Reply #42: Kevin Ring - is also tied to Blunt

[phoebe]

http://www.firedupmissouri.com/club_abramoff

While Fired Up has been beating the drum on this front for some time, Roy Blunt's ascension to the post of Majority Leader has caused the media to try with renewed vigor to peel back the curtain of corruption and reveal the unsavory connections between Blunt, Delay, and Abramoff. And folks are finding that, when you look close, you can see that the Blunt, Delay and Abramoff contingents are all a part of the same little club.

Take Todd Boulanger for instance. You may remember Boulanger as the "Team Abramoff" lobbyist who drafted an unprecedented letter to Interior Secretary Gale Norton on behalf of the client Louisiana Coushatta tribe --a letter ultimately signed by Speaker Hastert, Republican Leader Tom Delay, and Republican Whip Roy Blunt. Abramoff, with Boulanger's help, took the Coushattas for about $32 million.

As it turns out, Boulanger was not only able to get Blunt to put pen to paper on behalf of Abramoff's client, but there were far more personal ties as well. You see, Abramoff deputy Boulanger is married to Jessica Incitto, a former Delay staffer who happens to be Press Secretary to --you guessed it-- Roy Blunt.

snip

Also of interest is a subscription only story in Roll Call that describes how Abramoff wound up at Cassidy:

A longtime confidant of House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) and the GOP leadership, Abramoff was brought into Cassidy by Gregg Hartley, a former top aide to House Majority Whip Roy Blunt (R-Mo.).

And while Abramoff ultimately wound up working with Boulanger and longtime Blunt consigliere Hartley at Cassidy & Associates in 2004, he had spent serious time working Blunt's staff for years before. This AP timeline of Delay-Blunt transactions indicates that in November of 2000, Abramoff's team charged its client, the Marianas Islands, for a meeting it held with Roy Blunt staffer Trevor Blackann.

Blackann, now a lobbyist, served on the legislative staff of Roy Blunt and later on that of Missouri Sen. Kit Bond (R-Knob Creek). And, it seems, Blackann took quite a liking to some of the Abramoff crew that lobbied him while he was on the Hill, as the press accounts indicate that he likes to spend free time sailing the Chesapeake with our old friend Todd Boulanger:

entire article worth a read

More on Kevin Ring on DU to be found here:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2809997