It is not a slow news night/day/week/month.
Still, I am glad to see that John Doolittle is crashing and that his former aide, Kevin Ring, seems to be selling dishonest John out.
Ring knows where the bodies are buried and his plea deal will move the Abramoff investigation along. Today’s news suggests that deal has been cut.
Back on February 22, 2004 the Washington Post started their excellent coverage of the Abramoff scandal. On that day, Team Abramoff members shared their musing of doom. In an exchange from the 11-2-05 Senate’s Indian Affairs Committee doc dump, Kevin Ring told a friend:
I know more than the article and the truth is worse.
Yes indeed, the truth is worse than we can imagine.
The Truth is Worse could be the Abramoff scandal tagline. Hell, it seems to be the motto of the Bush Administration.
To the jump...
Before I begin, I want to point folks to this excellent Diary on Doolittle by Abramoff scandal scholar Land of Enchantment. It is hard to follow this story without reading LOE.
But back to today’s news:
Kevin Ring’s admission of guilt is only one of the tantalizing clues in the 8,000 or so pages of Abramoff documents that were released by Senate’s Indian Affairs Committee (SIAC) in their John McCain led investigation of Jack Abramoff.
Did I say investigation, sorry my bad, I meant cover-up.
As I pointed out the other day in the Diary, Smoking gun: the Senate has the documents..., the SIAC collected over 750,000 pages of Abramoff documents.
These 750,000 of documents have the details that would break open the Culture of Corruption. From the Abramoff scandal to the Purge of Prosecutors scandal to the White House Email scandal to the next Bush/GOP scandal waiting in the wings, these docs will have details to help reporters, investigators and citizens connect the dots.
Back in November of 2005, Michael Scanlon became the first member of Team Abramoff to cop a plea. He wouldn’t be the last. In a segment on PBS’ Newshour, a reporter working on covering the scandal had this to say:
EAMON JAVERS: I have one source who says it could be as many as 60 members of Congress that they are looking at. That's just one --
I thought it was true then. I still think it is true.
Doolittle is next. He follows Ney. They are stepping stones to DeLay’s indictment. TPM reports that Conrad Burns has spent almost $300,000 on his Abramoff related legal bills. Most of the Republican Congressional delegation from California has a severe Abramoff problem. So does Jack Kingston of Georgia and many a weasel in Texas.
And speaking of Texas, Karl Rove and George W. Bush have a real Abramoff problem. So does Dick Cheney.
Then there are the Ralph Reeds and Grover Norquists of the world. And their willing media shrills.
The clues to connect them all and indict them all are in the 750,000 pages of document that the Senate already has. These documents need to be released.
I’ll sign off with a sample. This was a March 12, 2001 email from Kevin Ring to Jack Abramoff on the lobbying priorities for the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI). It is a roadmap to graft, especially when compared to the CNMI billing records from Jack and Congressional action. Some items cited here is part of the reason that the FBI visited John Doolittle’s Home in Virginia. Other items link other Members of Congress and the Bush Administration to Abramoff. They are dots waiting to be connected. Here it is:
Not to sound like a broken record, but the Democratic Controlled Senate should release the 750,000 pages of documents that the Senate’s Indian Affairs Committee gathered as part of their investigation of the Abramoff scandal. I am sure that the documents contain many more "priority email updates" to Jack from members of his team work on various projects for various clients. These would show who in Congress and in the Administration was helping Jack move the money around.
Making public 750,000 pages of Abramoff documents will help us remove this corruption. It will force real and lasting lobbying reform.
We need to speed things up.
2007 is a year for gathering facts and holding their feet to the fire. 2008 is a year to defeat these scoundrels at the ballot box.
- Write letters, contact the press, call talk shows, post comments, and otherwise promote this effort. Demand the release of these 750,000 pages of documents.
- Research. Follow the money. Find the quid pro quos. Dig into the ties of the GOP to CNMI and Guam, or to Cunningham, or to ripping off Native Americans, or to any of the entry points into the web of scandal. Grab a mask and a shovel and start digging into the many aspects of this cesspool of corruption.
- Get out the truth and hold the GOP accountable in 2007 and 2008. Perhaps Republican candidates will want to explain to voters why they wanted to kill the Abramoff and other corruption investigation. We should force the question.
Let’s push this hard.
Cheers!
Update
Here's some encouraging news from TPM Muckraker: Doolittle Resigns Appropriations Panel Seat.
Here's how the AP put it:
Rep. John Doolittle has decided to temporarily give up his House Appropriations Committee seat after FBI agents searched his house in an influence-peddling investigation.
The decision by Doolittle, R-Calif., to be announced Thursday, was confirmed by two Republican congressional staffers who spoke on condition of anonymity because the news was not yet public.
He is following in the footsteps of Bob Ney. He will be gone very soon...
Hat-tip to hiddengnostic for the alert in the thread. Thanks.