One of the farcical bits of narrative that gets repeated about Abramoff is that, after his involvement in the College Republicans in the early 80's, he gallivanted off to Hollywood, produced a couple of films, and then suddenly reappeared on the political scene in the mid 90's. A piece in South Africa's Mail & Guardian Tuesday provided background on what Abramoff (along with a couple of his fellow College Republicans) was really up to for much of that time. Abramoff never left politics - they're just politics nobody in the Republican Party wants anyone talking about:

For several years after its launch in 1985, Abramoff (47) was the Washington face of Pacman, code name for the International Freedom Foundation (IFF). In 1995, the New Nation reported former security policeman Paul Erasmus as describing the IFF as a stratcom-military intelligence (MI) project designed to sway world opinion against the anti-apartheid movement.

The IFF was reportedly the brainchild of [Russel] Crystal, current deputy national executive director of the DA. He, Abramoff and former top spook Craig Williamson worked closely together in launching the organisation.

Among Abramoff's South African projects was the anti-communist film Red Scorpion, made in South African-occupied Namibia and, according to Williamson, funded by the South African military.

With a 1991/92 budget of more than R10-million, Pacman was terminated by former president FW de Klerk in the early 1990s, along with other covert apartheid-era projects.

The IFF was ostensibly founded as a conservative think-tank, but was in reality part of an elaborate South African military intelligence operation, code-named Operation Babushka. Established to combat sanctions and undermine the African National Congress, it also supported Jonas Savimbi and his rebel Angolan movement, Unita. [From '85-'88, Grover Norquist, who worked with Abramoff at the College Republicans, served as Savimbi's Economic Advisor as was registered with the Justice Department as a foreign agent of Angola. -PK]

<snip>

In 1995, [Williamson] described the IFF to Newsday as an instrument for "political warfare" whose job was "undercutting ANC credibility". The operation was constructed to prevent people knowing "they were involved with a foreign [South African] government. They ran their own organisation, but we steered them."

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After quitting the IFF in 1989, Abramoff released Red Scorpion, an action movie that portrayed a Savimbi-liked anti-communist guerrilla commander supported by Washington and Pretoria.

Crystal said the IFF was not involved in the film's production. According to Williamson, however, it was "funded by our guys", who also provided military trucks, equipment and soldiers as extras.

(Ed. Note: Thanks to TPM Reader DT for the link.)

Abramoff Prosecutor Replaced

Noel Hillman, the head of the Justice Department's Public Integrity Section and one of the lead prosecutors of the Abramoff investigation, is leaving to be a federal judge in New Jersey. TPM readers are likely to be very suspicious of the timing, especially considering the Bush administration's removal of another prosecutor who was investigating Abramoff three years ago.

Last summer, the two Democratic senators from New Jersey seemed ready to sign off on a package of four federal judges; the package included one judge who they'd opposed, but they removed their opposition in exchange for Hillman's and other nominations. For some reason that deal never quite went through. Now it has. In their glowing piece on Hillman January 9 (see that Daily Muck), Roll Call reported that the deal had "unraveled" in December, so apparently the negotiations back and forth have been going on for quite some time.

Hillman will be temporarily replaced by a career prosecutor from Miami until his permanent replacement is named. Something to keep an eye on.

The Texas Lobby Scam

Todd Boulanger, a member of Team Abramoff and now at Cassidy & Associates, won a lobbying contract from the state of Texas in early 2005. Several firms competed for the job, and emails obtained by the Austin-American Statesman show that a number of those firms had a lower bid and were originally judged to meet more of the state's selection criteria than Cassidy. The Texas Office of State-Federal Relations, the office that hired the lobbyists, nevertheless went with Cassidy, in part because they claimed access to Rove and Joshua Bolton, the director of the White House Office of Management and Budget.

Maybe Abramoff's relationship with DeLay also had something to do with it?

