The Daily Muck
A bastion of corruption in uncertain times, Rep. Doolittle (R-Cal.) has decided to take a stand: he is keeping Abramoff's money. According to his spokeswoman, here is one politician who will not bow to "political expediency."
The Post leads on "the internal battle ... underway among House Republicans to permanently replace Rep. Tom DeLay (Tex.) as majority leader and put in place a new leadership lineup that is better equipped to deal with the growing corruption scandal."
But there's one difficulty there: it's not easy finding a candidate who's untouched by Abramoff. The Post predicts a struggle between Acting Majority Leader Rep. Roy Blunt (Mo.), House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (Ill.), and Rep. John A. Boehner (Ohio), all of whom have Abramoff connections. Because of that, other candidates may come to the fore.
DeLay's deadline for clearing his name seems to be early February. A House Republican retreat is planned for Feb. 9, and the Post reports that Blunt "will ask House Republicans to make his temporary tenure permanent" around that time.
In the wake of Abramoff's plea, there's a general scramble by Democrats and Republicans to pass a lobbying reform package. The Dems already have a number on the table, but yesterday Sen. Lieberman (D-Conn.) signed on as the Democratic cosponsor to Sen. McCain's (R-Ariz.) bill, making it the leading contender. Sen. Conrad Burns (R-Mon.), frequently reported as one of the main possible targets in the Abramoff investigation, is also a cosponsor.
Sen. Frist (R-Tenn.) has tapped Sen. Santorum (R-Penn.) to lead the effort on drawing up the Republican reform package. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington has some issues with that, like the fact that "Sen. Santorum runs the K Street project, created by conservative activist Grover Norquist and former Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX), in which he ensures that all top lobbying and trade association jobs are filled by Republicans." And there's also Santorum's egregious shilling for AccuWeather, Inc.
The Washington Times quotes "a senior House Republican official" as saying: "It is becoming conventional wisdom that a significant lobbying reform package will occur sometime early this year."
In other muck:
DA Ronnie Earle, who is prosecuting DeLay on money laundering charges in Texas, is investigating DeLay's ties to Abramoff. He issued four subpoenas yesterday related to the U.S. Family Network, a GOP slush fund managed by Abramoff and former Delay aide Ed Buckham (read the Post's piece on it from last week). These subpoenas are in addition to ones issued Wednesday to Abramoff's employers and two of his tribal clients.
As always, it's really uncertain that the Democrats will be able to capitalize on this. My left friends believe that the two parties are equally bad, and the Republicans are happy to agree. ("No worse than our opponents!" is their stirring motto.)
Besides the Democrats' implication in the same kind of thing, there's the historical unwillingness of the Democrats to go on the offensive on any issue.
Joe Lieberman and Conrad Burns -- yeah, those are the guys to clean up this mess.
January 6, 2006 4:34 AM | Reply | Permalink
I don't know where the hope will come from, that a champion will emerge who does not belive that the idea of a 'public interest' is a myth, who will take on all the special business interests and reign them in--but I see nobody in the Democratic camp with the right stuff for the job.
Are We are all freaking doomed? We're past the point of no return on Global Warming anyway, Iran is ruled by a guy who wants to bring about the 'final' battle--and there's more than one so called American 'leader' who is itching for the same. Is there any hope for reason to prevail, and wisdom, and hope, anywhere in these times?
January 6, 2006 5:44 AM | Reply | Permalink
anyone care to see how much levee money was laundered elsewhere to abramoff groups?
ohhhhh, maybe in the religious initiatives?
January 6, 2006 5:56 AM | Reply | Permalink
You know Ahnold got his paws on the levee money right there with Abramoff...
January 6, 2006 6:02 AM | Reply | Permalink
Additionally, the lack of leadership I see on the Abrahmoff story is obscene. Where is the democratic party? Why are they not standing up and fighting? This is just shameful. When the Republicans said that Democrats don't stand for anything I used get insensed: now I'm starting to agree.
