Casino Lobbyist Won't Answer Questions

[quaoar]

The headline does not do this story justice. Abramoff is a Republican financier and Bush Pioneer. His associate, Scanlon, is Tom DeLay's former press secretary.

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/local/9792998.htm?1c

DEE-ANN DURBIN
Associated Press


WASHINGTON - A lobbyist who billed American Indian tribes tens of millions of dollars for work on casino issues refused Wednesday to answer questions from the Senate Indian Affairs Committee.

Committee Chairman Ben Nighthorse Campbell, R-Colo., quoted from e-mails in which Jack Abramoff called his tribal clients "morons," "monkeys" and "stupid idiots." Campbell, a member of the Northern Cheyenne tribe, said he was personally offended and asked Abramoff why he worked with tribes if he felt that way.

Abramoff refused to answer that and 15 other questions from the committee, asserting his Fifth Amendment right not to testify against himself. A federal grand jury in Washington also is investigating his activities.

The Senate committee's staff concluded after a seven-month investigation that found Abramoff and his business partner, Michael Scanlon, had charged six tribes in six states a total of $66 million for lobbying and may have manipulated at least two tribal elections to ensure they would get contracts with tribes.

[OKNancy]

1. Great radio

If anyone is having any trouble with all the ins and outs and the players in this drama, listen to this segment from NPR's All things considered. It played on the 27th. It's really good
( Very negative toward Delay and his scumbucket friends)

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

[fishnfla]

7. kick that

one of the tribal members was told by the crook that he had access to the WH

[UpInArms]

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...

[Eloriel]

3. I hope he gets everything he deserves

Appalling.

[jwirr]

4. Campbell is funny!

After being elected on a Democrat ticket in Montana he quits the party and becomes a Repug! Now he asks one of them "if you feel that way why do you work with them"? For the same reason they worked with you Campbell - to get what they could out of you. You have been used by the best of them.

[quaoar]

6. He's actually from Colorado.

Soon to be replaced by a real Democrat.

[Hamlette]

5. This is the assault on values destroying our country

not gays...or abortion...or liberals, divorce or adultry.

Moral majority my ass.

[seemslikeadream]

8. Major players in probe of alleged bilking

Major players in probe of alleged bilking


Jack Abramoff, a Washington lobbyist who joined the Greenberg Taurig law firm in Washington in 2001. He resigned under pressure in March after reports started surfacing of huge fees he and Michael Scanlon, a political consultant, were charging newly rich gaming tribes. Greenberg Taurig is conducting its own investigation of Abramoff.

Abramoff, a Brandeis University grad, was the chairman of the College Republican National Committee from 1981-85, helped launch conservative Ralph Reed’s career and was consistently listed as one of the most powerful lobbyists in Washington. The Los Angeles-raised Abramoff lobbied for Ronald Reagan’s agenda in 1985 and produced a feature film titled "Red Scorpion."


Michael Scanlon, a former press secretary for House Majority Leader Tom Delay, R-Texas. Scanlon’s public relations firm, Capital Campaign Strategies, specialized in grass-roots campaigns. He was paid millions by Indian tribes that hired the firm at the urging of Abramoff, according to Senate documents.


The Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians, which operates casinos in Rancho Mirage and Palm Springs, paid Abramoff and Scanlon more than $10 million for lobbying and political campaigning. Most of the work surrounded renegotiating state tribal compacts, including gaining more slot machines.

more
http://www.thedesertsun.com/news/stories2004/local/2004...

GD discussion
DeLay cronies on trial referred to Native Americans as "monkeys,"
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...