Jack Abramoff's Tentacles Enter the White House
August 12, 2005
"Money is washing up all over the place. This thing has tentacles that reach everywhere."
-- Republican Senator John McCain on the Jack Abramoff scandal
"The U.S. indictment of Jack Abramoff on fraud charges in Florida may reverberate throughout Washington as federal prosecutors increase pressure on the Republican lobbyist to cooperate in other investigations."
-- -- Bloomberg News, 8/12/05
Abramoff's Island Exploitations - and the White House
During the late 1990's, a small US territory called the Marianas Islands became what disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff would call "a microcosm of an overall battle." It would, in many ways, become a foundation of the modern Republican Party. Abramoff had been hired by the garment industry powerhouses on the island to ensure that Washington did not impose any pesky labor restrictions that would have interfered with their practices of forcing pregnant workers to have abortions, forcing women into prostitution, paying workers so little that they could not afford to leave the islands, and keeping workers fenced inside compounds where "Rats and cockroaches roamed freely."
When Tom DeLay jumped on board to support Abramoff's cause with a string of potentially unethical and certainly immoral maneuvers in Congress, it would begin a seven-year stint as partners in what was probably the biggest influence-peddling machine in American history, "DeLay, Inc." It would crystallize the Republican Leadership's fervent hostility to workers' rights, and DeLay's statement to a gala of sweatshop owners that "you represent everything that is good about what we are trying to do in America" would foreshadow an unflinching assault on workers that continues to this day. It would also later lead Marie Cocco to describe the episode in Newsday as "DeLay's worst: a dirty drama of bondage."
But we learned this week that the Marianas were not Abramoff's only island escapade. From the Los Angeles Times...
"U.S. grand jury in Guam opened an investigation of controversial lobbyist Jack Abramoff more than two years ago, but President Bush removed the supervising federal prosecutor and the inquiry ended soon after.
"The previously undisclosed Guam inquiry is separate from a federal grand jury in Washington that is investigating allegations that Abramoff bilked Indian tribes out of millions of dollars.
"In Guam, an American territory in the Pacific, investigators were looking into Abramoff's secret arrangement with Superior Court officials to lobby against a court revision bill then pending in the U.S. Congress. The legislation, since approved, gave the Guam Supreme Court authority over the Superior Court.
"In 2002, Abramoff was retained by the Superior Court in what was an unusual arrangement for a public agency. The Times reported in May that Abramoff was paid with a series of $9,000 checks funneled through a Laguna Beach lawyer to disguise the lobbyist's role working for the Guam court. No separate contract was authorized for Abramoff's work.
"Guam court officials have not explained the contractual arrangement. At the time, Abramoff was a well-known lobbyist in the Pacific islands because of his work for the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas garment manufacturers, accused of employing workers in sweatshop conditions.
"Abramoff spokesman Andrew Blum said the lobbyist 'has no recollection of his being investigated in Guam in 2002. If he had been aware of an investigation, he would have cooperated fully.' Blum declined to respond to detailed questions.
"The transactions were the target of a grand jury subpoena issued Nov. 18, 2002, according to a copy obtained by The Times. The subpoena demanded that Anthony Sanchez, administrative director of the Guam Superior Court, release records involving the lobbying contract, including bills and payments.
"A day later, the chief prosecutor, U.S. Atty. Frederick A. Black, who had launched the investigation, was demoted. A White House news release announced that Bush was replacing Black.
"The timing caught some by surprise. Despite his officially temporary status, Black had held the acting U.S. attorney assignment for more than a decade."
And even that was not the end of the story, and certainly not the end of Abramoff's ties to the White House...
Abramoff's Casino Scandal - and the Republican Elite
Back in March, David Brooks of the New York Times op-ed page - normally a reliable Republican apologist - wrote a column blasting Abramoff, Grover Norquist, Ralph Reed and their clique:
"As time went by, the spectacular devolution of morals accelerated. Many of the young innovators were behaving like people who, having read Barry Goldwater's 'Conscience of a Conservative,' embraced the conservative part while discarding the conscience part.
"Abramoff's and Scanlon's Indian-gaming scandal will go down as the movement's crowning achievement, more shameless than anything the others would do, but still the culmination of the trends building since 1995. It perfectly embodied their creed and philosophy: 'I'd love us to get our mitts on that moolah!!' as Abramoff wrote to Reed. They made at least $66 million.
"This is a major accomplishment. And remember: Abramoff didn't do it on his own. It took a village. The sleazo-cons thought they could take over K Street to advance their agenda. As it transpired, K Street took over them."
