Update [2005-7-2 19:59:33 by Armando]: From the diaries by Armando.
The
other spectacular DoJ case, the one surrounding Jack Abramoff, has stayed similarly quiet so far as leaks go. Little is known about it, except perhaps that Bob Ney is being looked into. But Rove might have something to worry about here as well...
Though I've probably seen it before, I've never taken note of this name: the Rev. Thomas Grey, executive director of the National Coalition Against Legalized Gambling in Washington. His name pops up in two stories today, in neither case doing the National GOP much good. The first is Rich Lowry's bizarre attempt at discussion of the Abramoff affair. I feel obligated to note that it contains a completely unsourced and unsubstantiated attack on the Clinton Administration (
from Rich Lowry?!?) and also a healthy dose of the "it was the Indians' fault" defense. It also points out sinisterly that Indian tribes give more money to Democrats, without noting that they also happen to vote Democratic - for which they get the
standard non-white voter suppression from the Republicans. Amongst casino-interested tribes, Bush actually received
three times as much as Kerry.
That said, here's Lowry:
Gambling opponents hoped President Bush would clean up the BIA. Instead, GOP politicians and lobbyists now milk casino-hungry Indians in turn. Bush spoke out against gambling in the 2000 campaign, but has gone silent since. "You have a pattern of people close to Bush making money off the BIA," says Grey. A few months ago, Bush's head of the BIA, Dave Anderson, resigned over conflict-of-interest charges.
Now forgive the meandering, but that resignation was also news to me, so I looked into it. Lowry discusses in his piece how a key element of the Indian casino lobbying industry is recognition of tribes, which grants them protection to open those casinos. Lowry throws out the fact that there are some cases where non-Indian gambling interests try to use tribes as fronts (he does this in a lame attempt to tar the obviously legitimate tribes involved in the Abramoff case.) Perhaps Lowry knew and deliberately left it out, perhaps he didn't bother with the googling, but this is exactly what Dave Anderson's scandal and resignation seem to have revolved around. And if I'm understanding all of it right, the "conflict-of-interest charges" were leveled by himself. You see, the recognition of Indian tribes was a key element of his job, and he simply refused to do it:
The top American Indian at the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Dave Anderson, must immediately resign from his post. Anderson has neglected a major part of his job, and he seems more interested in maintaining the Bush administration's agenda of indifference than meeting the needs of Indian Country.
In the few months since heading up the bureau, Anderson, who is Choctaw and Ojibwe, has been running into a beltway buzz saw of criticism for his refusal to perform a key duty of his job - overseeing tribal gaming.
Many, including Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell, R-Colo., the lone Indian (Cheyenne) in Congress, are wondering why Anderson accepted the appointment from President Bush in the first place.
Or why he was offered it, perhaps?
Avoiding gaming issues
The outrage began in April when Anderson announced that he would stay out of all decision-making related to Indian gaming. The successful chain restaurant owner from Minnesota (founder of "Famous Dave's) said he was concerned with drawing conflict-of-interest accusations. He had business ties to a New England group seeking tribal recognition, but that association was 10 years ago.
In addition to advocating for more federal dollars to help fill desperate health, education and law enforcement gaps throughout Indian Country, a big part of Anderson's job requires him to be actively engaged in gaming affairs. To walk out of the meeting room when the topic turns to gaming matters is a lot like a baseball manager walking off the field after every fifth inning.
Indian leaders were puzzled when the Bush administration chose Anderson for this critical liaison role. Anderson does not have any tribal government experience. His understanding of complex federal Indian policy is murky, at best. The only positive Anderson seems to have is a "If I can do it, so can you" attitude.
Self-help approach
Anderson's self-help approach to Indian Country shifts focus away from the federal government's treaty-bound obligation to fund basic survival services to Indians.
Though the bureau has its own history of indifference to tribes, it has improved its mission to serve Indians in the past number of years, especially under the leadership of Kevin Gover (Pawnee). It provided tribal nations with a glimpse of how a true government-to-government relationship could work.
Unfortunately, unless Dave Anderson walks out of the room permanently, this vision of building stronger relations between Washington and Indian Country will quickly fade.
But that wasn't the end of the story...
Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Connecticut) called on Bureau of Indian Affairs head Dave Anderson to resign due to his broad recusal on all federal recognition decisions.
In a memo last month, Anderson asked Interior Secretary Gale Norton to delegate all federal recognition, gaming and gaming land-into-trust decisions to deputy Aurene Martin. Dodd said Anderson shouldn't have accepted the job in the first place.
Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell (R-Colorado) criticized Anderson at a hearing last month after learning of the broad recusal. He has been upset that Anderson hasn't testified before the Senate Indian Affairs Committee when asked. Since joining the Bush administration in February, Anderson has appeared just once at a hearing on trust reform. [Emphasis added.]
So he doesn't do one of the primary duties and he doesn't show up for hearings. Nice hire. And he's delegating this central responsibility to Gale Norton's deputy? That turned out not to be the smoothest move, even if a typical Bush Administration "internal investigation" ended any chance of official accountability...