I am a life long Democrat. I will likely vote for the democratic ticket. But I will not give another penny to anyone until I see the leadership necessary to run our country at this critical point in history.
January 6, 2006 6:20 AM | Reply | Permalink
Whoa, whoa, whoa!!
Hold up a second here - first of all let's be clear about one thing: the Abramoff scandal is a Republican Scandal.
There is no need to go amplifying Republican talking points by repeating them.
Reid did not get a dime from Abramoff and he is not returning any money - nor should he. The money the Repubs keep citing came from Abramoff clients - Indian tribes who had gambling interests.
Now think about it: Reid is senator from Nevada. Can you think of any reason a gambling interest would have for donating to a senator from Nevada? Maybe because gambling is big business in Nevada? If you look at Reids donors, virtually every gambling interest in the nation has donated to him.
Let's get this straight right here: There Are ZERO Democrats who took Abramoff money.
ZERO.
This is all part of an attempt by Republicans to create a false equivalency, to make it seem like this is a "politics-as-usual" type scandal and that is flat out false. Don't believe me: look at the lists of Abramoff donations here and here and please stop repeating the GOP talking points.
Thank you.
January 6, 2006 6:42 AM | Reply | Permalink
Yeah, I am starting to hate Joe Lieberman. It sounds extreme, but for christsake (what an inappropriate phrase!) he is doing more harm to the Democratic party than Karl Rove.
Hello - why give any Republican plan a boost?? What a jackass.
January 6, 2006 6:51 AM | Reply | Permalink
If we were actually counting on current Democratic leadership to do anything. But without any noticeable contribution from them I think we can say that the quartet of Rove, Abramoff, Norquist and Reed, all out of the most noxious and abnoxious group ever brought into one place at one time: the Young Republicans of the mid 70's era, are going down. Or at least out.
Remember all these guys signed up as Republican activists at the height of Nixon's excesses, which in retrospect they adopted as a gameplan and playbook. Thirty years latter they were this close to controlling the whole country. I am the same age as these guys and I am telling you that thirty years later seeing some despicable pricks get their comeupance feels pretty good.
(BTW in 'researching' this post (er, putting three words into Google) I pulled up an interesting article by Max Blumenthal on modern day Young Republicans, sure enough the same privileged assholes they were during my college days three decades ago, and still dodging the draft: Generation Chickenhawk
Democrats are going to win on 2006 on Iraq and the Social Security charade. What Jackoff-gate is going to do is blow a huge whole through the K Street Project and hence through Republican fundraising. It doesn't matter that Tom Delay had a 30% name recognition as late as October or that 99 out of a hundred people couldn't tell you who Bob Ney was. Taking them out of the game is huge.
Jackoff will be the gift that keeps giving. Maybe no one element will be explosive and actually capture public attention, but just about everyone ever associated with the K Street Project is going to die the Death of a Thousand Cuts, and a number are pretty likely to end up in jail or turning in their boss. Or both.
January 6, 2006 7:41 AM | Reply | Permalink
Did Reid and Clinton get? And what exactly was the direct connection to Abramoff?
Correlation is not causation. Taking money from Abramoff's clients doesn't make you guilty of anything. Democrats who stood up for tribal interests and happened to take money from the same tribes that Abramoff was defrauding did nothing wrong.
The tribes are the victims here, and Republicans are trying to blur that line. And baseless "everybody was doing it" claims are not helpful. Everyone was not pulling a Jackoff.
Doom and gloomers have infested the Left Blogosphere since it started. They don't add value. Look if you want to put on a black bandana, hit the streets, break plate glass and paint Red 'A's and think of yourself as a Revolutionary then okay. But quit whining.
January 6, 2006 7:53 AM | Reply | Permalink
In this instance, living up to his name: Do Little!
January 6, 2006 8:01 AM | Reply | Permalink
Democrats will get a lot more mileage out of this by holding their fire until the bombshells stop dropping.