Today, the Houston Chronicle reports: "Two weeks after the state made its first $15,000 monthly payment to a contract lobbyist in Washington, D.C., the lobbyist and his firm spent $7,600 to host a fundraiser for U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay's Americans for a Republican Majority."

Fired Up! has more, including an endearing picture of Boulanger and his buddies.

We'll have more on this story later.

Ronnie Earle Heads West

Yesterday, the San Diego Union-Tribune had more on PerfectWave, a company owned by Brent Wilkes (Duke Cunningham's patron) - as part of his investigation of Tom DeLay (R-Tx), DA Ronnie Earle subpoenaed payments the company made to DeLay's PAC, among others (see yesterday's Daily Muck). PerfectWave was an active contributor to a number of politicians:

"PerfectWave, which specializes in acoustical technology, won more than $40 million in federal contracts between 2003 and 2005, according to congressional budget reports. Meanwhile, it donated money to DeLay and other key Republicans overseeing the appropriations process in Congress, including Rep. Jerry Lewis of Redlands, who is chairman of the Appropriations Committee, and Rep. John T. Doolittle, a committee member who represents a district in the Sierra foothills near Sacramento.

The money was not requested by the Navy but was instead inserted by the Appropriations Committee as part of the closed-door congressional earmarking process.

<snip>

On Oct. 24, Wilkes also wrote a $10,000 check to one of Doolittle's political action committees, according to records filed with the California Secretary of State.
Over the next several months, Wilkes, Gelwix, Adams [Gelwix and Adams were the two heads of Perfectwave] and their associates donated $55,000 more to Doolittle's political action committees. As Wilkes lobbied for contracts for PerfectWave, he and Gelwix also feted Doolittle with a lavish dinner at their corporate headquarters.

<snip>

The Texas subpoenas also sought records of communications that Wilkes, Adams or Gelwix might have had with DeLay or House Majority Whip Roy Blunt of Missouri - the third-highest legislator in Congress - about federal legislation that might have benefited Adams' businesses.

In October 2002, Adams gave $5,000 to DeLay's Americans for a Republican Majority political action committee and $5,000 to Blunt's Rely on Your Beliefs fund, according to campaign finance records. Wilkes, Gelwix and their associates donated $30,000 to Americans for a Republican Majority between 2002 and 2004 and $7,000 to Rely on Your Beliefs."

Go Ronnie, go!

Don Young's Abramoff Problem

Fired Up! adds some ammo to Roll Call's case against Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska). In addition to the $7,000 that went to Young's PAC from Abramoff's tribal clients, Young received $7,500 from a PAC controlled by Abramoff just before the letters to the head of the General Services Administration were written.

Lobbywatch & The K Street Project No More?

Roll Call reports that all this talk of reforming the lobbying industry will likely lead to Congressional aides rushing to get to K Street before the reforms (including a ban on privately-funded Congressional travel and an extension of the one year "cooling-off period" to two years) take effect:

Congressional aides and lobbyists say that the ongoing discussion of other bans, or tougher restrictions, on free travel and entertainment will make working on Capitol Hill less appealing....[In] interviews with 24 high-level lobbyists and Congressional aides, it is clear that discussions about job opportunities off the Hill have increased as Members of Congress have stepped up their talk of tightening lobbying rules.

<snip>

A senior-level GOP leadership aide added, "I have heard some of my senior staff indicate that they would have to consider" leaving now because of the likelihood of reforms.

This longtime staffer added, "What does a two-year ban accomplish? ... So I'm going to be punished for something somebody else did? Do I really want to stay now for another year, and then tie my hands for an extra year" in the private sector?

"The folks work long hours and these were all the little things that made it bearable sometimes. If you don't think staff are telling Members that, you're mistaken."

