This Morning KOS pointed out a part of the growing controversy over Montana US Senator Conrad Burns' relationship to the Jack Abramoff scandal. This diary presents a much longer look at many aspects of this situation and also looks at why Montana is rapidly becoming ground zero for a Democratic pickup in the 2006 US Senate elections.
In fact, the Rasmussen report poll on the race, released just a few days ago, shows that Burns' road to reelection campaign has suddenly become very difficult, with Montana State Senator Jon Tester tied in the most recent Rasmussen poll with Burns at 45% each. Montana State Auditor John Morrison also only trails Burns by 46% to 43%.
Tester has moved up 6 points and Burns has dropped six points since the last Rasmussen poll in September 2005.
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/...
Predictably, Burns is coming out swinging, and two January 17 stories in Western Montana's Missoulian, show how much explaining Burns has to do, and how much skepticism he will have to overcome if he hopes to get re-elected: (See extended body for the rest of the story.)Embattled Montana Republican Senator Conrad Burns today proclaimed his innocence in a story in the Missoulian, declaring that, "I have done nothing wrong."
"Sen. Burns fires back
http://missoulian.com/...
"Preparing for a run at his fourth term in office, U.S. Sen. Conrad Burns said Monday that "things are going fairly well, except for maybe a few things."
"Those "few things" inevitably concern lobbyist and now-confessed felon Jack Abramoff. The Montana Republican recently gave to charity $150,000 in campaign contributions from Abramoff, his clients and associates.....
"But the senator's ties to Abramoff have become all-encompassing of late, and Burns has found himself the subject of stories in the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post and the Washington Times. Those stories have quoted anonymous sources who indicate that Burns is one of a handful of members of Congress being investigated by the U.S. Justice Department in connection with Abramoff.
"Burns adamantly denied Monday that he is being investigated.
"I have done nothing wrong," he said.
"Later, however, Burns said he really doesn't know whether he's being investigated. Although he appeared to make light of the anonymous sourcing in the Post, Journal and Times stories, Burns mentioned another anonymously sourced story in the Las Vegas Review-Journal that said the Justice Department does not have a targeted list of congressional members.
"Why don't Montana newspapers run that story, Burns asked? "Fair, that's all I ask," he said."
The story continued:
""Burns also sought to distance himself from Abramoff on another issue where the lobbyist's work threatens to ensnare him. Burns said it was new reports from the General Accounting Office, rather than lobbying and campaign support, that led to his 2001 vote on a legislative issue important to Abramoff's clients in the Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands, a U.S. protectorate. Burns said he was concerned about funding in the bill, although the legislation primarily concerned labor and immigration policy in the Marianas.
"The proposed bill, which would have created stronger regulation of the garment industry in the islands, had passed out of the Senate's Energy and Natural Resources Committee on unanimous consent a year earlier but stalled in the House.
"The next year Burns voted against the bill, a position favored by Abramoff's clients in the garment industry. Burns said he never met personally with Abramoff on the issue, but his staff met with Abramoff's lobbying team in the months before the vote and the Burns' campaign received money from Eloy Inos, an employee of Tan Holdings, a member of the Saipan Garment Manufacturers Association and a client of Abramoff's. ""
See rest of story at: http://missoulian.com/...
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For details on the horror of the working conditions in Saipan, please see the following CNN online story:
http://www.cnn.com/...
The story, by columnist Mark Shields, says, ..."91 percent of the workforce ... were immigrants -- from China, the Philippines, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh -- [and] were being paid barely half the U.S. minimum hourly wage and were forced to live behind barbed wire in squalid shacks minus plumbing, work 12 hours a day, often seven days a week, without any of the legal protections U.S. workers are guaranteed,...""
Of course, the other part of this operation, supported by Burns and many of the other good "Delay Christians" is that these women, if they became pregnant, were forced to have abortions!
http://www.globalexchange.org/...
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Additionally, as the KOS story emphasized earlier, local Native American representatives feel that Burns has not done nearly as much for local tribes as for the Michigan tribe represented by convicted swindler Jack Abramoff. See:
"Some question Burns' support for local tribes
http://missoulian.com/...
""While Sen. Conrad Burns finds himself linked to a Native-related lobbying scandal in Washington, D.C., some Montana tribal leaders question the senator's support for Native people in his own backyard.
"Burns, R-Mont., received nearly $150,000 in campaign donations from confessed crook Jack Abramoff, a Washington lobbyist who admittedly swindled tens of millions of dollars from a half-dozen wealthy tribes around the country, his clients and associates. The Justice Department continues to investigate Abramoff, who pleaded guilty Jan. 3 to three felony charges, including conspiracy, mail fraud and tax evasion.
"He didn't really give anything back to the tribes or represent them very good," Burns said on Monday.
"Now, some of Montana's prominent tribal leaders are using the same language to describe Burns' role in representing their tribes and thousands of individual Native landowners.....""
""The senator is from Montana, but has never taken an interest in it," said Elouise Cobell, the lead plaintiff in a case where a half-million Native landowners have sued the Interior Department for mismanaging money owed them for natural resource development.....""
""Even though he once sat next to her on a flight between Minneapolis and Great Falls, the senator told Cobell he didn't want to talk about her case - in which the Interior Department has acknowledged more than a century's worth of account mismanagement.
"Burns spent the rest of the flight working on a crossword puzzle, Cobell said.""
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In addition, the following article is an important piece to investigate in the overall mix:
Former Burns staffer is lobbyist for Native American group that received returned Abramoff cash
By Noelle Straub - IR Washington Bureau - 01/14/06
http://www.helenair.com/...
Burns said money would be returned to original donors
""WASHINGTON D.C. (LEE) -- Sen. Conrad Burns vowed last month to return most of $146,700 in campaign contributions connected with confessed felon Jack Abramoff to its original donors, but most of the money went to the Montana Wyoming Tribal Leaders Council, whose lobbyist is a former Burns staffer.""
""Burns decided to give the $101,000 in question to charity and donated it to the Montana Wyoming Tribal Leaders Council. Stan Ullman, who was Burns' legislative assistant and worked in his Washington office for four years, is registered as that group's only lobbyist.
""Burns also gave the group $10,000 he had received directly from Abramoff and an associate. When announcing in December that he would return that money, Burns said he had "instructed my staff to work with the Montana Wyoming Tribal Leaders Council to identify an appropriate Native American charitable entity to which the contributions received directly from Mr. Abramoff and his associates may be donated."
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So, out here in Montana, we have a real race for US Senator and the chances for a pickup in Montana are very good--particularly, in my opinion, because of Jon Tester's candidacy. Tester is a crew-cut Montana rancher and organic farmer who is the President of the Montana Senate and is a big, smart, down-to-earth, hard-working Montanan, whom everyday Montanans seem to naturally gravitate toward.
See: http://www.testerforsenate.com/...
It is a good time to be a Montana Democrat. Combined with the 2004 election of wildly popular, populist Democratic Governor Brian Schweitzer, the Democratic Farm Labor Alliance here is very much alive and growing like a golden field of Montana wheat. (Cross-posted at MyDD.com.)