E-Mails Show Ex-Interior Official's Links to Lobbyist...

[Peter Frank]

Evidence Suggests Abramoff and Griles Had Close Ties

By Susan Schmidt
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, November 5, 2005; Page A04


The former deputy secretary of the Interior Department had numerous meetings, telephone calls and other contacts with Jack Abramoff concerning the lobbyist's tribal clients, e-mails released by congressional investigators show.

J. Steven Griles, who held the No. 2 job at Interior from 2001 to 2004, testified Wednesday before the Senate Indian Affairs Committee that he never tried to intercede on behalf of Abramoff's clients and that he had no special relationship with him. He said he had rejected a job offer from Abramoff in 2003.

The e-mails suggest a much closer relationship than Griles acknowledged in his testimony. They reflect more than a half-dozen contacts Griles had with Abramoff or with a woman working as the lobbyist's go-between. The contacts concerned gambling-related issues affecting four tribal clients who were paying Abramoff tens of millions of dollars to represent them.


According to the e-mails, Griles advised Abramoff how to get members of Congress to pressure the department and provided him information about Interior decision-making. In one instance, Abramoff wrote to his lobbying colleagues that Griles would be providing a draft of an Interior letter to Congress to give them "a head start."<snip>

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/04/AR2005110401938.html?nav=rss_politics

[grytpype]

1. Jeebus, is there no end to this?

Unbelievable. Every time you turn over a rock you find a Repug committing a crime.

[Lindsay]

2. And so many of them have ties to Abramoff.

He's not just slime himself, but also a slime magnet.

I'm looking forward to the public unravelling of all his connections.

[UpInArms]

3. why are all of these people so smarmy?

I didn't know there were that many corrupt individuals in the entire world. And now I find that all of these people connected like a huge nebulous virus in our government.

We need a major purging.

[nookiemonster]

7. I was thinking ENEMA,

to rid the shit that has become our government. However, "purging" is much less graphic and more apropos.

:)

[expatriot]

4. Re: your sig: "God gave rock and roll to you, gave rock and roll...

...to you
Gave rock and roll to everyone (oh yeah)
God gave rock and roll to you, gave rock and roll to you
Put it in the soul of everyone"

I immediately started singing the KISS song upon seeing that kick ass image.

[Kolesar]

5. How can we leverage this on environmental and land policy issues?

Wetlands, roadless rule, endangered species act, "healthy forests" initiative...

[Peter Frank]

6. The First Thing to do is Clear the Playing Field of the Obstructionists...

This administration takes care of it's financial base always -- while its ideological base is always stroked in every even numbered year.

If you vocalize about the environment -- you're lauded as a concerned citizen in odd numbered years. ...But come election day, you're a left wing fruitcake.

You want things to change? ...Work your ass off for the people who you believe deserve your trust, and demand that they speak truth to power always. If they desert you -- find other champions. If all fails -- step up and do the job yourself!

At the beginning and the end of the day -- each one of us is our government.

[Kolesar]

8. The media seems to ignore environmental issues

And I think it is partially our failing for not getting enough letters to media that is accessible to us. For instance, the Akron Beacon Journal has published their own editorials on global warming and energy conservation that were carefully written and earnest. We need to reinforce the issue by writing to them.

My question is how to couple an issue like payoffs and sleaze to something as dry as lands policy in a letter to the editor (or an outreach). What verbiage would you use?

[Peter Frank]

10. Put a Face on it...

Instead of offering boring facts & numbers -- find people who are impacted and publish their stories.

[Hotler]

9. Anyone see the hearings on C-SPAN??

Griles looked and sounded like he was about to cry. The whole lot should be indicted like gangsters.

[Peter Frank]

11. You bet I watched...

...Griles was as nervous as a hooker in church.