The Fast Rise and Steep Fall of Jack Abramoff (Wash. Post)

[laststeamtrain]

The Fast Rise and Steep Fall of Jack Abramoff
How a Well-Connected Lobbyist Became the Center of a Far-Reaching Corruption Scandal

By Susan Schmidt and James V. Grimaldi
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, December 29, 2005; Page A01

Jack Abramoff liked to slip into dialogue from "The Godfather" as he led his lobbying colleagues in planning their next conquest on Capitol Hill. In a favorite bit, he would mimic an ice-cold Michael Corleone facing down a crooked politician's demand for a cut of Mafia gambling profits: "Senator, you can have my answer now if you like. My offer is this: nothing."

The playacting provided a clue to how Abramoff saw himself -- the power behind the scenes who directed millions of dollars in Indian gambling proceeds to favored lawmakers, the puppet master who pulled the strings of officials in key places, the businessman who was building an international casino empire.

Abramoff is the central figure in what could become the biggest congressional corruption scandal in generations. Justice Department prosecutors are pressing him and his lawyers to settle fraud and bribery allegations by the end of this week, sources knowledgeable about the case said. Unless he reaches a plea deal, he faces a trial Jan. 9 in Florida in a related fraud case.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/28/AR2005122801588_pf.html

[Tesla]

1. I wonder how deep Reid is in this, I hope not far.

This is just ONE lobbyist!!!
IMAGINE what kinda deals are made everyday!!!!
BYE TOM!!!!
You can here him now,(about their first meeting),"What's that funny hat on your head"

The sad part about all this is the Indian tribes have that kinda money to pay him, but their people are in poverty on the reservations. A group I belong to send books, and clothes and canned goods to one in ND, because they don't have the money to buy them.

[joannc]

4. Lakota Nation

I received a call for Lorraine a friend out at Pineridge Rez on Christmas eve.Right now they are in a battle to out the President on their nation,she has stolen millions of dollars from her own people and is trying now to sell out the land.They have gaming and I asked if they get any thing and she said a small check was all.The Pineridge area is a third world country in the good old USA.They have had one leadership after another as well as others who have lined their own pockets since the government made the treaties and not helped the people or given money to lobbyist in hopes of getting government help of some kind.I want to see this guy go down and go down hard,no deals,the Natives have had enough deals they need justice.

[annabanana]

6. thank you for this perspective

The people have gotten one bum deal after another.. Is there a really representative group at Pineridge that deserves some national acknowledgment?

(and welcome to DU:hi: )

[SharonAnn]

19. Not all Indian tribes have gambling revenues. Only some do.

[cmd]

2. Must read to understand scope of Abramoff scandal

He has tentacles reaching everywhere.

[tsuki]

3. K&R. I love this line.

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.), defended Abramoff: "I think he's been dealt a bad hand and the worst, rawest deal I've ever seen in my life. Words like bribery are being used to describe things that happened every day in Washington and are not bribes."

Only in Washington.

[Roland99]

13. When one becomes part of the problem, one must alter one's view of reality

in order to maintain a sense of righteousness.

[Pithy Cherub]

20. Asinine republican cognitive dissonance to

keep them in self-denial about their wholly-owned culture of corruption! The 21st century republican robber barons and their stooges who support them! :yoiks:

[NewWaveChick1981]

5. "The Enron of lobbying"---this says it all

Abramoff is a crook, and his downfall couldn't come too soon. I hope to hell he takes down DeLay and all of the other crooks he's got in his pocket---sooner rather than later.

[PA Democrat]

7. Great article.

Abramoff should be put away for life. And America needs to wake up and realize that their government is being sold to the highest bidder.

[0007]

8. I would endeavor to guess that Jack could tell us about the Cliff

Baxter and the David Kelly deaths.

[Botany]

9. Oh My God .......

[DemReadingDU]

10. Quick List of Characters linked to Abramoff

A look at the characters who have been linked to an investigation revolving around former high-powered Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10562787/

[Chalco]

11. Why isn't Norquist on that list? He's the mentor behind

everything. He needs to go down big time.

[DemReadingDU]

12. There's probably others too

Hope MSNBC will update this list

[tweekinnow]

14. Track your favorite criminal here

http://www.jackinthehouse.org/

Follow the graft right here.

[sofa king]

15. Interesting tidbits from that article.

"Shortly thereafter, Abramoff was running Citizens for America, a conservative grass-roots group founded by drugstore magnate Lewis E. Lehrman. Abramoff was in frequent contact with Marine Lt. Col. Oliver L. North, the Reagan White House's Iran-contra mastermind, about grass-roots efforts to lobby Congress for the Nicaraguan contras, according to records in the National Security Archive.

"One of Abramoff's most audacious adventures involved Jonas Savimbi, the Angolan rebel leader who had U.S. support but was later found to have ordered the murders of his movement's representative to the United States and that man's relatives. With Savimbi, Abramoff organized a "convention" of anticommunist guerrillas from Laos, Nicaragua and Afghanistan in a remote part of Angola. Afterward, Lehrman fired Abramoff amid a dispute about the handling of the group's $3 million budget."

