The Abramoff… Bush… Rove… N. Mariana Islands Connection…

[Imagevision]

Here's the next Abramoff blockbuster coming soon to a newspaper, cable TV station, and blog near you. What makes this particularly tantalizing is that it puts the White House squarely in the middle of a 2002 corruption investigation of a sleazy arrangement between Abramoff and Guam Superior Court officials. The chief prosecutor in the investigation was acting U.S. Atty. for Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands, Frederick A. Black.

Black was removed from his position as acting U.S. Attorney in November 2002. It was a position he had held for over a decade, and which he lost one day after a subpoena was issued demanding the release of records involving the Guam court's lobbying contract with Abramoff -- including bills and payments.

And if this is not a bizarre enough coincidence for you, Black's replacement, Leonardo Rapadas, was a cousin of "one of the main targets" of the Guam investigation. Rapadas, who had been recommended to Karl Rove for the U.S. Attorney position by a lobbyist under contract with Guam's Gutierrez Administration, whom Black had also been investigating, promptly recused himself, and the investigation was very conveniently ended.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arianna-huffington/the-next-abramoff-shoe-to_b_13469.html

[KamaAina]

1. DeLay once referred to CNMI as "my Galapagos Islands"

where he and his cronies (apparently including Abramoff) could have free rein to implement their bizarre version of "conservatism" built around a sweatshop economy.

We actually once had a satellite office on Saipan; it has since been spun off into a separate center. At one point there was talk about sending me out there for technical assistance. That could get interesting...

[FreedomAngel82]

2. Oh wow

Will he sing about this too? Maybe this is why Bush is loudly proclaiming not to know Abramoff.