A very important factor to keep in mind regarding the Scandal party

[burythehatchet]

otherwise known as the Republican party. The architects of the modern Southern strategy are guys like Delay and Ralph Reed. They have been running a money laundering enterprise for approximately the same period of time as the Repblican party started its dominance of congress. The dirty rats that are getting caught now, Abramoff and Scanlon, for example, are joined to Delay and Reed at the wallet.

Will Reed pay the price in his bid to win the Georgia Lt. Gov. race? I don't know. But there is one thing that is important to remember well. It was this dirty money that these crooks used to buy local elections, to put their minions in important offices like ecretary of State, and to funnel all the cash that was needed to buy many elections. And of course, the source of the cash, the mob. These are gambling interests, I have a difficult time believing that the tribes were playing this game on their own accord.

By getting their pawns elected at the local level, they effectively managed to increase their majorities in congress. The important thing to remember is that if their ideas could succeed on their own merits they wouldn't have to cheat. But their ideas are now very clear to the average american, and no one is buying.

Its very important that we use this opportunity to point out how these rat bastards have screwed with the national debate, how their minority views get thrust upon the majority's wisdom.

With their accomplices Falwell and Robertson now doddering around like senile, diseased dogs that are one bite away from being institutionalized, it is time to attack this tentacle of their power structure, while it is weak. Which makes me wonder, does anyone know who at DOJ is managing this investigation?

[punpirate]

1. The lead Federal prosecutor...

... in the Abramoff case is Mary K. Butler.

Cheers.

[burythehatchet]

6. thanks

http://www.hillnews.com/thehill/export/TheHill/News/Frontpage/061505/abramoff.html
A little-known but well-respected Justice Department trial lawyer is leading the government’s high-profile criminal investigation into disgraced Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

She is Mary K. Butler, one of 26 attorneys in the Public Integrity section and 94 U.S. attorneys around the country who investigate and prosecute cases of extortion, bribery, election crimes and criminal conflicts of interest.

Although there has been intense scrutiny of Abramoff and his associates, little is known about the career government attorneys investigating him. A Department of Justice spokesman declined to comment, but lawyers who represent a witness in the Abramoff investigation or who have dealt with Justice helped flesh out how the section operates.

Butler practiced law in Chicago before joining the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of Florida in 1987, where she prosecuted white-collar crime and public corruption. She was part of the independent counsel’s office, which investigated former Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt. She joined the Public Integrity section six years ago and has been considered for supervisory positions but apparently was not selected.

Butler reports to Noel Hillman, section chief, whom President Bush nominated to a federal judgeship last week. Hillman, an avid surfer and Bruce Springsteen fan, was an assistant U.S. attorney in New Jersey before coming to Washington.
http://www.hillnews.com/thehill/export/TheHill/News/Frontpage/061505/abramoff.html

[jazzjunkysue]

2. Very well said. Bravo.

:hug:

[KharmaTrain]

3. Follow The Money

Hurricane Abramoff is the key that can unravel a long money trail that has been systemitized into the corrupt Repugnican party we see today. Not just DeLay and Abramoff, but we can go back to Gingrich (remember his book deal with Murdoch??) and the money laundering of the Raygun and Nixon eras to show not only has this been ongoing, but has gotten more and more sophisticated.

The Repugnicans have set up a large network of shelter PACs, Non-profits, PR agencies and other shell corporations that drive a big money/influence peddling machine. Abramoff wasn't content on mastering it, he was intent on pushing it to the extremes...otherwise, this system would still be cranking virtually undetected. Even with these revelations, it still operates as business-as-usual. It's a combination of corporation and private money that gets laundered through various levels to buy whatever influence the principals see fit...and usually get.

Want a heavily protectionist bill for your company? Abramoff and others could seal you the writing of the legislation, the Congresscritters, the media telepundits, the stenographers and other aparachniks to not only get the bill done, but everyone gets their nests feathered in the process.

As someone said earlier today, this investigation could go years, and I suspect we'll never know the extent it operates at. My only hope is enough is exposed to weaken its grip on the levers of power on this country.

[burythehatchet]

5. How could I leave out Newtie

He was actually my Rep for a few years. If I recall from that time, there was a network of colleges in North GA that had his "class" piped in. Georgia is really a terrible breeding ground for these pests.

[WCGreen]

4. The Southern Strategy was developed by Kevin Phillips

and Pat Bucannan back in 1968... You might have heard of the expression "the Silent Majority?" ... this was the code word along with Law and Order that Nixon used to lure White Males away from the Democratic Party....

KEvin P. had been doing penance ever since...

Ralph Reed, Lee Atwater and Newt Gingrich are the ones who took that stratefy and used it to take over the House and Senate...

[f-bush]

7. Just goes to show....

Just goes to show that the republican party is nothing but racism, greed and fear and all those who vote that way are guilty of complicity and those who don't challenge them are enablers. IMHO