I'm having a hard time. I'm trying to put together a list of the Republican Congressmen with a Jack Abramoff problem.
I thought I would call the list: Jack's Gimme Five Congressmen:
Tom DeLay
Bob Ney
John Doolittle
Richard Pombo
Dana Rohrbacher
But that won't work. There are easily a dozen more GOP Members of the House with deep ties to Abramoff. I'll list some of them and their Democratic challengers on the jump.
Some have well known connections. Others have been hiding in the shadows.
Earlier this week I laid out part of the case against John Doolittle.
Tonight I want to give GOP Rep. John Sweeney (NY-20) his moment on the Abramoff stage.
Turns out that Sweeney had a speaking part in the scandal.
To the jump...
First to the list of Abramoff connected GOP scumbags. All of these folks worked with Jack to protect a system of sweatshops, human trafficking, force prostitution and forced abortion on the Commonwealth of North Mariana Islands (CNMI).
And that was only one aspect of their crimes.
Needless to say they need to be turned out of office.
Fortunately, there are some great Democrats running against every one of these GOP Abramoff Weasels. Here they are with the GOP weasel in parentheses:
Jon Tester (Burns)
Jerry McNerney (Pombo)
Charlie Brown (Doolittle)
Zach Space (Ney)
Nick Lampson (DeLay)
John Laesch (Hastert)
Heath Shuler (Taylor)
Francine Busby (Bilbray)
Mike Callaghan (Capito)
Harry Mitchell (JD Hayworth)
Kirsten Gillibrand (Sweeney)
Andrew Hurst (Tom Davis)
Rev. Jim Nelson (Kingston)
John Rinaldi (Duncan Hunter)
TJ Cox (Radanovich)
Tessa Hafen (Porter)
I want to call attention to Jim Brandt who is running against Abramoff's long-time pal and partner in many crimes over the decades: Dana Rohrbacher (perhaps the evilest man in the GOP caucus).
Speaking of evil, Democrat Glenn Melancon is running an uphill campaign against Ralph Hall, a man so evil that he worked with Dana and Jack to place an attack on a rape victim into the Congressional Record.
And no discussion of evil would be complete without Abramoff's CNMI hero, Don Young. There are several Democrats running in an Alaskan primary for the opportunity to defeat this GOP slime ball. Some of them should take a page out of the Casey Cagle playbook and hit Young hard on his efforts to protect human trafficking.
Please show these Democrats some support with your time and your donations. And if I'm missing an Abramoff-Connected GOP Weasel please let me know and I will add him or her to the list.
In this post I wanted to call attention to Rep. John Sweeney of New York's 20th District. Kirsten Gillibrand is running hard against him and it looks like she will be the candidate to take out one of Jack Abramoff's key Congressional partners in November.
Some of Sweeney's work with Abramoff has bubbled to the surface.
He made the cut in a March 2006 article in The Hill, Salon's War Room wrote it up (emphasis added):
A window into the Abramoff investigation?
If you're into reading tea leaves from the Jack Abramoff investigation, Roll Call has a report worth considering today: Between June and October of 2005, the paper says, Justice Department staffers pulled financial disclosure reports on at least nine members of Congress and at least seven former congressional staffers.
Four of the members are ones you'd expect: Reps. Tom DeLay, Bob Ney and John Doolittle and Sen. Conrad Burns, each of whom is a Republican lawmaker with well-documented ties to the disgraced Republican lobbyist. But Justice Department staffers also pulled records on five members who have, as Roll Call puts it, "no public connection" to the investigation into Abramoff's dealings: Republican Reps. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and John Sweeney, Democratic Reps. Jim McDermott and Earl Pomeroy, and Democrat Eni Faleomavaega, the delegate from American Samoa.
Now, this in and of itself might not be a big deal. After all it is only one data point.
The trouble for John Sweeney is that there are more.
Those who are familiar with the Abramoff story know that he left the lobbying firm, Preston Gates, after Bush was appointed President and joined the Florida based firm, Greenberg Traurig.
