In an
op-ed in the Billing Gazette today, Conrad Burns attempts damage control on the scandals swirling around him. But in
a scathing editorial the Gazette deflates the spin.
Burns:
In the Old West, if someone had accused me of the things that Montana Democratic Chairman Bob Ream did recently, we would have been meeting in the street. Today, we just chalk it up to the start of negative campaigning, even though we are over a year and a half away from Election Day. The Montana Democratic Party has accused me of ethics violations and even brought up the word "bribery" in their blatantly false allegations. The root of their allegation is my actions on the Senate Interior Appropriations Subcommittee, which oversees Bureau of Indian Affairs funding, and the appropriation the Saginaw Chippewa Tribe received to improve their school for tribal children.
I would point out that I had to get a copy of these accusations via the Internet. While Ream saw fit to give copies to the media and post them on the Montana Democratic Party Web site, he didn't deem it necessary to send me a copy. When these false allegations were first made, I said we would look into it and I also pledged my full support to find out the facts. We have completed our internal review, and here are the facts that I communicated to the Senate Ethics Committee.
On March 22, 2002, Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.V., as chairman of the Appropriations Interior Subcommittee, received a letter from Carl Levin, D-Mich., and Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., who are the home state senators of the Saginaw Chippewa Tribe asking the committee to include the tribe in the school funding program. This is standard procedure for appropriations requests. The Michigan request followed the regular funding request process under the leadership of Byrd.
On becoming the chairman of the subcommittee in January 2003, I continued the work of the 2002 committee. The Department of the Interior felt the tribe did not fit its interpretation of a "tribally controlled school" and asked for further legislative clarification. In the following year's appropriation, the committee, at the further request of the Democratic senator from Michigan, provided the requested clarification. The clarification did not preclude any other tribe from receiving funding, and provided an opportunity for tribes that have the financial means to put forth half of the construction costs and get their school modernized more quickly.
Translation: yeah, I did it.
Burns goes on:
Another allegation addressed a trip two of my staff members took to the 2001 Super Bowl. Initially they were told it was being paid for by a tribal government and agreed to the trip after referring to Senate Ethics Committee rules. The rules state that all tribes are sovereign nations, and gifts from sovereign nations are not subject to the same rules as corporations and individuals. What we have learned four years later is that many Hill staff had been misled by this lobbyist, Mr. Abramoff, and the staff have subsequently been unable to determine who actually paid for the trip.
I guess Burns knows that claiming ignorance and incompetence will at least be a story Montanans will be willing to believe about him.
But the Gazette has quite a different take on Burns' Abramoff scandal in their editorial:
The Saginaw Chippewa Tribe of Michigan owns a ritzy casino resort that boasts 4,700 slots - the most gambling machines between Las Vegas and Michigan, according to the tribe's Web site. The resort business has allowed the tribe to make $70,000 annual payments to each of its members and to hire Jack Abramoff as its lobbyist. Abramoff and the Michigan tribe and other Abramoff tribal casino clients contributed more than $130,000 to a political action committee formed by U.S. Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., according to news reports in the Washington Post and Rollcall Report.
One thing the tribe wanted was millions of federal tax dollars to build a new school. Despite lobbying by Michigan's two U.S. senators, the U.S. Department of the Interior said the Saginaw Chippewa Tribe's proposal didn't meet requirements for federal funding. That program apparently was for tribes that didn't have lavish casinos or $70,000 per capita payments. But after Burns became chairman of the Senate appropriations committee that controls federal spending on Indian affairs, the tribe got a $3 million school appropriation. The Washington Post reported that Burns pressured the Interior Department to put the Saginaw Chippewa project in the school program, even though it didn't meet requirements. That effort was unsuccessful; Burns earmarked $3 million for the Saginaw Chippewa school anyway.
Sounds a lot different when the facts are clearly laid out, doesn't it? Burns didn't see fit to mention the name 'Abramoff' nor did he talk about the pressure he put on the Interior Dept.
The Gazette is also highly sceptical of Burns' excuses on the Super Bowl junket:
Ties between Burns and Abramoff detailed in the Post report include the fact that his then-chief of staff, Will Brooke, and a Burns appropriations aide went to the 2001 Super Bowl on a private jet and visited a casino ship with Abramoff's business picking up the tab. Brooke later went to work for Abramoff and an Abramoff employee went to work in Burns' office, according to The Post.
What happened to the $130,000 Abramoff and his wealthy tribal casino clients gave Burn's Big Sky PAC? Burns spokesman J.P. Donovan said it's been spent.
According to the letter from Burns' attorney to the Senate Ethics Committee, Montana's junior senator didn't know that the Saginaw Chippewa gave him money until the Post reported it.
"Didn't know" is also Burns' defense on the Super Bowl trip. Burns said his staff members thought their trip was being funded by a tribal government, which would have made it acceptable under a loophole in Senate ethics rules that allows members of Congress and staff to accept gifts from sovereign nations. A trip financed by a lobbyist or business interest was against rules.
Burns has gotten pretty far with his 'aw-shucks' act, but it seems like it's wearing thin. In summing up, the Gazette just doesn't sound like they are buying his excuses.
as we look at a man who holds one of the highest, most powerful elected offices that Montanans entrust to any person, we are troubled by what the Abramoff probes and news stories have revealed. A three-term U.S. senator can't avoid responsibility by saying "I didn't know." Congressional staff shouldn't be taking vacations paid for by lobbyists or other interest groups. Let the staff pay for their own vacations - like Montanans do. The "demonstration project" for the Saginaw Chippewa doesn't pass the smell test. The tribe's political contributions preceding this special appropriation controlled by Burns gives the appearance of possible conflict of interest.
In a letter printed on this page, Burns makes it clear that he's running for a fourth Senate term. He blames Democrats for starting a negative campaign with the Abramoff scandal 18 months before the general election. Democrats are exploiting this issue. But Burns gave it to them.
We offer a Montana ethics test that would help keep Burns and other elected officials out of trouble: Ask yourself, "How will this look in a Billings Gazette headline?" If you can't live with that public scrutiny, don't do it.
Billings is Montana's largest and most Republican city. Burns' probably can't win without it.