Well, it seems that Tom DeLay, grinning in his mug shot, may not have much to smile about. According to
this AP story via ABC News, his staff was knee deep in trying to get our favorite crooked lobbyist, Jack Abramoff, access to Gale Norton. Of course they were successful after the tribes old Jack was representing sent a cool quarter million to an "environmental group" founded by Grover Norquist and the newly nominated Interior Secretary. Yes, it's the same Grover Norquist that stated he wanted to drown government in a bathtub around the time that Katrina showed us all why that was not such a good idea.
Apparently the "Council of Republicans for Environmental Advocacy" is a front group for Norquist, not a name one usually associates with environmental concern, unless it's to destroy as much of it as possible through the usual Repub agenda. As an aside, "Conservative environmental group" still seems like such an oxymoron that I just can't get a handle on it. To find out more about the damning emails sent from DeLay's office clearly outlining some sort of influence peddling, there's more below the fold.
DeLay staffer Tony Rudy was the set up guy who sent the emails from the official email system Congress uses. In the story, we find that "Rudy gave an update to Abramoff, forwarding Pyle's information to the lobbyist and suggesting Norquist might provide another avenue to help secure a meeting with the interior secretary." Of course, after that meeting, we read that "Abramoff clients donated heavily to the Norton-founded group and the lobbyist," who miraculously were able to procure face time with Norton just after the 9-11 attacks.
The two DeLay ex-aides quit just after they sent the emails, and lo and behold, one went to work for old Jack. Of course they're not returning calls to the media, nor is the person in charge of the oxymoronic conserative environmental group. Who knows, maybe they should look on Scottish golf courses if they want to find known associates of this felonious bunch. Or Pacific Island sweatshops.
Now all of this might seem like business as usual in Washington, the bribery capitol of the world, except that it all comes down to rival Native American tribes both trying to influence the administration to allow or disallow one of them building a casino, which as you know involves the right to fleece gamblers of hundreds of millions of dollars a year. And of course none of that money is ever used to influence legislation. They just like to donate big bucks to eat breakfast with famous heads of newly created Republican environmental groups.
And I'm shocked, shocked, that we are reminded that Tom DeLay, currently the target of criminal charges, "eventually signed a letter with other GOP House leaders to Norton on behalf of Abramoff's clients, records show." This might be somewhat obscure, except that the feds and Congress are trying to figure out what "assistance" was provided by people in Congress or the administration "in exchange for the vast amounts of money Abramoff's clients donated to Republican causes." No matter what they call it, it still sounds like some form of bribery to me, since it really reads a lot like influence peddling, as they used to call it.
In the "oops" department we find that the DeLay emails were not provided to John McCain, whose Senate committee is investigating Abramoff's influence at Interior. Of course his high priced legal mouthpiece sez DeLay knew nothing and "does not believe his office would ever provide government assistance in exchange for political donations," dismissing whatever happened as so much "staff work" and trotting out the usual "Tom DeLay conducts himself consistent with the highest standards of conduct and he mandated the same for his staff,"
Uh huh. I'm sure his staff hold themselves to the same ethical standards as "the hammer." That's why they need microscopes in this investigation, since it would take one to find the so-called "ethical standards," given the tangled web of abuse of power, money laundering, and obstruction of justice surrounding DeLay, not to mention the illegal diversion of federal resources to influence a state election. Oh, but here we're only talking about Abramoff and sucking massive amounts of money from Native Americas to help DeLay play golf in Scotland, along with a few other bottom feeders. Apparently at least one tribe is not happy. From the story:
The Gun Lake tribe of Pottawatomi, one of the rivals of Abramoff's tribal clients, said Tuesday that it believed Abramoff's lobbying stalled Interior's approval of its casino by at least 14 months.
"The more we learn about the allegedly corrupt relationship between Jack Abramoff and a key high-ranking government official, the clearer it becomes that a full investigation should be conducted," said Gun Lake Tribal Chairman D.K. Sprague.
To read more about this tangled web of illegal activity involving men who claim to be innocent as the driven snow and victims of partisan witch hunts, here are a few stories from
Political Physics that may help elucidate what's up. Enjoy!
In
this one you can read about Jack's relationship with David Safavian, one of the top procurement officers in the Bush administration GSA. Safavian's indictment
here with more about the story.
This story outlines the financial relationship between Tom DeLay, Roy Blunt, Abramoff, and Jim Ellis, indicted co-conspirator in the DeLay TRMPAC/ARMPAC scandals involving money laundering to influence Texas state elections. More on the Blunt-Ellis connect
at this link. And
this article covers the indictment of DeLay's PAC, as well as contains links to the full backstory of his indicted money bagmen along with a fairly comprehensive list of all the illegal activity Tom DeLay sponsored, participated in, or allowed others to do on his behalf. And if you just don't want to do the homework, a lot of the backstory is pulled together at
my diary entry from a while ago here at DK.
I'm sure he won't be smiling once it's all said and done. And I'm sure he's going to look good in an orange jumpsuit.
Crossposted at Political Physics and my diary at My Left Wing.