I've been waiting for Abramoff to become a household name since 1998 when I first learned of his work to protect sweatshop on a US Territory in the Pacific. Almost all of
my Diaries have been about the growing Abramoff scandal.
And after more than six years of following this guy I know that the real work is just about to begin:
- The GOP will lie. They will cherry pick slices of data to support simple-minded myths like Everybody Does It and Abramoff gave money to Democrats.
- The press will have a very hard time with this story, because the corruption is so one-sided. Their Balance Bias will lead them to stupid examples of balance, like treating Harry Reid's legal support from Native Americans as equivalent to DeLay's $1 Million from the Russians, $500,000 from the Chinese owners of sweatshops and God (and Jack) knows what other bribes.
- The Public will get confused.
Fortunately I think that the Netroots are up to the task. It is time to take down 60 plus elected GOP officials and a host of their fellow travelers.
Join me on the jump for what you can do to help...
Here are the four things we need to do to move this forward:
- Oppose and knock down the lies.
- Demand a full and fair investigation.
- Research. Research. Research.
- Get out the truth and hold the GOP accountable in 2006.
I think we have a good start on these.
Oppose and knock down the lies.
The first thing we need to do is rapidly respond to the main lies whenever and wherever they pop up. These lies will be repeated-over and over again. They are carefully crafted to fit into our Right-wing crafted view of Government--that it is the enemy. Of course everybody does it because all of government is corrupt. Everybody is in it for themselves. A dedication to the greater good does not exist. Blah, blah blah...
Bullshit.
These GOP Talking Points are lies--everyone of them. Let's take the main one. I've read countless posts, comments, articles, etc. from Blogs to the MSM that state that Abramoff gave to both parties and that this is the way Washington works. Oy!
Here is all you need to know:
There are ZERO Democrats who took Abramoff money.
In addition to my Diary there are hundreds of other pointing this out. Including a great new chart of Abramoff donations over at Newsmeat.
Not a Democrat on the list.
And please note: the real money behind this scandal came through off-the-book vehicles. The $2.5 million the WaPo reported coming to DeLay through his DeLay/Abramoff/Russian charity makes these mushed together reports of direct Abramoff donations and all donations from his clients smoke screens and red herrings.
And oddly Native Americans seem to be the only clients of Jack's to be included in these data cuts. Where is Tyco? The Russians? The sweatshop owners? The Pakistan military? And Jack's many other sources of cash?
Perhaps that's the only slice that includes any Democrats because of the Party's long-time support for Native American issues that go way beyond the small number of Tribes involved with Gambling..
If we are going to paint all donations separated from Abramoff by two degrees or less as corrupt, let's at least treat all of his clients the same way.
Cherry picking data is how the GOP will attack this scandal. No surprise there as it is how they do everything. Including that business in Iraq.
Do not buy into it. Do not get fooled again. Arm your self with facts and do not let any bizarre Balance Bias from the press or GOP Everybody Does It/Dems got Abramoff Money Too lie stand without a rapid attack.
We will have to do this over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over again. But we have to do it until the National narrative about this scandal changes to the indisputable fact that:
The Abramoff scandal is an entirely GOP owned and operated affair.
Demand a full and fair investigation.
We are on this one too. Already we have been talking about Bush's pocket appointees interjecting themselves into this investigation. There have been some great insights over at firedoglake and here at Daily Kos, such as Tanya's recent Diary. There are many more excellent posts across the Netroots.
Meanwhile, Bush's recess appointment is getting an initial pass from most in the MSM. We need to raise a ruckus about this. There needs to be constant pressure on the press, the DOJ and the GOP about any stepping away from where this investigation might lead.
And we need to push the Democrats to take a clear stand for reform.
This is not the time to triangulate anything. We will win and win big is we put the GOP on the defensive about this all year long.
Some Democrats have recieved donations from Native Americans. And for many years, some have also supported Native American issues, such as social justice, reducing poverty, decent Reservation schools, Tribal recognition and, yes, a sovereign Tribe's right to control their land--including building casinos. Abramoff supported some of these same issues. This taint of scandal gives the Democrats an opportunity to get way out in front of the GOP.
We can push a reform agenda that takes vast amounts of corporate and lobbying money out of the game. We can push for real-time online disclosure of every lobbyist contact, revenue and expenditure. We can push for a five-year lobbying ban on any member or their staff. We can push for real lobbying reform so effective that Wall St. will stop looking for K St. firms to go public.
