A bit lost in all this was a certain aside - Congressman Richard Pombo (CA-Sell-off-Yellowstone) was sideswiped by a clandestine report that he was listed on Abramoff's 1996 billing records regarding Marinas Island business (the US protectorate were clients of Abramoff's.)
So, while we've all been gleefully cheering the "exposure" of Republican misbehaviors, I think we've overlooked the significance of these events.
First off, Republicans, whether on House Government Reform or any committee, hold all the cards; there is no reason for them to allow damaging reports to be released, Henry Waxman as ranking member not withstanding. The ONLY reason the report on Abramoff was released was because House Republicans, namely chairman Tom Davis, allowed it to be released.
But key in the report's release is not what was exposed, but that which was not: The name of every Abramoff contact with a current member of Congress was redacted with a thick black marker. This was not the first time such a tactic was utilized; John McCain, as chairman of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee (SIAC) and the first to have access to the Abramoff documents, redacted all names of his peers from documents released during the SIAC hearings (Sept. 2004 - Nov. 2005) on the Abramoff scandal.
Why would St. John McCain the Maverick lower himself to such insidious behavior? Join me in the time-machine back to late February, 2004, when Susan Schmidt's groundbreaking piece on Abramoff first appeared. At that point, however, Schmidt was focused on the compelling story that Abramoff had taken advantage of the poor, naive tribes who hired him as their lobbyist; he took their gaming money and then called them mean names behind their backs.
Within a few days of the publication of the story, McCain, a member of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, was in front of media cameras demanding a full-fledged hearing into the allegations surrounding Abramoff and his partners. The day following McCain's press conference, SIAC chairman, Ben Nighthorse Campbell (R-CO), checked himself into a Washington hospital, complaining of "chest pains", which turned out to be indigestion. However, it did not stop the Chairman, who had a month earlier kicked off his re-election campaign with quite a splash, from suddenly announcing his retirement due to "health concerns" (Nota bene: Campbell now, in excellent health, is a well-paid lobbyist in Washington.) John McCain pushed forward with his call for hearings, subpoenaing Greenberg-Traurig, which quickly complied, forwarding thousands of emails, billing records and other documents.
A mere few weeks after McCain took possession of the Abramoff emails, he arranged a meeting between one of his most trusted advisors and Karl Rove: The objective? To "heal" the wounds from the 2000 Republican primary, particularly South Carolina (in which, ironically, Abramoff and friend Norquist actively took a hand.) The meeting was so "successful" that less than a month later, McCain joined Bush on the campaign trail, and subsequently became the "annointed" heir to the Bush throne.
In return, McCain sat on the Abramoff emails, and pushed off the hearings scheduled for June until late September. Even then, the hearings focuced exclusively on how mean Abramoff was to his tribal clients. No mention of Ralph Reed or Grover Norquist, nothing of the dozens of implicated House and Senate members, or, most importantly, of Bush's own Administration officials, such as Interior Dep. Sec. Steve Griles or Solicitor General William Myers. McCain actively suppressed information which, if released in a timely manner, could have influenced the November 2004 Presidential election.
The SIAC hearings which followed looked more like a McCain witchhunt than any serious approach to justice. Long-time arch-enemy Grover Norquist, while threatened with a subpeona, never appeared (oops, no subpeona issued) and most Abramoff cronies merely took the Fifth. Steven Griles pleaded the Sargent Schultz defend, and Italia Federici (after apparently being sought by federal marshalls,) tried a similar ploy. Abramoff accomplice and serial launderer Amy Ridenour got off with a simple, "I'm so, so sorry, St. John" deferential defense, and came out relatively unscathed.
McCain, despite cries of foul from SIAC ranking member (and potentially Abramoff-tainted) Byron Dorgan, deep sixed any future hearings, and passed the documents (redactions and all?) to Gonzales and Justice. So far, almost a year later, no charges have ensued.
So why should Democrats eye the current developments, particularly the House Committee on Government Reform report with deep suspicion? Why should we not leap in glee when Charles Grassley verbally approves a Senate committee critique on Norquist and his front groups?
Nothing occurs in a vacuum. For two and a half years, Republicans have successfully impeded real Abramoff hearings - any and all Republicans who have fallen due to their connections to Jack have done so through alternative means - the damning emails and billing records of Greenberg-Traurig have brought down not a single Administration or Congressional official, and only Abramoff and a few of his colleagues - most, ironically, remain free.
So why have House Republicans deemded this information, at this time, to be so important to be released just a month before a watershed election? How is it that Chairman Tom Davis has thrown his own party leader, his President, under the Abramoff bus? Why do they risk rank and file Democrats demanding, at the top of our lungs, for unredacted documents.
The fact is, they understand that the narrative surrounding Abramoff is much too complicated, for the media, for average Americans, to muddle through. While we should be questioning the provenance behind every new email and billing record leaked, instead we feast on the news like nectar from the gods.
I'm the parent of preteens, and as such, have read all in the Harry Potter series. In the beginning of the most recent tome, the British Prime Minister is visited by the Minister of Magic, who informs him that a host of recent catastrophes in the Muggle world are due to events in the world of Wizards - what appear as mere bad luck - failed bridges, unseasonal hurrincanes, etc. are due to intra-wizard warfare, which ironically is beyond the perception of most non-magic folk.
There is a similar intra-party battle brewing within the Republican Party. We have been conditioned to believe such a split would develop on a philosophical level, between social conservatives, libertarians and economic supply-siders. But this is so much more basic in nature, as it is warfare based upon the central tenet of power uber alles; McCain thought he wielded the ultimate power of extortion, and suddenly House Republicans are attempting some form of mitigation via a controlled pre-emptive response. This is also a win for House Republicans on two seperate fronts, as it promotes a facades of their "independence" from Bush during a nasty campaign season, and, perhaps more importantly, subverts future Democratic efforts to "rehash" the terrain in a post-Democratic House takeover world (and thus appear overtly partisan) after Republicans have so "openly" dissed their party's leader. Thus, all the Abramoff goodies which could and should come out, sans redactor's marker, of course, will reside under the shadow of "partisan politics", an area in which few are willing to tread.
So, as far as I, a long-term Abramoff<strike>-phile<strike> -ologist am concerned, the Republicans still lead, with a score of about 10,000 to perhaps, well, 12 (I'm being generous.) So if we truly want to know the real depth of the scandal, every single Progressive (Democrat, Green or Indie) should be calling Democratic Senators and Congressmen and demanding UNREDACTED documents.
The joy of the Abramoff scandal is it's a gift that keeps on giving. We should be sure, however, that the recipents of such gifts are us, not our enemy's enemy (who may not in fact be our friend.)
BTW, all of this can be found, in great depth, going back at least a year, at Wampum.
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