As those who have been following my Diaries know, I have mostly written about the growing Jack Abramoff Scandal, the Republican Culture of Corruption and the abuse on the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) a US Territory in the Western Pacific.
I think the deeds of Abramoff and his Congressional Partners in Crime need exposure. In 2006, I put together the Abramoff 65. We won 21 of those races. Some of Jack’s closest allies escaped—but the walls are closing in on these crooks.
At the top of the list is Don Young, the longtime Congressman from Alaska who has a passion for selling his influence.
Young is under multiple investigations and today, the Anchorage Daily News, added to woes: Billing records expand Young, Abramoff ties
This is fine Sunday morning ready.
To the Jump...
Here are some quick highlights from the article:
Rep. Don Young has said he never allowed convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff to be an influential force over him in Congress.
But now a trove of old billing records from two of Abramoff's firms show that his team of lobbyists had more than 120 contacts with Young's personal and committee staffs over 25 months, including at least 10 with Young himself.
The available records cover a single Abramoff client, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, a U.S. territory in the Pacific that Young oversaw when he chaired the House Resources Committee from 1995 to 2001.
The records show that one of the looming concerns of Abramoff and his fellow lobbyists at the time was a bill introduced by Young's fellow Alaskan, Sen. Frank Murkowski, to reform labor and immigration practices feeding the island's notorious Chinese-owned sweatshops. In 2000, Murkowski's bill passed the Senate unanimously, but Young stopped it cold in his committee, refusing to hold even a hearing.
Young has been defending himself over matters related to Abramoff since the lobbying scandal began to unravel in 2005. Young's campaign spokesman and chief of staff, Mike Anderson, declined to say in an interview last week whether some portion of the $1.1 million the campaign has spent on legal fees over the last year relate to the ongoing FBI investigation of the Abramoff affair, which has led to 13 convictions so far of lobbyists, aides, a former congressman and two former administration officials. Young himself refused to discuss the matter the last time he met with reporters in Anchorage in February, and Anderson would not comment on matters involving Abramoff.
Young first came under criticism related to Abramoff over his efforts as Resources chairman to preserve the freewheeling Mariana economy. Investigations by the government, media and human rights groups uncovered widespread abuses in the garment industry and among sex workers there starting in the mid-1990s, but Young asserted those investigations were bogus.
Then, in 2006, a four-year-old letter surfaced from Young asking the head of the General Services Administration to grant preferences in the development of the Old Post Office Pavilion in Washington, D.C., to disadvantaged businesses. Abramoff was seeking just such a privilege for two Indian tribe clients. A Young spokesman would later say that fact was a coincidence.
Last year, Mark Zachares, whom Young hired as a top aide on the House Transportation Committee, pleaded guilty to accepting bribes from Abramoff and agreed to help investigators. Before going to work for Young, Zachares, originally from Alaska, had been a labor and immigration official for the Mariana government. Prosecutors said Abramoff placed Zachares on Young's committee, and Zachares used his insider spot to help Abramoff's clients. Since Zachares' plea 12 months ago, Young has refused to explain what he knows about how Zachares got his job.
Now the 900-plus pages of Abramoff billing records and memos associated with the Mariana Islands are telling more of the story, though they represent only a fraction of Abramoff's total business activities from the 1990s until his first guilty plea on Jan. 3, 2006.
This is a long and detailed-filled article and it should raise many more questions about Don Young in Alaska, Congress and the Justice Department.
In the last couple of weeks the Abramoff Scandal has been becoming a factor in the 2008 election cycle. Bob Schaffer, a GOP Senate Candidate in Colorado is one of these candidates who’s deep ties to Abramoff are being exposed in this cycle.
More of these Abramoff Scandal stories will come out about other Republican candidates as well.
In 2006, and again in this cycle, I have shared my research with writers, reporters, campaigns, bloggers, filmmakers and others seeking to explore the Abramoff Scandal.
And this year, I’m at it again.
From John McCain on down, the Republican Party has a Culture of Corruption problem. And I intend to help hang it around their collective necks.
The Abramoff scandal is just the tip of it. Together, we can run these bums out of town.
Elections matter.
The victory in 2006 mattered, especially when it come to ending the abuse on the CNMI that Abramoff, DeLay, Young, Schaffer and the GOP protected for so long.
The Anchorage Daily News story had a happy ending:
WAGE BILL BECOMES LAW
With the Democrats back in control of Congress, Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., long a foe of Young's on the Mariana Islands, introduced a bill in 2006 that would bring the islands in line with the U.S. minimum wage. President Bush signed it into law last year. Then, two weeks ago, the Senate approved a House measure extending U.S. immigration law to the islands. That, too, is expected to be enacted.
If we work together, we will have many more such victories in 2009.
Cheers