Friday, September 29, 2006

Jack's back! Report documents nearly 500 contacts between White House,Abramoff & Rove

Hmm... all I can think of is the scene in The Shining where Nicholson pokes his face thru the freshly axed door and screams: "Here's Johnny!" Except in this case... we would say "Here's Jacky!" (via NYTs) "A bipartisan Congressional report documents 100s of contacts between White House officials and the corrupt lobbyist Jack Abramoff and his partners, including at least 10 direct contacts between Abramoff and Karl Rove, the president's chief political strategist. The House Govt Reform Committee report, based on e-mail messages and other records subpoenaed from Abramoff's lobbying firm, found 485 contacts between Abramoff's lobbying team and WH officials from 2001 to '04, including 82 with/ Rove's office. The lobbyists spent almost $25,000 in meals and drinks for the WH officials and provided them with tickets to numerous sporting events and concerts, according to the report, scheduled for release Friday." Hmm. 485 contacts between WH and Abramoff? That's between Jan. 01 and Mar 04. If I did the math right, that averages out to more than 1 contact per month for over 3 yrs. That's hardly a "casual acquaintance" in my book. I have close personal friends that I love that I don't see that often. But wait... the article gets better: "Abramoff's lobbying resulted in Bush admin actions that benefited Abramoff clients, including decisions to distribute millions of dollars in federal money to Indian tribes with large gambling operations." Shocking! And talk about special favors granted: "Rove has described Abramoff as a "casual acquaintance," but the records obtained by the House committee show that Rove and his aides sought Abramoff's help in obtaining seats at sporting events, and that Rove sat with Abramoff in the lobbyist's box seats for an N.C.A.A. basketball playoff game in '02." Casual my ass. Unless Rove meant a casual criminal acquaintance. But get this, in addition to personal favors, the horrific sex-trafficikng Mariana Islands surfaces in this article, too: "In Oct 2001, the report said, Abramoff asked the WH to withhold an endorsement from a Repub candidate for Gov of the N. Marianas Islands, an American commonwealth in the western Pacific where Abramoff had clients b/c Abramoff was backing another candidate. On Oct. 31, 2001, the report said, Susan Ralson (Karl Rove's secretary) sent an e-mail message to Abramoff that read: "You win :) KR said no endorsement." I'm sure THAT can somehow be explained away by the forked tongued Karl Rove, huh? In case you ever needed a handy dandy chart that listed the "Abramoff 65" (ya know... the 65 Repukes knee deep in Abramoff scandal shit) here it is.
Posted by Tina :: 1:09 AM :: 5 Comments:

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