Rich: In the Beginning, There Was Abramoff

[grytpype]

http://select.nytimes.com/2005/10/02/opinion/02rich.html

(Times Select required I think. If you are a print subscriber to the Times (even weekend only) you get Times Select for free, just sign up.)

Rich has a fantastic overview of the quagmire of corruption created by Bush and the Republicans. Read if you can.

In the Beginning, There Was Abramoff

By FRANK RICH
Published: October 2, 2005

"Terri Schiavo is not brain-dead; she talks and she laughs, and she expresses happiness and discomfort. Terri Schiavo is not on life support."
- Tom DeLay, March 20, 2005

IF you believed Tom DeLay then, you no doubt believe now that the deposed House majority leader is only on "temporary" leave from his powerful perch in Washington and that he'll soon bounce back, laughing all the way, from a partisan witch hunt that unjustly requires his brief discomfort in a Texas courtroom.

Those who still live in the reality-based community, however, may sense they're watching the beginning of the end of something big. It's not just Mr. DeLay, a k a the Hammer, who is on life support, but a Washington establishment whose infatuation with power and money has contaminated nearly every limb of government and turned off a public that by two to one finds the country on the wrong track.

But don't take my word for it. And don't listen to the canned talking points of the Democrats, who are still so busy trying to explain why they were for the war in Iraq before they were against it that it's hard to trust their logic on anything else. Listen instead to Andrew Ferguson, of the conservative Rupert Murdoch magazine, The Weekly Standard. As far back as last December in a cover article on the sleazy lobbyist Jack Abramoff, Mr. Ferguson was already declaring "the end of the Republican Revolution."

He painted the big picture of the Abramoff ethos in vibrant strokes: the ill-gotten Indian gambling moolah snaking through the bank accounts of a network of DeLay cronies and former aides; the "fact-finding" Congressional golfing trips to further the cause of sweatshop garment factories in the Marianas islands; the bogus "think tank" in Rehoboth Beach, Del., where the two scholars in residence were a yoga instructor and a lifeguard (albeit a "lifeguard of the year"). Certain names kept recurring in Mr. Ferguson's epic narrative, most prominently Ralph Reed and Grover Norquist, Republican money-changers who are as tightly tied to President Bush and Karl Rove as they are to Mr. Abramoff and Mr. DeLay, if not more so.

(much more, read if you can)

(mods that is within the 4 para limit because the first one is a quote from Tom Delay, which shoudn't count.)

[damntexdem]

1. meanwhile, we're stuck with a GOP majority in Congress.

And we have a Dem Party that doesn't appear to be up to challenging for control of Congress. So, the GOP has disgraced itself before the American public, which public knows that we're on the wrong course; but the Dems (with some wonderful exceptions, such as Conyers) don't seem to be able to offer a better course. So, how do we get out of this mess?

[Skink]

2. Delay will find the Real Contributers...

in a couple of years.

[highplainsdem]

3. Thanks! Frank Rich is great. But that link is to a different article.

[grytpype]

4. fixed, thank you

[grytpype]

5. I wish I could post the whole thing.

Classic Rich, a great read from beginning to end.

What he said about Blunt is hilarious: "they couldn't find anybody clean to replace DeLay."

[buzzsaw_23]

6. Of interest- More on Abramoff

Just to refresh everyone's memory about what happened last week, three reputed mob soldiers were arrested in Florida for the February 2001 gangland-style murder of Gus Boulis, founder and one-time owner of Sun Cruz, the Florida casino boat line. Jack Abramoff and Adam Kidan muscled Boulis into selling them Sun Cruz. And it is for fraud in that acquisition that both were indicted last month. That's all known.

<snip>

 Articles on this subject almost always throw in a line to the effect that no one suspects Abramoff himself of knowledge or involvement in Boulis's death. And I know of little tangible to contradict that. But he was the co-owner, with Kidan, of the company which made the tainted payments. And Abramoff and Kidan were in pretty close and regular contact in how they used Sun Cruz's money for the DC lobbying operations. At a minimum Abramoff might be able to shed some light on whether there is some innocent explanation for the money that went to the guy who's been indicted for Boulis's murder.

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/week_2005_09_25.php#006629

And This:


In the case of Abramoff's work for Flanigan and Tyco, Abramoff ended up sending the greater part of their $2 million lobbying fee to an astroturf outfit called Grassroots Interactive -- an outfit allegedly controlled by Abramoff and run by a guy who now works as the Deputy Chief of Staff to the Governor of Maryland.

<snip>

The Republican machine built by DeLay, Norquist, Abramoff, et al. and pulled into high gear after 2001, is a pay-for-play political machine. This is just another part of the operation, like the diktat for trade associations to hire only Republicans. Big political machines need their soldiers taken care of -- jobs on K Street which also discipline the trade associations under Hill leadership. Just so, they need big sums of money to move around off the books. How does Rove keep the millions moving to Norquist? To Reed? To all the other operatives whose names you don't know about?

Indian tribes bursting with millions who need very focused sorts of legislative intervention -- that's one good source of money. Corrupt Pacific Island governments who need similar help -- another good source.

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/week_2005_09_25.php#006629
 

[texpatriot2004]

7. Thanks Buzz for this Abramoff info.n/t

[BlueEyedSon]

8. Kicked and recommended.

[gizmo1979]

9. If the Dems had anyone

who was competent we would be killing the GOP.Where's Barney Frank?He's the smartest guy we got he should be out on point ripping the GOP.Mr Frank can do it without the political talking points,he can just use the facts.