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Abramoff

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Anonymous

Guest
A question- how much of a role do you think Abramoff is going to play in the next 2 years of elections? Here in Montana his name is mentioned hourly (seems like continously) in the Burns-Tester battle that is spending millions $ on TV and radio...I heard some fellows in the coffee shop discussing all these ads and Burns involvement with Abramoff- one guy said " Burns is no more crooked than any of the others in D.C.- just too dumb to cover it up"... I truly hope that is not an accurate summing up of the leadership in Washington......Its truly sad if nationwide policy is all being determined on who/what donated the most campaign funding... :(

Secret Service Reveals 4 More Abramoff Visits to White House
Sunday, July 09, 2006


WASHINGTON — The Secret Service on Friday revealed four more visits to the White House in 2001 by disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff, including one to see a domestic policy aide to Vice President Dick Cheney.

The newly released records of Abramoff's access to the White House bring the total number of his known visits to seven.

One Abramoff White House visit, according to Secret Service logs, was on April 20, 2001, to see Cesar Conda, at the time Cheney's assistant for domestic policy.

Five days after the Conda meeting, one of Abramoff's former lobbying colleagues, Patrick Pizzella, was nominated by the president as assistant secretary of labor. The Secret Service logs do not state why Abramoff met with Conda.

One log entry indicates Abramoff visited the White House residence on Dec. 10, 2001, for two hours, as part of a large holiday party.

The Secret Service entry for Abramoff's name that day reads, "POTUS," "WH," "RESIDENCE," and lists the number of people present as 326, according to the documents. POTUS refers to the president of the United States.

The Secret Service material surfaced as a result of lawsuits by the conservative organization Judicial Watch and the Democratic National Committee. An earlier Secret Service search turned up just two Abramoff White House visits, and a further search turned up the additional contacts.



Judicial Watch said the public has a right to know "why an admitted felon had appointments with the Bush White House." The DNC said it will aggressively pursue additional questions about visits to the White House by Abramoff and his lobbying associates.

The government is asking a judge to dismiss the lawsuits, but another group that is suing, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, says it will also seek more information on the visits.

Abramoff has pleaded guilty in an influence-peddling scandal and is cooperating with a wide-ranging Justice Department probe of alleged corruption on Capitol Hill and in the executive branch.

A former White House aide, David Safavian, was convicted in a trial last month for covering up his relationship with Abramoff. Safavian was the Bush administration's top procurement official until his arrest last year.

Abramoff's other previously undisclosed trips to the White House complex in 2001 were on March 1 and May 17. Both were to meetings in the Old Executive Office Building adjacent to the White House.

It has been previously known that Abramoff was in the White House on May 9, 2001, when President Bush had his photograph taken with an Indian tribal official who was an Abramoff client.

The Secret Service earlier disclosed White House visits by Abramoff on Jan. 20, 2004, the day Bush delivered his State of the Union address, and on March 6, 2001.
 

Disagreeable

Well-known member
I hope Abramoff is mentioned a lot this year. :) I'm not really seeing much on the news about the investigations, though. President Bush has promoted some of the Abramoff investigators into higher positions, so they'll have to get new people on board to continue on with their cases. Pretty cute way of stopping, or at least slowing an investigation, don't you think? I saw a man on the news a couple of weeks ago who worked at the Dept of Interior, a native American from California. He had taken the job because he wanted to learn how the Department worked in relation to his tribe. He said lobbyist were all over the place. That their attitude was "we got Bush elected, now it's our turn to make some $$$." He left right after the Interior Sec resigned, Gail ???. Was that last year? He was pretty digusted with his foray into Washington politics. If you look at it honestly, the Republicans have simply sold our government out to big business.
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
Disagreeable said:
I hope Abramoff is mentioned a lot this year. :) I'm not really seeing much on the news about the investigations, though. President Bush has promoted some of the Abramoff investigators into higher positions, so they'll have to get new people on board to continue on with their cases. Pretty cute way of stopping, or at least slowing an investigation, don't you think? I saw a man on the news a couple of weeks ago who worked at the Dept of Interior, a native American from California. He had taken the job because he wanted to learn how the Department worked in relation to his tribe. He said lobbyist were all over the place. That their attitude was "we got Bush elected, now it's our turn to make some $$$." He left right after the Interior Sec resigned, Gail ???. Was that last year? He was pretty digusted with his foray into Washington politics. If you look at it honestly, the Republicans have simply sold our government out to big business.

I don't think you can blame it on just Republicans- altho I disagree with much of this administrations domestic and economic policy, which to me and many conservatives is going away from all principles the Republican party was built on...But the Clinton crew also did a good job of selling anything they wanted to the highest bidder....What really bothers me is that this is getting to be seen as the accepted way to do business in D.C...

I haven't heard anything of Gale Norton...Almost too quiet...There was scuttlebutt when she resigned that her name had been brought up in the Abramoff stink-- but I've heard no more....
 

Econ101

Well-known member
Oldtimer said:
Disagreeable said:
I hope Abramoff is mentioned a lot this year. :) I'm not really seeing much on the news about the investigations, though. President Bush has promoted some of the Abramoff investigators into higher positions, so they'll have to get new people on board to continue on with their cases. Pretty cute way of stopping, or at least slowing an investigation, don't you think? I saw a man on the news a couple of weeks ago who worked at the Dept of Interior, a native American from California. He had taken the job because he wanted to learn how the Department worked in relation to his tribe. He said lobbyist were all over the place. That their attitude was "we got Bush elected, now it's our turn to make some $$$." He left right after the Interior Sec resigned, Gail ???. Was that last year? He was pretty digusted with his foray into Washington politics. If you look at it honestly, the Republicans have simply sold our government out to big business.

I don't think you can blame it on just Republicans- altho I disagree with much of this administrations domestic and economic policy, which to me and many conservatives is going away from all principles the Republican party was built on...But the Clinton crew also did a good job of selling anything they wanted to the highest bidder....What really bothers me is that this is getting to be seen as the accepted way to do business in D.C...

I haven't heard anything of Gale Norton...Almost too quiet...There was scuttlebutt when she resigned that her name had been brought up in the Abramoff stink-- but I've heard no more....

ot, unfortunately it seems that the games in DC are getting worse. Catch me if you can seems to be the norm. Unfortunately there is not enough catching.

I had much, much higher hopes for GW but this war thing has his little mind too occupied than to take on real issues. He isn't doing that great of a job on the war issue.

He should fire Karl Rove and hire some people with a little morality and ethics instead of counting on the appearance of morality and ethics through big money.

I don't think Reagan was this way at all.
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
I wonder if the GOP is going to offer up Conrad as the sacrificial lamb :???: I have an easy solution to the problem- kick both Burns and Stabenow out- or jail them....Got to at least give Stabenow the credit that she was bringing money back to her home state-- but what was Conrad doing it for :???:

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GOP revives Abramoff-Indian school issue
By JENNIFER MCKEE
Gazette State Bureau

HELENA -- National Republicans are going after a U.S. senator from Michigan for her part in getting federal money for the wealthy Saginaw Chippewa tribe -- the same Jack Abramoff-sought money Republican Sen. Conrad Burns also helped secure.

The National Republican Senatorial Committee -- the group tasked with getting Republicans elected to the U.S. Senate -- has a computerized cartoon on its Web site that takes aim at Sen. Debbie Stabenow, a Michigan Democrat.

The Republican cartoon doesn't mention either Burns or Abramoff.

Called "Thanks Debbie," the cartoon targets a number of Stabenow's actions while in office, including her request for just less than $5 million to build a school for Michigan's Saginaw Chippewa tribe, a wealthy American Indian tribe with a profitable casino. The tribe eventually received $3 million.

The tribe was a client of indicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff at the time. It, other tribes, Abramoff and his associates donated nearly $150,000 to Burns' campaign.

Burns has since returned or donated to charity his Abramoff-connected money, and the tribe has returned the controversial $3 million federal grant.

Abramoff pleaded guilty earlier this year to a host of federal corruption charges and is at the center of a continuing U.S. Justice Department investigation into lobbying and influence peddling.

The Washington Post credited Burns with playing an important role in getting the money for the tribe, and records earlier released by Burns' office include a strongly worded three-page letter Burns and another congressman sent to the Interior Department pushing for the money.

Abramoff's e-mails, gathered and released as part of a Senate investigation, also show the school money was a priority of the disgraced lobbyist.

The NRSC cartoon includes information about the tribe, including five paragraphs about the tribe's wealth and its "embassylike mansion in one of D.C.'s toniest neighborhoods."

"But despite their immense wealth, Stabenow has the gall to request federal funding for tribal projects," the ad says.

The cartoon included a Jan. 23, 2003, quote from the Congressional Record, the official log of Congress.

"Don't you think the (Saginaw Chippewa) tribe should be given high consideration from the Department of Interior for this grant during the fiscal year 2003?" Stabenow is quoted as saying.

However, the Republican cartoon doesn't include the next line, nor does it point out Stabenow was talking to Burns.

The next line, according to the Congressional Record, came from Burns:

"Yes, I agree with the distinguished senator from Michigan," Burns said. He added, "The subcommittee was pleased to learn that the Saginaw Chippewa tribe of Michigan is eligible, willing and capable of taking advantage of this innovative program during the fiscal year 2003 funding cycle."

According to the Congressional Record, Burns never questioned the appropriateness of a wealthy tribe's getting federal money.

Money for the Saginaw Chippewa tribe was an early controversy in the unfolding story of links between Abramoff and Burns.

The tribe wanted money through a Department of Interior cost-sharing program geared toward tribes that had the means to pay for part of the cost of building new schools. Only tribes that had schools controlled by the Bureau of Indian Affairs could qualify.

Just two American Indian schools in Montana qualified for the program. Almost all American Indian schools in Montana are public schools controlled by local school boards, not the BIA.

Burns was, and still is, chairman of the Interior Appropriations Subcommittee, the panel that holds the purse strings to the Department of Interior.

His committee wrote the bill that set aside the money for the Saginaw Chippewa tribe. However, agency officials determined the tribe was ineligible for the money because its school was not BIA-controlled.

Burns and his staff worked to overcome the agency's objections, the Washington Post has reported. Ryan Thomas, a former member of Burns' staff then working with the subcommittee, "took the lead in tangling with Interior officials over the funding," the paper reported.

Thomas was one of two Burns staffers who attended the 2001 Super Bowl in Florida on an Abramoff-sponsored trip.

Asked whether Burns should be similarly faulted for also helping to secure money for a rich American Indian tribe, Brian Walton, a spokesman for the national Republican group, said Burns was taking Stabenow "at her word" when the Michigan Democrat requested the money.

"The chairman of the committee gets requests from a variety of areas," he said. "He has to be able to count on the information that he is getting from the reps of that state."

Walton said that Democrats have gone after Burns for his role in getting the Saginaw Chippewa's school money, but no one has pointed out that Democrat Stabenow also played a role. He said Stabenow did more than just request the money -- she pushed for it, too.

"It wasn't a one-sided Republican issue with Abramoff," Walton said. "At the end of the day, Democrats are using this specific request against Senator Burns and pretending that Senator Stabenow had no involvement at all."

Burns campaign spokesman Jason Klindt agreed.

"Conrad's only involvement was fighting for an earmark that came out of his committee," Klindt said. "It's about time that someone made Debbie Stabenow own up to the fact that it was her request. She pushed for it, and suddenly she has a case of amnesia."

Matt McKenna, a spokesman for Democratic challenger Jon Tester, thought differently.

"This might be the most famous, but certainly not the only, example of Senator Burns delivering for Jack Abramoff and not for Montana," he said. "This state needs a senator who will put Montana first, not Washington lobbyists."
 

Econ101

Well-known member
Every state deserves Congressmen who will put the interests of the country first (constitution and values), and their constituents before the goals of the party. When we have so many senators and congressmen voting party line, they are puppets to the executive branch and the leadership instead of representatives of the people.

It is an unfortunate situation they allowed under Delay. It was not the same under Newt Gingrich and the Contract with America.

The party has changed in every way but their name.
 
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