Daniel Hopsicker: Jack Abramoff & the Republican Black Hand

[PhilipShore]

MadCow Morning News
Jack Abramoff & the Republican Black Hand
Daniel Hopsicker
FEB 07 2006

http://www.madcowprod.com/02072006.html

When Jack Abramoff showed up looking like an old-time Mafia don complete with black fedora and matching trench coat last month, to plead guilty to felony fraud charges in a Federal Court in Washington D.C., puzzled observers were asking: what could he possibly have been thinking?

But the beleaguered Republican lobbyist may have been making more than a fashion statement... Abramoff’s garb may have suited his station in life better than the American press was ready to admit. The ‘Disgraced Lobbyist’ job description with which he was incessantly tagged might be less accurate than that of 'Gangland Kingpin.’ And for that role, it must be said, he was impeccably turned out.

The Indian gaming industry began in 1979 in—can you guess?—Florida... with the Seminole Tribe’s million dollar bingo parlors. Along with Seminole Chief James Billie, a fast-talking former Marine named Robb Tiller was the linchpin in the fortunes of what was to become one of Florida's biggest businesses: the Seminole Indians gambling operations.

“Meyer Lansky put up the original million dollars for the Seminole tribe to start gaming in Hollywood at what became the first bingo hall gaming entity in the U.S.,” Tiller told us matter-of-factly.

[slaveplanet]

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