Today's diary by OurMissEwenice: "Who is Grover Norquist and Who Put Him in Charge of My Life" had me googling. I too wonder where did Growling Knockwurst come from and even though his bowling ball head has a neatly trimmed beard and he seems freshly washed he really, behind it all, seems to be a mickey mouse con artist lobbyist scrounging out money from big tobacco etc. If this Washington Post investigate report from 2006 is accurate he seems to be just another sleazeball corrupt moneygrubber parading around as a holier than though anti-tax profit, errr, prophet.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/...
The Senate report released yesterday states that the nonprofit groups probably violated their tax-exempt status "by laundering payments and then disbursing funds at Mr. Abramoff's direction; taking payments in exchange for writing newspaper columns or press releases that put Mr. Abramoff's clients in a favorable light; introducing Mr. Abramoff's clients to government officials in exchange for payment; and agreeing to act as a front organization for congressional trips paid for by Mr. Abramoff's clients."
The report bolstered earlier revelations that Abramoff laundered money through the nonprofits to pay for congressional trips and paid Norquist to arrange meetings for Abramoff's clients with government officials including White House senior adviser Karl Rove.
The groups named in the report are Norquist's Americans for Tax Reform; the Council of Republicans for Environmental Advocacy, which was co-founded by Norquist and Gale Norton before she became secretary of the interior; Citizens Against Government Waste; the National Center for Public Policy Research, a spinoff of the Heritage Foundation; and Toward Tradition, a Seattle-based religious group founded by Rabbi Daniel Lapin.
The same old names pop up in this article, including Karl Rove, Jack Abramoff, Grover Norquist, Gayle Norton, etc. ,
Why hasn't this dented the Knockwurst's cache on Capital Hill I wonder?
Knockwurst is, so it seems, just part of the same old corruption that is Washington dressed up in a self-righteous "drown the government in the bathtub" shtick:
The Council for Republican Environmental Advocacy, founded by Norquist and Norton, who resigned as interior secretary earlier this year, also appeared to have been used "as an extension of Mr. Abramoff's lobbying organization," the report said.
.......
Abramoff directed his client Indian tribes to donate a total of about $500,000 to the group, telling them that the donation was a way to cultivate Norton at the Interior Department, which oversees the tribes and their casinos. E-mails show that Abramoff told the tribes that they would be CREA's "trustees" and that Norton would "host" a series of CREA dinners. Interior Department documents obtained by The Washington Post suggest that Norton was an invited guest at a CREA dinner, not a host.
People signed some ridiculous "pledge" to a scoundrel, apparently, who was, according to this Washington Post piece, just fattening his own pockets.