On January 4, 2001 he sent a pitch letter to the Governor of CNMI, Pedro P. Tenorio, making the case why CNMI should rehire him as their lobbyist for the coming Bush era.
There was some hesitation on CNMI to spend more money on a Washington Lobbyist now that their GOP allies controlled everything. Jack needed somebody to travel to CNMI to make his case, to seal the deal.
John Sweeney was the guy.
It is amazing what one finds in the Saipan Tribune the newspaper owned by the Tan Family, the Hong Kong based clan that owned most everything on the US Territory and a few Congressmen as well. Back on January 8, 2001 they were very excited. A Congressman was coming to town (emphasis added):
Sweeney takes 1st trip to CNMI
Republican congressman John E. Sweeney of New York will keynote the annual gala installation of the 2001 Board of Directors of the Saipan Chamber of Commerce, CNMI's largest business organization, on Saturday at the Hyatt Regency.
This will be Mr. Sweeney's first trip to the CNMI, according to the Chamber. [snip]
Mr. Sweeney was sworn-in as a member of the 106th Congress on January 6, 1999. In his first term as a representative, he quickly distinguished himself among his colleagues. He was appointed to the Republican Steering Committee, which names Members of Congress to posts on the House of Representatives' 21 committees.
Mr. Sweeney serves on the banking committee, the small business committee, and the transportation committee. He is Vice-chairman of the aviation subcommittee and is a member of the ground transportation subcommittee, the capital markets subcommittee and the housing subcommittee.
More than likely, it was Sweeney's position on the Aviation Subcommittee that put him in the sights of the DOJ Abramoff Investigation, but more on that in a moment.
First, I wonder if Sweeney planned a show of force for the locals? Oh, yeah. He did.:
Marine air show tomorrow
The United States Marine All Weather Fighter Attack Squadron 21 will make a rare appearance on island tomorrow in honor of the Saipan Chamber of Commerce installation dinner and special guests, Gov. Pedro P. Tenorio and U.S. Rep. John E. Sweeney, R-New York.
The public is invited to witness four F/A-18D Hornets of the Green Knights make two aerial demonstration passes over the Garapan lagoon at 5:30pm tomorrow, just prior to the 6:00pm Chamber installation dinner at the Hyatt Regency Saipan.
Boy, there is nothing like a fly over to get the attention of a Territory's Governor and Chamber of Commerce. I wonder if Rep. Sweeney had a special message to deliver in his remarks that evening.
Let's check out the report in the January 15, 2001 edition of the Saipan Tribune (emphasis added):
Sweeney: Continue lobby efforts in D.C.
New York congressman says U.S. Congress deprived of real situation in CNMI
Ok, so the headline seems to be a plea to rehire Abramoff, but what about his remarks. What did Sweeney tell the folks? Let's take a peak:
Mr. Sweeney told business leaders during the installation of the new officers of the Saipan Chamber of Commerce that they have an important role to play in informing the people in Washington about CNMI's efforts to become self-sustaining and carry out changes to make life better for the people.
"The reputation of the Commonwealth is not really what ought to be. I come here and found that the truth projected to me in Washington was not the truth at all," he said. [snip]
"The Chamber has done affirmative steps that can be a model in some other communities around the country. Without your work in the Chamber, it could have been worse. You brought to the eyes of many leaders in Washington that the people of Saipan are not giving up, that you are hopeful," said Mr. Sweeney.
And of course Sweeney defended the system of sweatshops, human trafficking, force prostitution and forced abortion on the Islands:
While there have been criticisms about alleged poor working conditions of garment workers in the Northern Marianas, Mr. Sweeney said the situation in the U.S. mainland is far worse as he joined enforcement agents in banging down doors of sweatshop establishments in New York. [snip]
"I think, we as members of the U.S. Congress need to build some flexibility in our understanding of the situation," he said. In recognizing the contribution of the garment manufacturers on the island's economy, Mr. Sweeney said Washington should be made to understand that the departure of the industry will devastate the Northern Marianas.
And of course, the effort was a success for Jack:
Meanwhile, Gov. Pedro P. Tenorio said he agrees with Mr. Sweeney that CNMI must continue to lobby in Washington to protect the interests of the people of the Commonwealth.