_________________________

These two paragraphs are of interest to me for several reasons. First, it directly ties Abramoff to the Iran-Contra scandal, which is something I didn't know.

There is a rough parallel with another Iran-Contra associate of Col. North, Michael Ledeen, who appears to be behind the forged uranium documents which are behind Plamegate.

Where Ledeen had ties to Iranian operatives, it now appears that Abramoff had ties to Afghani terrorists--I mean guerrillas. We also know that Abramoff had ties to purported terrorist financiers.

And we also know that the 9/11 terrorists paid a visit to one of Jack Abramoff's SunCruz boats on September 5, 2001.

http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:1UeufYqqE6IJ:www.bonitanews.com/01/09/florida/d678875a.htm+%E2%80%9CSunCruz+Casinos+turns+over+documents+in+terrorist+probe.%E2%80%9D++&hl=en

It's now clear that Ledeen was running an operation to concoct phony intelligence for the purpose of igniting a fallacious and highly profitable war.

What was Jack Abramoff's operation, I wonder?

[donkeyotay]

21. I think Abramoff's operation was destroying democracy domestically

He never believed in it and said that the liberals, aka the loyal opposition, should be destroyed. If you look at him and Cunningham, it appears that the GOP-CIA appeared to be stealing tax dollars to finance their revolution, and I think their area of expertise includes stealing elections.

[No Exit]

16. Here's the part where Schmidt and Grimaldi lift their skirts:

"DeLay, a Christian conservative, did not quite know what to make of Abramoff, who wore a beard and a yarmulke. They forged political ties, but the two men never became personally close, according to associates of both men."

Journalistic whores.

I believe it was in October that DeLay was reported to have described Abramoff as "one of my oldest and dearest friends".

Which do you believe? I know which I believe.

This guy Abramoff will (relatively speaking) skate. He will be back in business within a very few years. But I almost don't mind if he skates as long as he takes down those repuke senators and conressmen.

Maybe after this is all over he'll get together with Marc Rich and enjoy a few rounds of golf at St. Andrew's.

And notice what this says about Susan Ralston. We knew she'd worked for both Abramoff and (currently) for Rove. But this says she worked for REED, too!

[MagickMuffin]

23. According to her resume, she never worked for Reed

however she did work at two of the law firms where Abramoff also worked (in bold text below). I thought that she used to work for Norquist. But have not been able to locate my info on this. Afterall, whoever called to talk with Rove, Ralston would call Norquist to confirm whether or not Rove would return call.

According to a 2004 Salon piece, she also had a role with one of conservative Washington's leading men, Grover Norquist, in which she took messages for Rove and called Norquist to screen callers.

"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," Salon reported. "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.'"

Susan Ralston, Executive Assistant to Karl C. Rove, the Senior Advisor to the President of the United States.
Ms. Ralston assists Mr. Rove in overseeing the strategic planning, political affairs, public liaison, and intergovernmental affairs efforts of the White House.
Prior to her current public service, Ms. Ralston was the Assistant Director of Governmental Affairs at Greenberg Traurig and also worked for the lobbying firm of Preston Gates Ellis & Rouvelas Meeds, LLP.
Before moving to Washington, D.C., Ms. Ralston was an office administrator for M&J Wilkow, Ltd., a
commercial real estate firm in Chicago, Illinois.
Ms. Ralston received a Bachelors of Arts degree with honors from the University of Loyola at Chicago and has an M.B.A. from Keller Graduate School of Management

[No Exit]

32. Thanks for the info. Well, the resume seems to

implicitly not be stating ALL her former jobs.

I don't know which to believe--Susan Ralston, who, given her background and current ties, is probably a stranger to the truth, or Schmidt/Grimaldi, who we know are media whores:

"Abramoff wallowed in his access, real and imagined. When his crack administrative assistant Susan Ralston bolted for a position with White House political adviser Karl Rove, Abramoff told colleagues he had gotten her the job even though it was Ralston's old boss, Reed, who made it happen, her former colleagues said."

One thing I notice, though. Abramoff, in addition to having very close ties to lots of repuke congress people, also must have rather close ties to Pigboy Karl Rove.

[No Exit]

17. I like Conrad Burns' statement

"This guy Abramoff is a very bad guy." (Ooooooh!)

Then he gives him back the chump change--$150,000. Well, that'll help poor Jack balance his checkbook, I guess.

Then Burns says "I wish he'd never been born". No, Conrad--you should wish YOU'D never been born. I wish you and the rest of the repuke criminals had never been born.

[No Exit]

18. Abramoff "financed a sniper school for Israelis on the West Bank"

Nice. Very nice.

[MagickMuffin]

24. Fund-Raising: Take It to the (West) Bank

Money meant for the inner city went to fight the intifada. What donors to Jack Abramoff's charity didn't know.

May 2 issue - The pitch from superlobbyist Jack Abramoff was hard to resist: a good way to get access on Capitol Hill, he told his clients a few years ago, was to contribute to a worthy charity he and his wife had just started up. The charity, called the Capital Athletic Foundation, was supposed to provide sports programs and teach "leadership skills" to city youth. Donating to it also had a side benefit, Abramoff told his clients: it was a favored cause of Rep. Tom DeLay.