And Democrats can demand an independent prosecutor to lead all the many threads of the Abramoff investigations. We need a career prosecutor who will put the public and the law first. A Fitzgerald, not a Starr.
Now would be a good time to force a party-line vote in the House and the Senate on an Independent Abramoff investigation.
Research. Research. Research.
This is the key to taking this scandal to the next level.
The hard money donations are mostly known. There has been a lot of discussion here about the Washington Post chart of hard money from Abramoff, his team and his Tribal clients. I won't go back into taking apart the problems of this data slice. But here's the thing. The total of all of it is $5,355,0399 and almost all of that is separate from the $82 Million that Abramoff and Scanlon swindled from the Tribes.
So where did that money go?
That is what Jack and Mike and Adam and a number of other players to be named later are giving up to the Feds. That is where the real scandal is.
We already know from the documents and hearings of the Indian Affairs Committee, the various plea bargains and the reporting of the Washington Post and others that the money flowed into a rats warren of conservative think tanks, front groups, charities and other entities.
We also know that much more than the Tribal money was involved. The WaPo DeLay/Abramoff/Russian connection story laid out $2.5 Million flowing to DeLay from Jack, most from Russia and Saipan. Abramoff's plea documents add a few million more from Company A to Grassroots Interactive. And the Schmidt/Grimaldi Washington Post story last week had this foreshadowing of even more foreign money:
Another Abramoff financial vehicle was the nonprofit American International Center, a Rehoboth Beach, Del., "think tank" set up by Scanlon, who staffed it with beach friends from his summer job as a lifeguard. The center became a means for Abramoff and Scanlon to take money from foreign clients that they did not want to officially represent. Some of the funds came from the government of Malaysia. Banks and oil companies there were making deals in Sudan, where U.S. companies were barred on human rights grounds. Sudan was among several oil-rich nations in Africa, Asia and the Middle East that Abramoff eyed as venues for lucrative energy deals. Abramoff told associates he wanted to become a go-to person for U.S. companies seeking to do business with oil-patch nations.
So, there may be more than $100,000,000 that Jack spread around to the GOP between 1995 and today. Even in Washington that's a lot of money.
We need to find this money and connect it to specific official acts.
That's why Ney is Congressman #1. The dots have already been connected.
Every dollar Jack ever touched leads to another scandal thread. If he wrote somebody a check, it is almost certain that he also slipped them some off-the-books money. Making those connections is what we have to do.
I've posted about some of these connections. So has Sherlock-google, jorndorff and others. Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo, Frank Foer at The New Republic, Jesse Lee at DCCC Stakeholder, and Roy Temple at Fired Up America have posted good research projects. There are many others as well (feel free to add them).
The point is to follow the money.
Read the articles, the Diaries, the blogs. Find a thread. Start digging:
- Why did Congressman X get this donation from Jack?
- What other Abramoff related donations did he get?
- What did he do for the money?
- What legislation or appropriation did he/she support or oppose?
- What's in the Congressional Record? (The Library of Congress is a great resource to search for evidence of "official acts" done for Jack).
- What did his staff do? Did they work with Jack, The Alexander Strategy Group or some GOP front entity?
- What about his/her family?
- Did he promote any Charity that Jack might have supported?
You get the drift. It is all about research.
Right now the MSM are a bunch of big game hunters. They're looking for evidence of pay-for-play, of quid-pro-quo, of bribery. They want the dots connected for them. The GOP and the media's own simple-minded Balance Bias will lead them to a false set of connections unless we do the research to push this story. We can not let the GOP define this scandal. No matter how hard they try.
The good news for us is that this is now a very hot and competitive story. Every news organization is working it from local and National angles.
Let's help them.
Let's connect these scoundrels to Abramoff.
A new scandal detail could break everyday for months.
Get out the truth and hold the GOP accountable in 2006
Finally, we have to get the truth out.
It is time to self-organize. Perhaps we need some Abramoff Meet-ups, Happy hours, research teams, whatever.
We need to fight the lies. Correct the media's Balance Bias. And break new scandal details with our collective research.
We need to have fun. We need to take the fight to the GOP. Perhaps somebody can come up with an Abramoff scandal mascot to follow GOP officeholders around. Perhaps a large inflatable rat should appear outside of local Congressional offices.
Let's go after these bastards. The truth is a very strong weapon.
It is way past time to take our country back.
2006 is now. Let's do it.