Before the month ended, a new contract was signed and the New Team Abramoff at Greenberg Traurig went to work blocking any efforts to end the system of abuse. And they also went to work to shower their clients on CNMI with tens of millions of dollars from US taxpayers.
And Sweeney helped.
As I outlined the other day in the Diary, Doolittle + Abramoff + Bribes = More GOP Trouble, the Department of Justice investigation seems to be focusing on Abramoff and DeLay sending their minions out to CNMI in late 1999 to fix an election.
They wanted their guy, Ben Fitial, elected as Speaker of the CNMI House. So Ed Buckham and Mike Scanlon went to CNMI and promised two Representative, (one from the island of Rota and the other from the island of Tinian) lots and lots of Federal cash if they switched their votes.
The deal was struck and DeLay's Congress showered CNMI with mad cash.
Most of it went through the Transportation Committee, especially the Aviation Subcommittee. In 2000 there was $1.25 million for resurfacing the runways for the airport on Rota. Jack's Congressional partners also changed the way that Airport Improvement Project money was appropriated to insure that CNMI got a little bit out of every dollar spent.
All in all, Sweeney may have done more that just help Jack seal a new gig lobbying for CNMI. I think he was also very helpful in landing appropriations for the CNMI.
The 2001 CNMI billing invoices include a number of Sweeney connected entries:
04/26/01 Tony C. Rudy 1.15 hrs
Meet with appropriations staff of Rep. Sweeney's office.
05/04/01 Tony C. Rudy 3.00 hrs
Meet with Rep. Sweeney to discuss Appropriations request.
05/25/01 Kevin A. Ring 1.80 hrs
Phone conversation and correspondence with K. Kaloi (House Resources) regarding CNMI appropriations; send talking points to same; phone conversation with Labor Deparment official regarding minimum wage; correspondence with staff of Rep. Sweeney regarding appropriations.
06/20/01 Tony C. Rudy 3.00 hrs
Meeting with Rep. Sweeney regarding client issues; discussions with L. Lamora (Watts) regarding upcoming minimum wage effort.
Well, you get the point.
Not only was John Sweeney connected to Team Abramoff, he was having regular meetings about appropriations with admitted felon, Tony C. Rudy.
I think Sweeney may be in trouble.
And I definitely think that Kirsten Gillibrand should give him the Ralph Reed treatment. After all, Sweeney was defending the system of sweatshops, human trafficking, force prostitution and forced abortion in his remarks to the Saipan Chamber of Commerce and in his actions to deliver the goods for Jack Abramoff.
I hope the DCCC and the Kirsten Gillibrand campaign are up to the task of defeating this Abramoff-Connected GOP Weasel.
We need to support them. Please donate time and money.
And I hope that Campaign Money Watch will used what they learned defeating Ralph Reed and apply it to this race in New York.
The point is that nearly every GOP candidates is exposed to the Abramoff Scandal. H.R. 5550, the Human Dignity Act provides a good challenge for debates and to introduce the Abramoff connection into the race.
This should be an issue for every House race in 2006.
For example, if Democrats had connected Brian Bilbray to the forced abortions and hit him hard on his many connections to Jack and CNMI, I am convinced that Francine Busby would be defending her seat in Congress this November. Georgia has shown folks in CA-50 and across the Nation how to attack Jack's pals.
This is a hot wedge issue.
Every member of the GOP Caucus who worked to block legislation extending US labor, immigration and custom laws to CNMI should be put on the defensive. The crimes were real and the evidence has been presented to Congress since before 1994. And the abuse continues to this very day. It is time to hold these folks accountable: both as co-conspirators and at the ballot box.
Georgia has shown that this can be a potent issue for Democrats this fall. It divides the GOP from their "values" voters. It underscores GOP hypocrisy and corruption.
Please talk this issue up.
The GOP has a problem with supporting Forced Abortions.
John Sweeney has a problem with supporting Forced Abortions.
This is an issue people should know about.
2006 is now.
Let's do this.