This will be a brief look into the early days of indicted Republican moneyman Jack Abramoff. This post will be composed of findings from Lexis-Nexis of Abramoff's activities from the 1980s until the mid-1990s.
From the start, Jack was on the ladder, and he has moved up the ladder, doing the dirty work for the right.
Our story starts in the May 13th, 1983 edition of the New York Times, as young Jack seeks to thwart Ralph Nader's plans of domination.
The College Republican National Committee has started a campaign against a group of student organizations throughout the country that advocate such things as environmental and consumer protection and safety in the workplace. The organizations, which are known as public interest research groups and have also opposed nuclear power and supported the right to have abortions, were inspired by Ralph Nader, the consumer advocate, and they continue to receive his encouragement.
Jack debuts under the fold!
Jack Abramoff, national chairman of the College Republican National Committee, says the groups promote leftist political ideas and are ''instrumental in leading anti-Reagan and anti-free market forces on campuses.'' In a 50-page packet that went out in early February to college Republican chairmen in the 50 states and the District of Columbia, the student groups are described as ''a major threat to democracy on American campuses'' and as ''unethical, undemocratic and unconstitutional.''
Projection.. the early years!
Essentially, Jack said he was mad that the system sent money from tuition towards funding PIRGs. Mainly because organized resistance to Reaganian policies irked him and his buddies.
Jack moved on in 1984 to plan celebrations regarding the first anniversary of the Grenada "Conflict". From the October 4th, 1984 Washington Post:
Two foundations that are legally barred from partisan politics are working with an arm of the Republican National Committee to arrange more than 100 campus rallies and a possible Rose Garden ceremony on the first anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Grenada.
The Oct. 24-25 activities, which will feature some of the American students who were on Grenada during the invasion, are likely to highlight the theme of U.S. military resurgence that President Reagan has used throughout the campaign.
The events are being coordinated in part by the USA Foundation, a nonpartisan, tax-exempt group founded last year. The foundation's chairman and co-founder, Jack Abramoff, also heads the College Republican National Committee, the youth affiliate of the Republican National Committee.
Abramoff maintains that the USA Foundation's role in what is billed as "Student Liberation Day" is nonpartisan.
Granted, the combination of "non-partisan group" and "chaired by the CRNC President" is just an exercise in contradiction. Of course it's a partisan group. From the same article.
Jeff Pandin, who works for both groups, said that Abramoff "wears two hats. When he has his College Republican hat on, he's partisan. When he has his USA hat on, he's nonpartisan."
Rightyo.. It's all about the hat.
Ralph Reed chimes in on the mentality of these events, from the same article:
Ralph Reed, then executive director of the College Republicans, said:
"To tell the truth, I wanted to do a pro-Reagan rally but couldn't, because it would violate the tax-exempt status of the groups. I thought something like a 'God Bless America' rally would be a proper vehicle. It would advocate support for President Reagan, but wouldn't talk about his reelection at all."
And lots of winking and nudging would ensue.
We next catch up with Jack in July 1985, as he resigns from his job with Lewis Lehrman. Lehrman apparently experienced a surprise after his trip to Angola to give framed copies of the Declaration of Independence to the Mujaheedin, Laotian Rebels, Angolan Rebels, and the Contras (yes, really). But anyways..
From the July 27th, 1985 Washington Post:
When [Lehrman] returned, he discovered that he was "boxed out of the bookkeeping" of CFA, according to one of his personal aides. He sent in his private lawyer. "It was one big party," Lehrman's aide said. Jack Abramoff, executive director of CFA, and other members of the staff Abramoff had hired "had gone hog wild," Lehrman's aide -- who declined to be identified -- said.
The financial "mismanagement" and "lavish spending," the Lehrman aide said, is still being untangled.
On July 15, Abramoff resigned. All those staff members associated with him no longer are associated with CFA. Abramoff could not be reached for comment. Grover Norquist, the former CFA national field director, is in South Africa, according to a CFA spokesman. Peter Willett, the former CFA comptroller, said, "Everything from my end is off the record."
From what I can find, this is the first mention of Grover Norquist in Lexis-Nexis databases. Although this article does not come up if you search for his name.
Jack then goes "underground" for almost 10 years. Well, he made a movie starring Dolph Lungren, but nothing overtly sinister. But he reappears in the January 27th, 1995 Seattle Times:
In just about any other city, and most other lines of work, Emanuel "Manny" Rouvelas and Jack Abramoff would have little to do with each other.
(..)
Abramoff spent the past decade working with the Christian Coalition and conservative Republicans, orchestrating their takeover of state parties and Congress. He is an adviser to House Speaker Newt Gingrich and an advocate of downsizing government. He has produced a comic book poking fun at Democrats and pork-barrel spending, and he believes civilization will go to hell in a handbasket unless kids are allowed to pray in school.
They are the strangest of bedfellows.
Yet Rouvelas last year hired Abramoff as a lobbyist in the D.C. law office of Preston Gates Ellis & Rouvelas Meeds. Abramoff isn't a lawyer, and he doesn't know much about the Northwest, but Abramoff reflects the changing political landscape here. He offers Preston Gates, and its clients, the assurance they will have access to the conservative Republicans now running Congress.
Why yes Virginia, the Lobbyists were strong-armed by the GOP. They won't admit it now, but they did that in 1995. There's a pile of stories admitting that. You'd have to be blind not to connect the current culture of corruption to the fact that the Republicans 'politically cleansed' lobbying groups, putting friends and wellwishers in those jobs.
Oh yeah, one other snippet on Abramoff's work, same source:
Abramoff's most visible accomplishment in his brief stint as a government-affairs counselor at Preston Gates has been to bring the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers to Washington to entertain the children of newly sworn-in Republican members of Congress.
Most visible being what we should put emphasis on. Go Go Power Rangers, or something.
In the view of the media, Jack fades into the background until March 18, 1998, where he gets mentioned by the Journal of Commerce:
The governor of the U.S. territory of the Mariana Islands has launched a comprehensive crackdown on apparel manufacturers in response to charges in a Journal of Commerce report that these businesses are engaging in labeling fraud, religious persecution and the forced abortion of pregnant workers.
Since the March 6 report, Gov. Pedro Tenorio has supervised daily raids on the more than 30 apparel factories on the main island of Saipan, where 40,000 alien workers from China, Bangladesh and the Philippines toil for $3 an hour.
The raids have uncovered unsafe working conditions, hundreds of undocumented workers, and an unlicensed medical clinic illegally dispensing drugs.
The stepped-up enforcement comes two weeks before a U.S. Senate hearing on a Clinton administration bill to take control of the island's immigration and labor standards and to impose import tariffs on the $800 million in apparel from Saipan shipped to U.S. retailers. If the legislation passes, it would wipe out that trade, according to Jack Abramoff, a lobbyist for the Marianas.
Others can do more in-depth on Jack and the Marianas Slave Labor factories. Along with links involving DeLay, the lobbying, and all of that. As well, there was an aborted investigation too.
From 1983 until 1998, Jack Abramoff lived a life moving up the ladder of power in the Republican Party. There's no denying it. The question isn't "Who did he help out in those years?", the question is "How many Republicans did he help out in those years?". I would guess that Abramoff's links, especially to the Class of 1994, and other Republicans, will make things much cloudier for the GOP soon.
That was your seminar for today.