Brooks does not name Tom DeLay or Karl Rove, but events since then make it very difficult to make a meaningful distinction between them. Tom DeLay has been linked to a pattern of ethically questionable junkets with Abramoff that earned Abramoff the title of "director of travel for DeLay Inc." And as it happens, Abramoff got his first indictment related to his casino lobbying on Thursday. But the ties between Abramoff and the White House - and Rove in particular - are only beginning to get the attention they deserve. This piece from Newsweek gives a good foundation...
"Long before he came under investigation for his lobbying practices and ties to power brokers like DeLay, Abramoff was an enthusiastic fundraiser for Bush's election races. In 2000, Abramoff was among the first Washington lobbyists to jump on the Bush bandwagon and eventually became one of the campaign's top fund-raisers. In 2004, the now-embattled superlobbyist brought in even more money and was christened a 'Major League Pioneer' by the campaign. While his exact take isn't known, Abramoff told The New York Times in July 2003 - months before active fund-raising really began - that he had already raised $120,000 for the president's re-election effort. 'And I haven't even started making phone calls,' Abramoff 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 fundraising 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.
"But the lobbyist's ties to the White House extended well beyond money. When top Bush adviser Karl Rove was looking for an assistant in early 2001, Abramoff suggested his own top aide, Susan Ralston. She remains one of Rove's top deputies. At the same time, Bush tapped Abramoff as member of his Presidential Transition Team, advising the administration on policy and hiring at the Interior Department, which oversees Native American issues. That level of close access to Bush, DeLay and other GOP leaders has been cited by many of the Indian tribes who hired Abramoff with hopes of gaining greater influence with the administration and Congress on gaming issues. Whether the tribes got their money's worth is a question still being investigated by Congress, but there's no question some doors were opened."
Combine all of that with the mysterious $250,000 that Abramoff reportedly steered to a pseudo-environmental group headed by Gale Norton, a head of the Department of the Interior during Bush's first term and one can't help but wonder if the Department was doing all it could to regulate Abramoff's shenanigans as it was supposed to. See the blockbuster article from the Boston Globe, "Gambling, GOP politics intertwine" for an idea of how thoroughly the Republicans have flip-flopped on gambling since they realized how much money they could make off of it. Another long and sordid tale involves the Bureau of Indian Affairs, but you'll have to click here to get into that...
Abramoff's Alumni - and the CIA Leak Case
In the previous story we noted that one of Karl Rove's many ties to Jack Abramoff was Susan Ralston, an Abramoff aide who left to become "one of Rove's top deputies." Somehow, it was hard to be surprised when it was revealed that she has recently been called in to testify to the Grand Jury investigation the outing of covert CIA operative Valerie Plame.
ABC News' The Note relayed the latest troubling news for Karl Rove...
"Staking out a grand jury is no easy business, and only a few (broadcast) entities chose to do that last Friday with the grand jury empanelled to hear evidence in the Wilson/Fitzgerald investigation.
"Amazingly, given all the focus on the story, no one seems to have reported the identity of those who appeared.
"Until now.
"Based on ABC News sources (and our own video camera) it appears that at least two witnesses testified before the grand jury last Friday, both close associates of Karl Rove.
"ABC News has learned that one was Susan Ralston, Rove's long-time right hand. The other, per ABC News' Jake Tapper, was Israel 'Izzy' Hernandez, Rove's former left hand (and now a top Commerce Department official). It isn't clear if either had been asked to testify before last week."
Another key player in Abramoff's schemes was conservative strategist Grover Norquist. A Salon piece from 2004 explained the nexus - the "Susan" mentioned is Susan Ralston:
"For two years, the assistant who answered Rove's phone was a woman who had previously worked for lobbyist Jack Abramoff, a close friend of Norquist's and a top DeLay fundraiser. One Republican lobbyist, who asked not to be named because DeLay and Rove have the power to ruin his livelihood, said the way Rove's office worked was this: 'Susan took a message for Rove, and then called Grover to ask if she should put the caller through to Rove. If Grover didn't approve, your call didn't go through.'"
What's that they say about the company you keep? In any case, it is clear that the prosecutors are taking an interest in those surrounding Rove. As The Note says...
"The appearances of Ralston and Hernandez suggests at least part of the focus remains on Rove, although his attorney tells ABC News that he still believes Rove is not a target of the investigation."
One can't help but wonder whether Rove's lawyer, Robert Luskin, is deliberately stopping short of his normal formulation on that point. In the past, he has repeatedly stated:
"More significantly, Robert Luskin said, Fitzgerald assured him in October and again last week that Rove is not a target of his investigation."
That was from the Washington Post a month ago. One wonders when the last time was that Luskin was thusly "assured." |
