The House that Jack Built. (Great website on Abramhoff & his connections)

[acmavm]

http://www.jackinthehouse.org/

[jean]

1. it's so good to see some of the names tied to Abramhoff - like Norquist

Reed and JD Hayworth, for starters! Here's a good taste of what Abramhoff is about, from the site:

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Jack Abramoff and Grover Norquist got to know each other when Abramoff was in college and Norquist was in graduate school in Massachusetts. The pair of them organized students for the 1980 Ronald Reagan presidential campaign and they later took over the College Republicans. Abramoff became the chairman and Norquist became executive director. Shortly thereafter, the pair was joined by Ralph Reed and the three became steeped in the politics of the anti-communist movement.

Norquist went on to found Americans for Tax Reform, Reed to become the head of the Christian Coalition and Abramoff had a brief career as a movie producer, before moving back to Washington following the Republican takeover of the House of Representatives in 1994. There, Abramoff began to exploit his Republican ties, becoming a successful lobbyist. In the late-90s, Abramoff joined up with former DeLay press secretary Mike Scanlon, and the two began to work together representing Indian tribes.

Abramoff realized that Indian tribes, with their endless supply of casino money could be cash cows, not just for him, but for the Republican party. Abramoff was hired by the Choctaw tribe of Mississippi to stop Congress from taxing Indian casino profits. Abramoff convinced DeLay to oppose a proposal taxing Indian casinos, explaining that tribes could become Republican allies and in 1995, DeLay publicly stated that Abramoff was important part of the effort to move the tribes toward the Republicans. Abramoff also enlisted the support of his old friend, Grover Norquist, now the most powerful anti-tax advocate in the country. Abramoff's tribal clients became generous donors to Republican Members of Congress and Republican causes.

Not content with being a rich lobbyist, Abramoff began to plot with Scanlon to separate more Indian tribes from their money. The plan was to close Indian casinos and then convince the tribes to hire them to persuade Congress to reopen the shuttered casinos. Again, Abramoff turned to an old friend: this time, it was Ralph Reed, who was by now a political consultant. Though Abramoff, Indian tribes who feared the competition of other casinos paid Reed over $4 million to shutter or prevent the opening of casinos in Texas, Alabama and Louisiana. Typical of the e-mail exchanges between the men, in a Jan. 7, 2001 e-mail to Reed, Abramoff stated, "It's not shuttered yet. let's get this thing closed and then we'll see what we can do. As we type they are gambling away." Reed responded, "Done. Hope these developments help with the client." Later on in the e-mail exchange, Abramoff told Reed: "we should continue to pile on until the place is shuttered. Perhaps we could get one of our guys in the legislature to introduce a bill which disqualifies from state contracts any vendor who provides goods or services to a casino in the state? This way, Perry and Cornyn can sit back and not be scared." Ultimately, Abramoff and Reed - with the help of now Sen. Cornyn - were able to shut down the Tigua's casino. Then came the more difficult task of getting it re-opened.

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