
Are inferior to you
It's only for a week, so have no fear
Be grateful that it doesn't last all year!

[Ellipsis]

15. Tap. nt

[omega minimo]

16. Crime pays? If you're a stupid amoral asshole

[WilliamPitt]

19. Yup.

[Bucky]

17. Oh, it's just a few bad apples. Most of the Republicans are...

... well, nuts

[Imagevision]

18. GOP now don't know which way is up - totally out of control/leadership

Will Bohnener be testifying under oath tomorrow?!! (ha!)

[rman]

20. Most of them are smart enough to stay out of jail

Otherwise a majority of Republican politicians would be behind bars.