Abramoff frequent WH Contacts - 190+ Contacts in 10 Months

[DoYouEverWonder]

Controversial lobbyist had close contact with Bush team

WASHINGTON (AP) — In President Bush's first 10 months, GOP fundraiser Jack Abramoff and his lobbying team logged nearly 200 contacts with the new administration as they pressed for friendly hires at federal agencies and sought to keep the Northern Mariana Islands exempt from the minimum wage and other laws, records show.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2005-05-06-abra...


LBN Thread: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...


Another whore with easy access to the WH. Amazing that Bush can hardly remember him? I guess that's what happens when your drunk and drugged all the time.


edit to correct info: The article says contacts not visits.

[Bob3]

1. yep - no real contact at all between the two.

It's almost plausible - if you take into account how often * has been on vacation.

[InsultComicDog]

2. Proposed new media bite

..."that's even more visits than Monica Lewinsky!"

[KittyWampus]

11. OMG! That is hilarious and wicked too. You need to write for the Dems

who get their pusses on tv.

[xchrom]

3. bush didn't know ken lay either.

[progressoid]

22. Sadly, that didn't make any difference to the American voter either

lets hope the Scanlon affair is more potent.

[elehhhhna]

4. That covers pretty much EVERY BUSINESS DAY in 10 months.

So OF COURSE they didn't have contact with Bush! He wasn't AT the WH more than half that time, right? lol

[gkhouston]

10. he wasn't there to see Bush.

that's where he and Gannon used to have their "business meetings".

[Viva_La_Revolution]

5. I don't care if he was ever in the same room w/ chimpy

Bush is responsible for his people. If they are mis-behaving, he goes down too.

[Botany]

6. Oh those 195 meetings .....

<In all, the records show at least 195 contacts between Abramoff's Marianas lobbying team and the Bush administration from February through November 2001.

At least two people who worked on Abramoff's team at Preston Gates wound up with Bush administration jobs: Patrick Pizzella, named an assistant secretary of labor by Bush; and David Safavian, chosen by Bush to oversee federal procurement policy in the Office of Management and Budget.>

[mzteris]

8. Susan Ralston

was Abramoff's secretary and became Karl Rove's personal assistant!

[Botany]

13. And this little nugget:

<The records from Abramoff's firm, obtained by The Associated Press from the Marianas under an open records request, chronicle Abramoff's careful cultivation of relations with Bush's political team as far back as 1997.

In that year, Abramoff charged the Marianas for getting then-Texas Gov. George W. Bush to write a letter expressing support for the Pacific territory's school choice proposal, his billing records show.

"I hope you will keep my office informed on the progress of this initiative," Bush wrote in a July 18, 1997, letter praising the islands' school plan and copying in an Abramoff deputy.

White House spokeswoman Erin Healy said Thursday that Bush didn't consider Abramoff a friend. "They may have met on occasion, but the president does not know him," she said.>


I would put a link to the Texas Observer article but .... after being able to see it last thursday ..... the link is now dead ......
somebody is in full scramble mood.

[electropop]

15. Safavian was arrested on corruption charges.

The first in the Frog March Parade.

[Botany]

17. Timber!

[Lasher]

19. Could that be the David Safavian...

who was chief of staff at the General Services Administration (GSA), then became head of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) in 2004, where he oversaw an annual budget of $300 billion? You know, the one who was arrested September 19, 2005, based on a three-count criminal complaint? Talk about the fox guarding the henhouse!

He is accused of lying and obstructing the criminal investigation into Abramoff's attempts to buy government land, and he was involved in one of Abramoff's corrupt overseas junkets. Safavian is likely now being squeezed to cooperate in the Justice Department's Lobbygate probe, rumored to be targeting more than a dozen congressional members and staffers.

Safavian was the first person arrested in the Jack Abramoff lobbying and corruption scandal.

And Patrick Pizzella was a member of Abramoff's legal team lobbying for sweatshops in the Northern Marianas Islands when both were at Preston Gates Ellis. Yes, that's right, Chimpy appointed a former sweatshop lobbyist to the Department of Labor!

http://www.alternet.org/story/29827 /

[central scrutinizer]

7. So, he was there may more often than

the god-king himself.

[denidem]

14. What about his former assistant, Susan Ralston?

The one who went to work for Rove???

[myrna minx]

9. Yeah-Who is expected to remember meeting someone 190

times? Who is expected to remember meeting someone who gave you 250,000? I mean picky picky.

[KittyWampus]

12. look, I'm all for rounding the number up to 200. Who's with me on this?

[robbedvoter]

16. Compare that to the 5-10 min to all secretaries of state! Plus transition

team 2000 - Abramoff was on that too - the press didn't get to that goodie yet!

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/20...
This careful judge of what it means to be an "honorable public servant" had reason to prefer the Bush administration's taste in appointees. After the 2000 election, Abramoff was named to the Bush transition team for the Interior Department, which regulates the Indian casinos that paid Abramoff his inflated fees.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...

[Spazito]

18. It seems the WH is has admitted meeting with Abramoff

WASHINGTON, DC – Amid new revelations about the extensive contacts between Jack Abramoff and the Bush administration, including at least one meeting with President Bush, Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean reiterated his call for President Bush to return all the money that the scandal-plagued lobbyist raised for the President's campaign fund.

Yesterday, a White House spokesperson acknowledged to the Associated Press that the President "had met on occasion" with Abramoff. In addition, Abramoff's records indicates that he made at least 200 "contacts" with members of the Bush administration, including then-Attorney General John Ashcroft and senior members of Vice President Cheney's staff.

more

http://www.democrats.org/a/2005/05/white_house_adm.php

Edited to clarify this is from 2005, interesting, why has AP brought this up recently?

[emulatorloo]

20. kick n/t

[greiner3]

21. Contacts, Visits;

Everyone knows that Jack did not go there for a weekly tiddly-wink game!