Time: Dave Camp Cashes in on Super Committee Assignment

http://swampland.time.com/2011/08/10/dave-camp-cashes-in-on-super-committee-assignment/





The invitation (there's a photo at the link above) reads:

Please Join Us For
Food Fun and Wine
In Support of

Congressman Dave Camp
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
7:00 p.m.
Fiola, 601 Pennsylvania Avenue NW

$5000 - Hosts
$2500 - Attendee

Hosts: Susan Hirschmann - Sam Lancaster -
Tom Reynolds - Royal Roth - Jim Rowland
Sally Vastola - Pfizer PAC

Dave Camp for Congress, 20 F Street NW,
Suite 500, Washington DC 20001


The Time blog continues:

And by a Dem WH no less.

Trusting the GOP to rewrite Tax Code is like trusting a junkie to pass the basket in church

only applies to Democrats


http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x1710591

Executive director of the College Republicans just a few years after Jack Abramoff held the same position.

Chief of Staff to Tom DeLay in the 1990's, as mentioned in the OP. Went along with DeLay in 2000 on one of the European trips paid for by Abramoff and also on one of DeLay's trips to the Mariana Islands in 2001.

Became a lobbyist in 2002 with Williams and Jensen. Her name shows up about that time as one of the donors to Eric Cantor at a fundraiser that was held at Jack Abramoff's deli and which Cantor failed to report as an apparent donation-in-kind.

Headed a group called the Leadership Forum that was formed to channel soft-money donations to GOP Congressional campaigns. Testified at then-Rep. Bob Ney's hearing into Democratic soft-money groups.

Short version is that this woman comes straight out of the largely-disgraced Abramoff-DeLay-Ney nexus, and I'm amazed she's still able to show her face in public.

He's a former representative who was closely associated with Bob Ney and John Doolittle (another representative disgraced in the Abramoff scandal) and was also chair of the National Republican Congressional Committee.

When the NRCC transferred $1 million in soft money to Susan Hirschmann's Leadership Forum just before the 2002 election, Reynolds, who had just assumed the chairmanship, was among those approving the questionable transfer.

More recently, he's been involved in GOP fundraising endeavors like this one. (Quote is from a Politico story of a year ago -- I don't have the link.)

"American Action Network, modeled on the Center for American Progress, will conduct polling in key races, and plans to put up TV advertising since it is allowed to engage in explicit political activity as a group organized under Section 501c(4) of the tax code. Former Sen. Norm Coleman of Minnesota is the CEO; Fred Malek, a longtime top GOP financier, is chairman; and Rob Collins, a former top aide to House Minority Whip Eric Cantor, is president. Board members include former U.S. Sens. George Allen and Mel Martinez and former House Reps. Tom Reynolds, Jim Nussle and Vin Weber."

So this is not just a story about one member of the neo-catfood commission exploting his position. It's also a suggestion that the survivors of the Abramoff scandal are still around and looking for loopholes to exploit -- and possibly that Eric Cantor is an integral part of this nexus.