Republicans are desperate to sell one of two messages: Democrats do it too OR Partisan witchhunt. They don't get to do that when the evidence is tumbling out from a Republican controlled Justice Department.
It's January, we need to let the corruption message sink in first, then have people realize that every indictment coming out has an 'R' after it. The last thing we need is our Democratic leadership to become the public face of Jackoff-gate and so let Republicans simply turn off their eyes and ears.
If you had told me a year ago that Scooter Libby and Tom Delay were underindictment and that Jack Abramoff and two of his partners had already entered guilty pleas I would have been ecstatic - but worried the effects might wear off by the mid-terms. The timing here is perfect and has no Democratic fingerprints on it.
January 6, 2006 8:07 AM | Reply | Permalink
What money did the Demos get and what correlation is there between funding and Demo votes? Great question you've asked (thank you!). It's distressing to see Drudge and others crow about how "Democrats got payments from Abramoff too!" as if the amounts and actions of Democrats and Republicans were all the same.
I hope that the Dems will answer this question clearly -- and (as Newt Gingrich apparently did a decade ago), let the guys who are polluted take care of themselves. Let the Democratic Party stand for Political and Financial Reform.
January 6, 2006 10:13 AM | Reply | Permalink
My suggestion is to make it illegal for lobbyists to give or Congress/staff to accept ANYTHING of value beyond a limit of say $1000 for a campaign contribution. No free meals, rides, golf outings,etc.
Then there would be no need to interpret arcane rules. And it's very easy to understand.
January 6, 2006 10:19 AM | Reply | Permalink
The Democrats should start keeping an eye on the DOJ and make sure that the prosecutions are being persued. They should start tagging the Republicans as the party of corruption and hypocrisy. If they get too loud about Abramoff and the Congressman on their way to jail it will both look like piling on and they can be accused on interfering with the Bush Administrations prosecutions.
January 6, 2006 11:14 AM | Reply | Permalink
Rawls,
A year ago, I would have said I agree with your complaint about the national party focusing only on "Hot Races", but that is less true now than it used to be. The DCCC and the DSCC are working more with the states than they used to. And the DNC is doing a bang-up job with their 50-state strategy. If you want a little reassurance, please see this Hotline story, which Markos posted in full with that publication's permission (since they are subscription only):
DNC: Spreading The Word. And The Boots.
January 6, 2006 12:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm really surprised no one else has been bringing this up. I for one don't trust the political appointees at Justice at all - I think they're going to let Bob Ney, his chief of staff, and Tom DeLay's chief of staff out to dry and bury the rest. It'll cause an outrage, but the outrage will come only from the Democrats (i.e., the Republicans and the media will do nothing) so the story won't be the crime itself but the partisan back and forth about the (lack of) prosecution of the crime.
January 6, 2006 1:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
Churchill said words to the effect "Never give up! Never, ever, ever, ever give up". Joe Hill said, "Don't mourn - organize!" Hang in there baby. There a billions of people worldwide who agree with you!!!
January 6, 2006 6:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
I don't think the two parties are equally bad - many Republican leaders are anti-choice imperialists and that is really, really bad. Many Democratic leaders are pro-choice imperialists and that is merely really bad.
January 6, 2006 6:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
Color me skeptical about the Abramoff attempts at building a gambling empire. Why the interest in SunCruz and Indian gaming? Why has the mafia always been so interested in gambling? Because it's the perfect vehicle for money laundering.
Has anyone ever considered the possibility that Abramoff was laundering money through the Indian tribes? It wouldn't be the first time that Indian tribes have been used as a conduit for illicit activities. Does anyone remember the admittedly bizarre stories about the Cabachons?
January 7, 2006 7:32 AM | Reply | Permalink
Read this comment carefully, folks.
It's got Rove shill written all over it.
The reference to Hillary is the clue. The trolls just can't help themselves.
January 8, 2006 3:49 AM | Reply | Permalink
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January 28, 2007 8:17 AM | Reply | Permalink