JUSTICE
: Crime & Scandal | April 8, 2005
NO
DELAY
A
Posting in "GordonTalk",
A
Follow-Up to "Tom DeLay, Russian
Patsy?"
When
last we left our
tale of international intrigue, House Majority Leader Tom
DeLay was being wined and dined in Moscow at the expense of an
obscure non-profit organization, the National Center for Public
Policy Research, which was reportedly funded by Chelsea Commercial
Enterprises Ltd., a mysterious offshore company, apparently
fronting for NAFTASIB, the Russian energy conglomerate whose
biggest clients are the Russian ministries of defense and
intelligence.
Whew!
And I thought the plots of those Mission Impossible
movies were convoluted!
And
just as a complex screenplay requires a crafty screenwriter, the
Washington Post investigation published this week
singled out one individual for particular scrutiny in this
apparently illicit affair: A man who worked for one of the
lobbying firms that arranged DeLay's trip for the NCPPR, who
served on the board of the NCPPR, who also lobbied Congressional
Republicans to support Russian aid legislation on behalf of the
mysterious Chelsea Commercial Enterprises, and who has been a
bosom buddy of Tom DeLay and other top Repubs (including Geo.
Dubya) for years -- Jack Abramoff.
Jack
who? Abramoff -- you've probably never heard of him; but you've
seen and felt his considerable influence, primarily as
one of this nation's top GOP lobbyists, for years. Let me cite
some highlights of his
résumé...
Abramoff
is something of a paradox (to put it mildly). He is an orthodox
Jew and yet he was a driving force behind the political power of
the Christian Coalition. Abramoff wrote and produced the 1989 film
Red Scorpion,
which depicted the heart-warming tale of a freedom-loving ex-KGB
agent killing masses of black African communists; in 1994 he
produced the sequel, Red
Scorpion 2, which depicted the heart-warming tale of
freedom-loving men killing masses of white American militiamen.
In
1995, it was revealed that the International Freedom Foundation,
which Abramoff had purportedly founded in 1985, was actually a
front organization paid over a million dollars a year by the South
African government for the unpalatable PR job (that no one else
would evidently touch) of making apartheid seem less than
contemptible and Nelson Mandela's African National Congress seem
less than honorable.
Also
about this time, as the GOP took over Congress, Abramoff became
rich as a lobbyist for Indian casinos. But the gambling business
is indeed a gamble: in 2001, one of his partners in a riverboat
gambling deal that went bust got run off the road and shot to
death (the rumors are that it was a mob hit, but you didn't hear
that from me).
In
1998, Abramoff successfully lobbied for the U.S. Commonwealth of
the Northern Mariana Islands in defeating a bill that would have
revoked its exemption from U.S. minimum wage laws: "For $100,000 a
month, Abramoff helped block legislation to help women who make 'Made-in-USA'
garments for $3 an hour."
I'm
sure it was just a coincidence that Abramoff and DeLay celebrated
New Years 1998 together on a golfing holiday on those very same
islands. (I wonder who made their golf shirts)
In
2003, Abramoff lobbied for Tyco, embroiled in charges of massive
corporate fraud.
In
2004, the lobbying firm for which he worked on behalf of the
Native American tribes fired Abramoff for engaging in "personal
transactions" that were "unacceptable to the firm:" a small matter
of his having taken $10 million in secret kickbacks without
telling the tribes or the firm.
And
from whom did Abramoff receive those kickbacks? From one Michael
Scanlon, who with Abramoff had received a "staggering $45 million"
in fees from three Native American tribes, which had prompted the
U.S. Senate to probe the transactions, which led to the firing of
Abramoff.
And
oh yes, that Mr. Scanlon was an ex-aide to our subject at hand,
one Tom DeLay, who enjoyed some undoubtedly well-earned leisure
time in 1998 at resorts run by the Choctaws -- one of the tribes
represented by Abramoff -- after being successfully lobbied by
Abramoff to kill legislation opposed by the tribe.
Now,
here's
where the plot thickens...
The
NCPPR, on whose board Abramoff sat, not only had funded DeLay's
$57,000 trip to Moscow in 1997 but also financed DeLay's $70,000
trip with Abramoff to London and Scotland in 2000 -- whether that
constituted yet another apparent violation of House ethics rules
depends on the extent to which Abramoff, a registered lobbyist,
rather than the NCPPR, a non-profit organization, paid for DeLay's
expenses. And indeed, as evidenced by expense vouchers, Abramoff
billed expenses for the trip -- including four grand for the DeLay
family's stay at the Four Seasons -- to the lobbying firm for
which he worked at the time. And by the way, the expenses were
allocated to the account of -- get this -- the Mississippi
Choctaws!
In
2002, Abramoff got the Choctaws and Coushattas to cough up a
hundred grand to pay for another Scottish golfing junket, this
time for House Administration Committee Chairman Bob Ney (R-OH).
Why
in the heck have Native American resort owners resorted to
courting U.S. Congressmen to visit Scottish golf resorts?
In
any case, apparently the "non-profit" NCPPR, with Abramoff on the
board, wasn't a front for funneling money to Congressmen, in
violation of House rules, just from powerful Russian interests but
also from lobbyists representing Indian casino owners.
And
let no one accuse our House Majority Leader of prejudice either:
he has taken golfing vacations apparently illegally sponsored by
Russian agents, Native American lobbyists, and oh yes, that little
hundred thousand dollar trip to South Korea in 2001 officially
paid for by a tax-exempt group -- a transparent creation, however,
of a lobbyist for a Korean businessman (thus being an apparent
violation of both the ban on taking travel money from lobbyists
and the ban on taking travel money from foreign agents...I wonder
if you get frequent flyer miles that way).
Well,
to be perfectly accurate, I'm not sure if DeLay actually played
golf in Korea.
And
what does he have to say in his own defense? Well, on March 18,
the Honorable Tom DeLay informed the noted evangelical group the
Family Research Council that all the charges leveled against his
apparent flouting of House ethics rules were something a tad
bigger: "a huge, nationwide, concerted effort to destroy
everything we believe in."
If
you don't mind my saying so, Tom, you're beginning to sound a
little, well, paranoid. I mean, you've got to watch what you're
saying, especially after having recently made such
widely circulated pronouncements as this: "We have
unaccountable, out of control judiciary. We are after them."
"The Constitution gives us [Congress] the responsibility to
create courts. If we can create them, we can uncreate them."
Uh,
OK...
Well,
yesterday we read that the
Veep didn't exactly endorse those sentiments; and today when
pressed for his opinion on DeLay's attitudes towards the Judicial
Branch of the Federal Government, President
Bush replied that he supports "an independent judiciary."
Not
exactly a ringing endorsement of the Constitution according to
DeLay.
Coming
on the heels of even The
Wall Street Journal asking for his head, I just have to
ask you, Tom: isn't that job of yours getting a little bit too
"demanding"? Isn't it about time to spend more
"quality time with your family"?
Or
maybe you and Jack Abramoff could go golfing.
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