210 Congressmen tied to Abramoff [Updated]

Recently, the LA Times reported:

The concern is widespread because Abramoff's reach into the Capitol was so deep. According to an analysis by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics, 210 current members of Congress have received contributions from Abramoff, his Indian tribe clients or SunCruz Casinos since 1999.

Most received less than $10,000, but 25 lawmakers received $21,500 or more. Twenty were Republicans and five were Democrats, but none of the Democrats received money directly from Abramoff.

210 Congressmen! And that's just money from the Tribes,  SunCruz, Jack and his wife.

It doesn't count Jack's other clients like the Russians, Chinese sweatshops, Malaysia, Pakistan, Tyco, and the rest.

The Washington Post has been all over this story. Today they had the amazing DeLay/Abramoff/Russian connection report. And Thursday's Abramoff Scandal Overview  foreshadowed some of the scandal developments in the wings.

More...

There are dozens of Abramoff scandal details that have been reported somewhere as starting threads. These threads are sitting out there waiting for more details--for the dots to be connected. Tom and Jack's trip to Russia was one of those threads. Today's WP story put it back into play in a very BIG way.

The Washington Post article by Susan Schmidt and James Grimaldi foreshadowed this development in their overview of Abramoff. They had this graph that focused on Jack's "oil-patch" strategy and the critical role Scanlon is playing in the investigation:

Another Abramoff financial vehicle was the nonprofit American International Center, a Rehoboth Beach, Del., "think tank" set up by Scanlon, who staffed it with beach friends from his summer job as a lifeguard. The center became a means for Abramoff and Scanlon to take money from foreign clients that they did not want to officially represent. Some of the funds came from the government of Malaysia. Banks and oil companies there were making deals in Sudan, where U.S. companies were barred on human rights grounds. Sudan was among several oil-rich nations in Africa, Asia and the Middle East that Abramoff eyed as venues for lucrative energy deals. Abramoff told associates he wanted to become a go-to person for U.S. companies seeking to do business with oil-patch nations.

Now Scanlon didn't start working with Abramoff until 2000. So, during the timeline of this WP story he was working for DeLay. But he also worked closely with Abramoff and Buckham.

In fact, his last Financial Disclosure form as part of DeLay's staff (filed in May 2000), Scanlon lists a payment of $10,000 from AGS and notes that it was, during a break in service.

One project they worked on was fixing an election in CNMI to win Enron a power plant contract.

So not only are the Russians back in play, so is the Alexander Strategy Group. Tony Rudy also works there and TNR's blog, The Plank, recently reported:

Hot stuff: In the latest National Journal, Abramoff-beat ace Peter Stone writes that Tony Rudy, the former Tom DeLay chief of staff who went on to work for Jack Abramoff, "may be close to a plea bargain agreement with federal prosecutors." Stone attributes this to "legal sources familiar with the probe."

I'll bet good money that Ed Buckham is negotiating his deal as well.

The WP article foreshadowed many other coming developments. I discussed some of them in this Diary. Co-author, James Grimaldi was on last night's Newshour. The Audio file is up and the transcript should be up soon. He was also on C-Span Washington Journal on 12-30-05. Both segments would be well worth your time and over more details and clues to what will happen next.

Some shoes waiting for their turn include the Chinese money flowing to the GOP, Malaysia, Pakistan, Apartheid, Norquist, Reed, Ralston, the Florida recount of 2000, Afganistan, Enron, energy deregulation and a Galaxey of GOP characters including (feel free to add names):

Here is a short list:

1. George W. Bush
   
2. Tom DeLay
   
3. Bob Ney
   
4. Grover Norquist
   
5. Ralph Reed
   
6. John Doolittle
   
7. Dana Rohrabacher
   
8. Chris Cannon
   
9. Dan Burton
   
10. Richard Pombo
    
11. George Radanovich
    
12. Robert Ehrlich
    
13. Tom Feeney
    
14. Rob Simmons
    
15. Denny Hastert
    
16. Ben Fitial (Governor-elect CNMI)
    
17. Roy Blunt
    
18. Conrad Burns
    
19. Dennis Rehberg
    
20. Jim Saxton
    
21. Charles Taylor
    
22. Mike Fitzpatrick
    
23. Pete Sessions
    
24. Tom Davis
    
25. George Nethercutt
    
26. Charles Pickering
    
27. Kay Granger
    
28. Steven Griles

Feel free to add more names. As Mike and Jack talk the GOP will be covered with avalanche of scandals.

We might take control of Congress because so many in the GOP will suddenly need to "spend more time with their families".

They are in BIG trouble. It couldn't happen to a better set of scoundrels.

Update: There is some great research at this Diary, A small piece of the DeLay puzzle, concerning the DeLay/Abramoff/Russia connection. It was posted by calipygian and it is worth a look. And so are the comments.

Any dollar Jack touched leads to another scandal. Grab a thread and start pulling.