Reply #40: Here's the NPR link anarchy1999

[seemslikeadream]

Senate Panel to Query Lobbyists on Casino Ties
All Things Considered audio

All Things Considered, September 27, 2004 · This week, a Senate committee holds a hearing on two Republican lobbyists who collected large fees from Indian tribes with casinos. The pair apparently made $50 million from various tribes in less than three years, promising access to top Republicans in Washington. NPR's John Ydstie reports.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4049563

UpInArms (1000+ posts) Wed Sep-29-04 06:20 PM
Response to Original message

2. also involved in this scandal is Ralph Reed

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/09/29/opinion/meyer/main646298.shtml

excerpt:

Today, Abramoff took the 5th in front of a Senate committee. He did it lots of times actually.

The Senate Committee on Indian Affairs is investigating allegations that Abramoff and a colleague, Michael Scanlon, who once served as House Majority Leader Tom Delay’s press secretary, fleeced several Indian tribes looking for help on casino issues out of at least $50 million. Abramoff and Scanlon were renowned for their ties to Delay; Delay is renowned for trying to make paying clients use friendly, Republican lobbyists.

Today, Senator Byron Dorgan told the committee Abramoff and Scanlon lurked in a “cesspool of greed.” A Washington grand jury, the FBI and a task force of five different federal agencies are also looking into the cesspool. That’s why Abramoff took the 5th.

<snip>

E-mails first published by the Post, seem to show that Abramoff and Scanlon paid a company run by Ralph Reed $4.2 million from 2001 to 2003 to help shut down casinos that might be competition for their clients or, in some cases, to prevent new ones from opening.

What’s especially interesting is that Reed now the southern regional chairman of President Bush’s reelection campaign. He was once the executive director of the Christian Coalition and is one of most influential figures on the Christian right.

In one of several egregious cases, Abramoff and Scanlon hired Reed to bring evangelical wrath unto the Tigua tribe’s Speaking Rock Casino in El Paso, Texas and shut it down. The plan was for Abramoff and Scanlon to vulture down to snag the Tigua tribe as a new client.

<snip>

"Some stupid lobbyists up here who do Indian issues. We'll find out and make sure all our friends crush them like bugs," Abramoff e-mailed back.

...keep reading - this shit's so thick it doesn't stir...

Casino Lobbyist Won't Answer Questions
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=873883