“‘What I think is breathtaking is DeLay taking yet another first step…And now he’s extending the permanent campaign to one’s own trial,’ Mann said. ‘That sets a new precedent. This is not a man who lacks chutzpah.'” The Post surveys Boss DeLay’s campaign strategy to beat his money laundering charge. Not surprisingly, he’s making heavy use of his K-Street lobbying empire and the conservative talk radio circuit.
Category: Campaign Finance
Ney-deep in corruption.
DeLay flunky and high-ranking GOP rep Robert Ney, whom the Washington Post earlier implicated in the Abramoff scandals, is subpoenaed by the grand jury examining Casino Jack’s shakedown operation. Apparently, Ney, among other likely misdeeds, allegedly took what appear to be several bribes from one of Abramoff’s clients, SunCruz Casinos, including $32,000 in campaign contributions and a golfing boondoggle to Scotland (with Abramoff, former White House procurement head David Safavian (already arrested), and former Christian Coalition head Ralph Reed (clearly in deep himself).) “Abramoff stated in an e-mail to tribal officials that ‘our friend’ — later identified in Senate testimony as Ney — sought the Scotland trip after he agreed to help Abramoff’s Texas Indian clients…Ney’s official report to Congress listed a purpose of the trip as ‘speech to Scottish Parliamentarians.’ However, there is no record of Ney’s speech in the Scottish Parliament’s register of official visits. In addition, at the time of Ney’s trip, the Scottish Parliament was out for its August recess.”
The widening cesspool.
“‘The wackos get their information through the Christian right, Christian radio, mail, the internet and telephone trees,’ Scanlon wrote in the memo, which was read into the public record at a hearing of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee. ‘Simply put, we want to bring out the wackos to vote against something and make sure the rest of the public lets the whole thing slip past them.‘” Senate hearings delve further into the exploits of “Casino Jack” Abramoff and former Boss DeLay aide Michael Scanlon, as well as the cynicism and hypocrisy driving the GOP machine.
Meanwhile, more DeLay flunkies are found to be greasing the wheels for Abramoff, and the stench of corruption spreads to Interior Secretary Gail Norton’s office. There, it seems an aide, Italia Federici, received a $250,000 bribe from Abramoff clients (in the form of a payment to an environmental group she co-founded with, natch, Grover Norquist), in return for White House access. Says Senate panel chairman John McCain, it’s “a complex and tangled web…a story alarming in its depth and breadth of potential wrongdoing. It is breathtaking in its reach.”
Rotted through?
“‘Ethics is everything,’ Shays said. ‘If you don’t have a strong moral standing, if you don’t have an ethical foundation, you just crumble.'” To the consternation of several moderate Republicans (including longtime DeLay foe Chris Shays), Boss DeLay (who recently procured a new judge — and then another — for his money laundering trial) is still hanging around the leadership office despite his indictment and subsequent resignation as Majority Leader. Creepier still, “[c]ountering [the moderates] are DeLay’s ardent House supporters, dozens of whom now sport hammer-shaped lapel pins evoking DeLay’s nickname, ‘The Hammer,’ to proclaim their allegiance.” Dozens? Sadly, it appears our nation’s House of Representatives is infested with more assholes than a proctologist’s office.
At Boss DeLay’s Ney.
The Washington Post introduces yet another GOP mercenary that’s heavily implicated in the DeLay-Abramoff ring: Congressman Robert Ney of Ohio. “A six-term congressman from rural eastern Ohio, Ney, 51, does not have a national profile…But to members of Congress, Ney is known as the mayor of Capitol Hill. Ney is Administration Committee chairman, a powerful position that doles out budgets, equipment, offices and parking spaces to House members. These perks are used by House Republican leaders to keep their rank and file in line. Ney became chairman of the committee thanks to his political patron, Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Tex.).”
House of Shame.
“Thus began [in 1994] what historians will regard as the single most corrupt decade in the long and colorful history of the House of Representatives…[N]ever before has the leadership of the House been hijacked by a small band of extremists bent on building a ruthless shakedown machine, lining the pockets of their richest constituents and rolling back popular protections for ordinary people” By way of Cliopatria, Newsweek‘s Jonathan Alter surveys the corruption of Boss DeLay’s ring, with an eye to history. Update: And, wouldn’t you know it, Boss DeLay has been indicted again, this time for money laundering.
Up the Bagman Food Chain.
Curiouser and curiouser…Already inexorably tied to Boss DeLay and Grover Norquist, “Casino Jack” Abramoff also boasted of a direct connection to Karl Rove two years ago, while helping Tyco and other corporate conglomerates try to avoid tax penalties for moving their operations overseas. Boy, pull at one brick in this rotten edifice of right-wing cronyism and the whole darned structure threatens to topple.
Dubya (and Grover’s) Crooked suit.
So apparently it was Follow-the-Money-Monday in Washington yesterday, which nine times out of ten will mean trouble for the GOP. On the same day that the FEC filed suit against the pro-Republican political group Club for Growth (in what may well be the first of many actions taken against soft money groups in both parties), David Safavian, the top federal procurement official at the White House, is arrested for lying about his involvement with — and obstructing the investigation into — “Casino Jack” Abramoff. Safavian, who as of last week was not only “setting purchasing policy for the entire government” but active in Katrina relief efforts, has a history of crooked behavior — he was earlier a bagman for Utah Rep. Chris Cannon. So, naturally, Dubya put the guy in charge of the nation’s pursestrings in 2004.
And here’s an interesting triangle for you. Safavian is also “a former lobbying partner of anti-tax crusader Grover Norquist, he of the “drowning goverment” and “bipartisanship is date rape” quips, at a firm they co-founded called Janus Merritt (It was acquired in 2002.) As it turns out, Norquist was also — and I can’t believe I hadn’t heard this before — none other than Casino Jack‘s college roommate. Hmmm…you think maybe the shredder was working overtime this weekend at Americans for Tax Reform? Update: Upon further review, the article calling Norquist and Abramoff college roommates was probably wrong. However, their close college connection as leading Reagan Youth in Massachusetts (along with Christian Coalition guru Ralph Reed) is without question — more in the comments.
Rock the Vote.
The Commission on Federal Election Reform, headed by former President Jimmy Carter and longtime Bush consigliere James Baker, delivers a set of proposals for fixing our tottering election system. Among the recommendations included are the adoption of a standard photo ID [which former Sen. Tom Daschle (D-SD) has likened to a “modern-day poll tax,”] full electronic voting paper trails, free TV time for political candidates, the implementation of a regional primary system, and the non-partisan administration of future elections. Well, I’d like to see more strictly campaign-finance-related initiatives here, but, if nothing else, these sound like a good starting point for debate. After all, it should be clear to all by now that the current system has major issues, to say the least. (Just ask Ohio.)
More TRMPAC trouble.
Yet another investigative front into the corruption of the DeLay ring opened up Thursday with the indictment of TRMPAC for $120,000 in illegal campaign contributions. Although DeLay himself wasn’t indicted, D.A. Ronald Earle “said at a news conference that he was hampered in bringing charges by a provision of the election law that gives him direct authority only over residents of Travis County.“