The pitch worked especially well among a group of Indian tribes who, having opened up lucrative gaming casinos, had hired Abramoff to protect their interests in Washington. In 2002 alone, records show, three Indian tribes donated nearly $1.1 million to the Capital Athletic Foundation. But now, NEWSWEEK has learned, investigators probing Abramoff's finances have found some of the money meant for inner-city kids went instead to fight the Palestinian intifada. More than $140,000 of foundation funds were actually sent to the Israeli West Bank where they were used by a Jewish settler to mobilize against the Palestinian uprising. Among the expenditures: purchases of camouflage suits, sniper scopes, night-vision binoculars, a thermal imager and other material described in foundation records as "security" equipment. The FBI, sources tell NEWSWEEK, is now examining these payments as part of a larger investigation to determine if Abramoff defrauded his Indian tribe clients. The tribal donors are outraged. "This is almost like outer-limits bizarre," says Henry Buffalo, a lawyer for the Saginaw Chippewa Indians who contributed $25,000 to the Capital Athletic Foundation at Abramoff's urging. "The tribe would never have given money for this."

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/7615249/site/newsweek/

[No Exit]

33. Thanks for the info; here's some more. In this episode, we see Jack's

altruism towards schools:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x5715171

[Bluestar]

22. Nothing New Here

All of this has been reported elsewhere. Where does WaPo get their sources--from other newspapers and blogs? I waded through this big article and learned nothing new. I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop--there has to be much more graft than we're learning from this sad excuse for a newspaper.

[Peter Frank]

25. K & R...

From the original article, the scope is the thing --

<snip>Two of Abramoff's former business partners -- Scanlon and Kidan -- have pleaded guilty and have agreed to testify about bribery and fraud in Florida and Washington.

Three men have been arrested in the Boulis killing. Two of the three were Kidan's associates; one of them is known to law enforcement as an associate of the Gambino crime family.

Another former Abramoff associate, David H. Safavian -- most recently head of the Office of Federal Procurement Policy in the Office of Management and Budget -- has been indicted on five felony counts of lying to federal investigators about his dealings with Abramoff while he was chief of staff at the General Services Administration.

Within the past year, Abramoff began selling off assets such as his restaurants and has told his lawyers he is broke. He faces the possibility of lengthy prison sentences and stiff financial penalties that could be reduced if he cooperates.

All these developments have added to the pressure on Abramoff to reach his own deal before the SunCruz trial begins on Jan. 9.

Alan K. Simpson (R), the former Wyoming senator who was in Washington during the last big congressional scandal -- the Abscam FBI sting in the late 1970s and early 1980s, in which six House members and one senator were convicted -- said the Abramoff case looks bigger. Simpson said he recently rode in a plane with one of Abramoff's attorneys, who told him: "There are going to be guys in your former line of work who are going to be taken down."

Dozens of lawmakers -- who were showered with trips, sports and concert tickets, drinks and dinners -- are returning campaign contributions from Abramoff and his clients and calling him a fraud and a crook.

Burns, one of half a dozen legislators under scrutiny by the federal Abramoff task force, returned $150,000 in campaign contributions this month.

"This Abramoff guy is a bad guy," Burns told a Montana television station. "I hope he goes to jail and we never see him again. I wish he'd never been born, to be right honest with you."

Former Republican congressman Mickey Edwards (Okla.), usually a defender of lobbying and Congress, said there have always been members who get caught "stuffing money in their pants." But he said this is different -- a "disgusting" and disturbingly broad scandal driven by lobbyists whose attitude seemed to be "government to the highest bidder."

"This is at a scale that is really shocking," said Edwards, who teaches public and international affairs at Princeton. "There is a certain kind of arrogance that in the past you might not have had. They were so supremely confident that there didn't seem to be any kind of moral compass here."

[stop the bleeding]

26. Abramoff plea could bring everyone down according to attorney

...Several lawmakers and staff members have been linked to trips arranged by Abramoff, who bragged of his access to highly placed officials. As a result many politicians have tried to distance themselves from Abramoff and some have returned thousands of dollars in campaign donations from the lobbyist or his various groups.

Former U.S. Sen. Alan Simpson, R-Wyo., told The Washington Post of a conversation he had with one of Abramoff's attorney who said, There are going to be guys in your former line of work who are going to be taken down.


read more here:

12/30/2005 Lobbyist plea could entangle Washington-UPI - news.webindia123.com

Man I can not wait for 2006!!!!:popcorn::popcorn::popcorn::popcorn:

[leQ]

27. one can only hope .... and pray. pray hard folks! (eom)

[Flabbergasted]

28. Bush "great year"

When Bush said this was a great year he meant that this 2005 was great compared to 2006!!!!!

[stop the bleeding]

29. Welcome to DU !!!

:beer:


Wake up America time to IMPEACH!

[Oceansaway]

30. Touche !!....and welcome !!...n/t

[donheld]

31. Bring it on!

:bounce::popcorn::beer: