Indian tribes 'fleeced in $66m lobbying scandal'

The Independent

By Rupert Cornwell
20 November 2004


The annals of Washington lobbying contain many grubby chapters. But in terms of sheer greed and exploitation of the unsuspecting, few can match the tale of two Republicans accused of milking up to $66m (£36m) from half a dozen Indian tribes, newly enriched by gambling revenues.

The story of Jack Abramoff and Michael Scanlon - both associates of the House majority leader Tom DeLay - is still unfolding, as a federal grand jury looks into some of their deals.

But two sets of hearings this autumn by the Senate's Indian Affairs Committee have laid bare much of the squalid affair. In essence the tribes were persuaded to part with vast sums to protect the casino gambling operations that are their financial lifeline, in return for empty promises of access to Washington's corridors of power.

In September, Mr Abramoff appeared before the committee, and this week, Mr Scanlon underwent a similar grilling. Both used their Fifth Amendment rights to avoid answering question on how they had allegedly extracted $4.2m from the Tigua Indians in Texas.

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=584771

while the US media continues to cover infotainment crap.

and the Washington Post has run a series of articles on the corrupt acts of these two. Lots and lots of high-level Republicans are involved. Surprised? Expect something to be done ...... oh, never, I guess.

Deprive these bastards of half their audience. Deprive their advertisers of half their targets! Make a difference!

It's not like you're going to see anything new and different. It's not that you are going to be better off knowing the lies the morons are being fed. TURN IT OFF!

Starve the beast.

last night on NOW with Bill Moyers. Also an excellent piece on Condi's incredible incompetence in conjunction with her "promotion". America will greatly miss Bill Moyers when he leaves. He is one of the VERY few sensible voices on TV

& the other person involved was Ralph Reed, that wonderful Christian man of such upstanding morals.

may not have been aware of where the money he received was coming from. Recall, it was channeled to him by way of a phony foundation with headquarters in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. The staff members included a lifeguard. You can hardly be surprised that the scheme involved money laundering, with so many Republicans involved.

Reed is a bottom feeder like the rest. He knew exactly where it was coming from. He and Delay are best buds, and Delay, as usual, is at the bottom of this.

he is one of the last of the real investigative reporters. One by one they are being forced out, shut down, it is very sad and somewhat frightening to see.

K Street Croupiers

How Two of Tom DeLay's Players Beat the House at the Grand Coushatta Casino

BY LOU DUBOSE

On May 9, 2001, Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff did President George W. Bush a small favor by directing a modest sum of money to Grover Norquist. Norquist was bringing a group of Republican state legislators to the White House to sell them Bush’s proposed tax cuts. He decided to use the event to make a little money for his organization, Americans for Tax Reform. So he had Abramoff ask two of his American Indian clients for $25,000 each for the privilege of meeting the president. This money ATR raised at the White House three years ago is a small part of a big scandal involving Abramoff, his partner Mike Scanlon, six Indian tribes, $66 million in questionable lobbying fees, and millions of dollars in political contributions.

Also entangled in the scandal is House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, whose Washington “network” was offered to Indian casino clients by Abramoff and Scanlon, if the tribes would hire them. DeLay is the only member of Congress associated with Abramoff and Scanlon’s extensive casino tribe dealings. After DeLay used his leadership position to kill a bill that would have taxed Indian casinos, Abramoff and Scanlon used their access to “the Leader” to attract Indian casino clients. (Neither of the two men seemed to have any interest in Indian tribes that did not have casinos.) The Louisiana tribe that paid almost half of the lobbying fees collected by Abramoff and Scanlon contributed more to DeLay’s political action committee than they did to any other member of Congress in 2002. Because of his close ties with the two men, DeLay is the only member of Congress whose conduct has been questioned in an ongoing Senate committee investigation of the lobbying scandal. Other federal and state agencies are investigating the two men as well.

The Indian lobby fee story moved DeLay toward center stage in the Senate shortly after three of his fund-raisers were indicted in Austin and he himself was handed three separate admonishments by the House Ethics Committee for transgressions unrelated to Abramoff and Scanlon. So for DeLay, who is lawyered up and nervously watching a grand jury in Austin, Abramoff and Scanlon represent a third front in what now seems like an endless war over ethical and legal questions involving his fund-raising operations.

The paper trail that leads from Norquist’s office to the Coushatta Nation and to the White House illustrates how easily Abramoff and Scanlon extracted money from clients who were flush with casino cash and convinced that any political contributions the Washington lobbyists suggested, and the outrageous fees they charged, would serve the tribes’ interests. Norquist is the brains and muscle behind the policy of a Republican House defined by the “Class of 94,” which made Newt Gingrich speaker and elected DeLay whip. By the time George W. Bush took his constitutional oath in January 2001, Norquist’s weekly meetings between lobbyists and congressional staffers implementing the Gingrich-DeLay revolution were an extension of the permanent Republican government in Washington. He was also overseeing the K Street Project, a DeLay operation which ensures that only Republicans are hired for high-paying jobs on K Street—the D.C. strip of lobby shops, trade associations, and law firms. He was the most powerful policy advocate in Washington in 2001 and still is today.

CONTINUED...

http://www.mollyivins.com/showArticle.asp?ArticleID=1800

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