Tonto's revenge

[donsu]

http://www.workingforchange.com/article.cfm?itemid=20038

Casino scandal takes down top GOP operatives

Call it Tonto's revenge: The outrageous rip-off of Native American tribes by a top Republican lobbyist is leading inexorably to a reckoning for the allegedly morally superior religious and political right.

"I don't think we have had something of this scope, arrogance and sheer venality in our lifetimes," said Norman J. Ornstein, of the conservative American Enterprise Institute, writing in Roll Call. "It is building to an explosion, one that could create immense collateral damage within Congress and in coming elections."

Selling firewater to the natives -- or in this case, charging them $82 million for government breaks on slot machine and other gaming licenses -- is not exactly what the high-minded prophets of the Republican revolution promised. And to see behind the scenes as Christian right superstar Ralph Reed, bought off by top Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff, dupes his grass-roots "pro-family" followers into unwittingly supporting casino-rich Indian tribes under the guise of anti-gambling initiatives is to glimpse moral corruption of biblical proportion.

-snip-

Both DeLay and Abramoff are under indictment for charges in other cases but not, as of yet, this one. Scanlon has already pleaded guilty to conspiring with Abramoff to defraud various Indian tribes and bribe government officials. Former White House official David Safavian has been indicted for lying about his ties to Abramoff. The bet now is that Abramoff will also cop a plea bargain instead of spending many years in jail and paying even larger fines than the $19.7 million Scanlon has accepted.

If so, more depressing tales of corruption may be detailed publicly. But what is already clear is that the Republicans' reputation for moral superiority is as dead as the Lone Ranger.
---------------------------------


go Tonto!

(an aside: people should define what "biblical proportions" are or stop using the term)

[RaleighNCDUer]

1. It occurs to me that the Clinton witch-hunts, trying to dig up

financial scandals on him, were conducted with the honest belief that they were going to find something on him -- because, in their world view, everybody DOES do it.

This is delicious.

[central scrutinizer]

2. re: biblical proportions

I think you have to measure everything in cubits

[Lasher]

3. LOL!

:rofl:

[donsu]

4. ditto!

nt