Say it ain't so! Is the K Street Project really no more (or at least being made less public)? The Washington Post's Jeffrey Birnbaum says yes:

"Yesterday, the staff director of the Senate Republican Conference said that a K-Street-job-vacancies memo -- the heart of Congress's remaining involvement in the effort these days -- will no longer be distributed during high-level meetings hosted by the conference on Capitol Hill between lawmakers and lobbyists. Responsibility for the listings migrated from the House to the Senate [where Sen. Santorum (R-Penn.) was responsible] several years ago, according to lobbyists."

Sen. Santorum is still trying to play dumb about this role in the Project.

Reform - Newsflash: Congressmen Talk!

The AP and USA Today cover a Senate hearing on lobbying, which included a predictable amount of speechifying. Sen. McCain (R-Ariz.) derided earmarking, Sen. Santorum (R-Penn.) thought the nation should really examine 527 organizations (such as MoveOn), and lobbyists and industry representatives testified that the Senate ought not to go too far, because some of them got caught:

The current head of the National Association of Manufacturers told the panel that the current system was working, noting that a lobbyist was going to jail and a member of Congress was going to be sentenced.

Roll Call added their two cents, noting a House Democrat plan that calls for the creation of an office of public integrity to oversee the new lobbying rules. They also say that "momentum appears to be growing for reforming the earmarking process."

Here's Dana Milbank's take on the day's proceedings.

The AP reports that Dems are going to try and play the Abramoff/ethics card in stalling the budget when it comes to the floor next week.

Two House Democrats, Rep. Obey (D-Wis.) and Rep. Frank (D-Mass.), are pushing for full public financing of House elections, saying that the real problem with the system is money. He makes a good point:

"Instead of dialing for dollars, Members could actually be in their committees, learning what their bills would actually do," Obey said. "You could actually have a Congress that's 50-50 between politics and legislating. Right now it's 90 percent politics and 10 percent legislating."

Harry Reid and GOP Hurt Feelings

http://www.rollcall.com/issues/51_73/news/11888-1.html?CMP=OTC-RS

S

Roll Call reports that Senate Republicans have backed down from their threat to file an ethics complaint against Sen. Reid (D-Nev.) for the attack memo his office released last week against 33 Senate Republicans - although they're still "furious." Very sensitive lot over there in the Senate.

Conrad Burns

In that meeting with Gov. Fitial of the Northern Mariana Islands (see Monday's Daily Muck), Sen. Conrad Burns (R-Mon.) also met with the sister-in-law of a Tan Holdings executive. This is significant because that executive is the one who contributed $5,000 to Burns' campaign a couple weeks after the meeting. A couple of weeks after receiving the money, Burns voted against a bill that the Tan company, among other garment manufacturers, had hired Abramoff to kill; the year before, Burns had voted for the same bill.

Democrats protested outside Burns' birthday party/fundraiser yesterday. The event was originally scheduled to take place at the headquarters of Cassidy & Associates, a lobby firm - after this was noticed, the event was moved to the GOP senatorial campaign headquarters.

Bob Ney

The Dallas Morning News profiles the two lobbyists who represented FN Aviation (they now work for a Dallas firm), David DiStefano, Ney's former chief of staff, and Roy Coffee, the campaign manager of Bush's first run for governor in Texas. FN sought to sell airplane parts to Iran, and so the lobbyists approached Rep. Bob Ney (R-Ohio), who, after being flown over to meet in a casino with a convicted felon named Nigel Winfield, approached Colin Powell to see if the sanctions against Iran might be loosened. The piece also profiles Winfield's partner at FN, Fouad al-Zayat (nicknamed "The Fat Man"), who once bounced $3M in checks at the Ritz trying to buy gambling chips.

It's official - Ney is running for re-election.

Power and Charity

TPM Reader BK writes in to make sure that we caught this quote by Christine DeLay about the DeLay Foundation in George Will's column: ""I hated to lose the leadership position because it helps me to raise money for those kids."

Did we miss something? Was there local coverage in your area we should know about? Email us at talk@talkingpointsmemo.com with the Subject line "Daily Muck" and let us know.