The caution flags of various NBC news analysts such as Pete Williams aside, the Jack Abramoff snitch list appears to be growing, not shrinking, from the initial 12. The magic number today: 60 Congressmen potentially tied up in Abramoff's Gordian knots, according to the Wall Street Journal (exerpted here by RawStory).
Not that this number is new. Bloggers back in November were quoting a Newsweek reporter, Eamon Javers, whose sources were pegging the number at five-dozen. And the DNC at that time was naming two Virginia Congressmen, Eric Cantor and Virgil Goode (both Republicans) as being embroiled in the scandal. Following the Scanlon plea a couple of months ago, the WSJ and other papers fingered Tom DeLay, Rep. Bob Ney of Ohio, Rep. John Doolittle of California, and Senator Conrad Burns of Montana as potential targets of a wider probe. And of course there's Denny Hastert, Bill Frist and the heads of every Senate and House committe, all Republicans, all juicy bribe targets I'd think...
The California list of possible targets includes Doolittle, House Resources Committee Chairman Richard Pombo, Rep. Mary Bono (wife of the dearly departed Sonny), Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, Rep. Jerry Lewis (no relation to the comedian), and of course, our old buddy, disgraced former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham.
It's not a crime to accept contributions from lobbyists. It's a bribe only if there's evidence of an agreement to perform an official act in exchange. But the political damage can go further.
"Careers usually end when the indictment is brought, whether [the accused] are cleared or not. Very few survive an election, once an indictment has been brought," says Stanley Brand, a Washington defense attorney who advised House Speaker Tip O'Neill during the 1978 ABSCAM bribery case, an FBI sting operation that convicted five House members and a senator.
Many on Capitol Hill say the Abramoff affair could eclipse ABSCAM. With Abramoff's help, federal prosecutors say, they are unraveling an "extensive" corruption scheme. While prosecutors have not disclosed the number of lawmakers under investigation, speculation runs from a half-dozen to as many as 60. At least a dozen FBI field offices are now involved in the investigation.
Meanwhile, Howard Fineman sums up the winners and losers in the Abramoff scandal. (Hint: third party politics and John McCain -- UPGRADE! Karl Rove, Tom DeLay and Dennis "the figurehead" Hastert -- DOWNGRADE!)
...Plus, as politicians all over D.C. scramble to jettison their Abramoff cash and erase his number from their cell phones, Dubya dumps $6,000 but keeps $92,000 in Abramoff "pioneer" bucks. How's that work? (Wanna know who's dumping what? Click here. Yes, I counted 14 Dems out of 62 dollar dumpers on the list, including Hillary, Dick Durbin, Max Baucus, Kent Conrad and Byron Dorgan. But that list is just of those who are dumping funds, not the much more important upcoming list of the investigated and indicted. Sorry, Limbaugh old boy, but I'll go out on a limb and say most of those folks will be with the GOP...)
More on that in a bit. For now, back to Bush and Jack. Scott McClellan makes like Bush barely knows the guy. He should read his Newsweek magazine:
the Bush-Cheney campaign is returning only a fraction of the campaign contributions it received with Abramoff connections. During the 2004 campaign, Abramoff was a top fund-raiser for the Bush re-election effort, raising more than $100,000 for the campaign. While exact figures on how much he raised for the campaign aren’t known, Abramoff told The New York Times in July 2003—months before active fund-raising began—that he had already raised $120,000 for the Bush-Cheney campaign. “And I haven’t even started making phone calls,” the lobbyist told the Times. An Orthodox Jew,Abramoff was considered an important intermediary between Jewish groups and the Bush campaign, which worked heavily to make inroads with the voting bloc. When fund-raising began for Bush's re-election effort, Rabbi Daniel Lapin, a prominent Seattle radio host and activist, urged friends and colleagues to steer campaign checks to Bush via Abramoff.
For now, the Bush-Cheney campaign has no plans to donate or return funds raised by Abramoff from other individuals. “At this point, there is nothing to indicate that contributions from those individual donors represents anything other than enthusiastic support for the [Bush-Cheney] re-election campaign,” RNC spokeswoman Tracey Schmitt said.
Yet Abramoff’s ties to the administration extended well beyond campaign checks. In 2001, Bush tapped the lobbyist as a member of his Presidential Transition Team, advising the administration on policy and hiring at the Interior Department, which oversees Native American issues.Abramoff’s former top aide, Susan Ralston, currently serves as the top aide to Karl Rove, one of the president’s closest political advisers. Still, the White House has moved to put distance between Bush and Abramoff. On Wednesday, McClellan called Abramoff’s actions “outrageous” and reiterated to reporters that Bush was not friends with the lobbyist and does not recall ever meeting him—though he said it was possible that Bush met Abramoff at a fund-raising function or at a White House holiday party. (According to McClellan, Abramoff was a guest at three White House Chanukah receptions.) When asked about Abramoff’s contacts with other White House officials, McClellan said, “I don’t keep track of staff.”
Of course you don't, Scott. You're far too busy figuring out which ongoing investigations the president is willing to comment on to pay attention to all the people charging their clients $25,000 a pop for face time with the president or arranging $9 million White House confabs for the President of Gabon... (By the way as to Rush's rather sad direct lifting of Ken Mehlman's talking point that "We know for a fact he spread money around to both parties," Newsweek's Wolffe reports that "While Abramoff personally only wrote checks to Republicans, his clients gave to both parties, including Democratic Sens. Harry Reid, Mary Landrieu and Byron Dorgan. " (The Hotline puts it even more bluntley here, saying Abramoff "never gave a penny to Democrats or Democrat committes... True -- he encouraged or "directed," as the Washington Post says, his clients to give generously to politicians of parties, which they did. And several associates who worked closely with Abramoff were, indeed, "equal money dispenser[s]" as Bush said. But not Abramoff himself...") An important distinction and not surprising given that some of his clients likely wanted to court certain Democrats on certain issues. Reiterating, somehow I doubt we'll say many Democratic names in the final scandal tally. Abramoff was a hardcore GOP activist, not an equal opportunity player, no matter whom his cliens donated money to...)
Some of the "Abramoff-related" money linked to Dems comes from Greenberg Traurig's political action committee. Greenberg is a huge bipartisan legal/lobby firm. It regularly gives money to members of both parties.
Abramoff had no hand in the PAC's donation distribution, according to Greenberg. So is Greenberg money really Abramoff money? (To be fair, the same question can be posed to Dems who say Greenberg contributions to GOPers are inherently tainted.)
True, true, true. BTW there's more evidence of the Bush-Abramoff "non-relationship" relationship here, here and here.
As for what the Jack Attack was doing with all that money he skimmed from his "troglodyte" Indian gaming clients? Well apparently, he was shipping part of the loot off to extremist settlers in the West Bank to "fight the Intifada." Nice.
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%>
Tell a friend
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%>
"[T]he practice of arbitrary imprisonments, have been, in all ages, the favorite and most formidable instruments of tyranny.' Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 84, August, 1788
