The Pimping of the Presidency

[CatWoman]

Four months after he took the oath of office in 2001, President George W. Bush was the attraction, and the White House the venue, for a fundraiser organized by the alleged perpetrator of the largest billing fraud in the history of corporate lobbying. In May 2001, Jack Abramoff’s lobbying client book was worth $4.1 million in annual billing for the Greenberg Traurig law firm. He was a friend of Bush advisor Karl Rove.

He was a Bush “Pioneer,” delivering at least $100,000 in bundled contributions to the 2000 campaign. He had just concluded his work on the Bush Transition Team as an advisor to the Department of the Interior. He had sent his personal assistant Susan Ralston to the White House to work as Rove’s personal assistant. He was a close friend, advisor, and high-dollar fundraiser for the most powerful man in Congress, Tom DeLay.

Abramoff was so closely tied to the Bush Administration that he could, and did, charge two of his clients $25,000 for a White House lunch date and a meeting with the President. From the same two clients he took to the White House in May 2001, Abramoff also obtained $2.5 million in contributions for a non-profit foundation he and his wife operated.

http://www.texasobserver.org/showArticle_new.asp?ArticleID=13

[spanone]

1. kicked & recommended! All the way to the top.

[CatWoman]

2. see those nifty emails/documents?

:D

[spanone]

4. I hope this prosecutor is on the level. It's gonna be tough.

This is bad-ass hardball - shit hit the fan - people going to jail shit.

[RazzleDazzle]

8. I'm worried about people dying --

the wrong people, by suicides they didn't plan, if ya get my drift.

[leftchick]

3. but he never "met" bush!

so said scotty mushmouth.

[leveymg]

5. That non-profit was Capital Athletic Foundation, a HUGE slush fund.

More from that same Tex Observer piece on CAF:

Since we first reported the White House ATR fundraiser and the $1 million contribution to the Capital Athletic Foundation (see “K Street Croupiers,” November 19, 2004), the Coushattas, speaking through Austin attorneys at Hance, Scarborough, Wright, Ginsburg & Brusilow, and through Louisiana political consultant Roy Fletcher, have vociferously denied that tribal Chairman Poncho visited the White House after contributing $25,000 to ATR. They also denied the $1 million contribution to Abramoff’s foundation. Recently the story has changed. Or at least the version told by the majority that controls the council has begun to change. Two minority members of the five-seat council have pointed to the pay-to-play meeting with President Bush and the $1 million contribution to Abramoff as examples of the council’s financial mismanagement.


See this morning's string on Tweety's fundraising role with CAF.http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x45971


And, this from another article linked within the Texas Observer piece, about what all this Abramoff, Scanlon and Norquist money was paying for: http://www.texasobserver.org/showArticle.asp?ArticleID=1800

The paper trail that leads from Norquist’s office to the Coushatta Nation and to the White House illustrates how easily Abramoff and Scanlon extracted money from clients who were flush with casino cash and convinced that any political contributions the Washington lobbyists suggested, and the outrageous fees they charged, would serve the tribes’ interests. Norquist is the brains and muscle behind the policy of a Republican House defined by the “Class of 94,” which made Newt Gingrich speaker and elected DeLay whip. By the time George W. Bush took his constitutional oath in January 2001, Norquist’s weekly meetings between lobbyists and congressional staffers implementing the Gingrich-DeLay revolution were an extension of the permanent Republican government in Washington. He was also overseeing the K Street Project, a DeLay operation which ensures that only Republicans are hired for high-paying jobs on K Street—the D.C. strip of lobby shops, trade associations, and law firms. He was the most powerful policy advocate in Washington in 2001 and still is today.

Norquist’s discreet approach to the Indian tribal leaders provides rare insight into the elaborate lobbying and fund-raising machine that American Enterprise Institute congressional scholar Norm Ornstein describes as a modern-day Tammany Hall: a pay-to-play operation that moves congressional Republicans into high-paying lobby jobs and then requires them to contribute to the party and its various ancillary groups. While Abramoff and Scanlon enriched themselves, they never forgot who provided them their opportunity to plunder. Both men gave lavishly to Republican PACs and candidates. Abramoff, for example, was a Bush Pioneer, raising $100,000 for the 2004 presidential campaign while giving $40,000 to DeLay’s PACs. Before he was run off the reservation, Abramoff was ranked 93rd nationally among Republican Party donors. Scanlon, only a few years after he finished paying off his college loans, contributed $500,000 to the Republican Governors’ Association—the single largest donation it received in 2002. The influence the two men wielded in Republican circles was further leveraged by the money they persuaded their Indian clients to contribute.

And then there's the GOP foreign influence selling and shakedown operation of Islamic banks tied to terrorists that Abramoff ran with Norquist: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x2346437

[Catherine Vincent]

6. * will claim he didn't know Abramoff

just like he did with Ken Lay.

[leveymg]

7. That would be cause to invoke the 25th Amendment

Proof of the President's mental incapacitization. (As if there was any doubt) What does the Succession Clause say? If Hastert isn't fit to serve, the next in line is Sen. Ted Stevens. Oh, no!!!!!

[SpongeBob]

9. As long as they weren't in the Lincoln bedroom, all's fine....right?

Cuz the crime is...Clinton did it...They learned from him...

[Vidar]

10. Thanks, kicked.

[greiner3]

11. And they tried to hang Clinton;

For a sleep over in the Lincoln room.