An internal investigation has cleared outgoing Bureau of Indian Affairs deputy Aurene Martin of any wrongdoing in a highly politicized recognition case.
Aurene Martin, who resigns as principal deputy assistant secretary next week, was the subject of intense criticism for her decision to acknowledge the Schaghticoke Tribal Nation (STN). Officials from Connecticut accused her of bending the rules in favor of a group backed by wealthy investors seeking a casino.
But Earl E. Devaney, the Department of Interior's Inspector General, found no evidence that Martin or other BIA staff broke the law or were unduly influenced by the gaming industry. In a three-page letter summarizing the results of his investigation, he said there was no "smoking gun" as had been claimed by the Connecticut critics.
That's some strong defense - there was "no smoking gun."
But the closing of the matter only inspired more outrage from Connecticut, home to two tribal casinos and possibly two more. Gov. M. Jodi Rell took issue with Devaney's characterization of the rules governing federal recognition as "permissive and inherently flexible."
"This unsupportable decision begs more than ever for an immediate investigation into the entire recognition process at the BIA, as well as immediate legislative initiatives to repair the seriously flawed existing tribal recognition process," she said in a letter to the state's Congressional delegation.
At issue in the dispute is a January 12 memo prepared for Martin, who at the time was acting assistant secretary of the BIA. In it, the Office of Federal Acknowledgment laid out various options for possible recognition of the Schaghticoke Tribe, which had been denied federal status in a preliminary determination.
The so-called "briefing paper" pointed out that the tribe lacked evidence to prove its status for certain periods of time. But Martin recognized the tribe anyway, using its continuous relationship with Connecticut going back to the 1600s to patch up holes in the historical record.
So with all of this swirling around, folks like Tom Grey seem to be the last gasps of Republican principle. Today, the Christian Coalition of Alabama, which had previously expressed anger at Reed for funneling Indian casino money to them, swallows their integrity once and for all...
The Christian Coalition of Alabama on Friday exonerated itself and Republican political strategist Ralph Reed of bringing gambling money into a series of fights against video poker legislation.
The group declared itself innocent of knowing that more than $2 million used to fight video poker legislation - and $300,000 more that went into a campaign to defeat a state lottery - originated with the Mississippi Band of Choctaws, an Indian tribe out to protect its casino interests in the neighboring state.
The Christian Coalition chapter also accepted Reed's contention that the money came from the tribe's non-gambling revenues - and so declared that Reed's efforts to filter much of the Choctaw cash through a third party, Americans for Tax Reform, were irrelevant.
[...]
Skeptical reaction
The Choctaw tribe derives 85 percent to 90 percent of its revenue from casinos and related entertainment businesses.
Reaction Friday to the Christian Coalition giving itself and Reed a clean bill of ethical health was sharp, and skeptical, in some quarters.
"I'm insulted," said the Rev. Thomas Grey, executive director of the National Coalition Against Legalized Gambling in Washington, which worked with the Christian Coalition on the Alabama campaigns. "It seems to me that credibility is all that groups have when they stand on the values battlefield. [Giles and Reed] have lost the high ground. They can wallow in the swamp together for all I care," Grey said.
Other evangelicals brought into anti-gambling campaigns by Reed, including James Dobson, chairman of the influential Focus on the Family, have said they would not have participated had they known the efforts were funded by the Choctaw -- or that they would not have accepted the money.
Alabama State Rep. Randy Hinshaw of Huntsville, a Democrat, has put forth legislation that would force the Christian Coalition to disclose its sources of funding. "If the Choctaw are not a gambling interest, then there is no gambling interest -- any time or anywhere," he said.
Brad Alexander, a spokesman for Casey Cagle, who is running against Reed in next year's Republican primary, said: "It's sad to see good conservatives having their reputations tarnished from associating with Ralph Reed. This is a clear case of a lobbyist abusing the trust of good people who entered the process with the best intentions, solely in order to enrich himself."
The central tribe in the Abramoff affair was the Tigua tribe in Texas, which Abramoff and Reed worked secretly to close on behalf of another tribe, with Abramoff immediately offering his services to open it back up. In the thorough Boston Globe piece headlined, "Gambling, GOP politics intertwine," we are reminded that George Bush's crusade against the Tiguas as governor was his claim to fame as the anti-gambling presidential candidate. The piece discusses Abramoff's conversations with the Tiguas...
Abramoff's calling card was his tie to Republican Party leaders. He boasted to the tribal leaders about his access to Bush, and noted that his law firm based in Miami, Greenberg Traurig, worked on the Florida case that helped put Bush in the White House.
Scanlon, who sat by Abramoff's side as they met with the Tiguas, had previously boasted of Abramoff's ties to the president. ''Jack has a relationship with the president," Scanlon told a Florida newspaper in 2001. ''He doesn't have a bat phone or anything, but if he wanted an appointment, he would have one."
Abramoff, in turn, boasted that Scanlon had access to his former boss, DeLay, the House majority leader.
The Tigua tribe's lieutenant governor, Carlos Hisa, said that Abramoff told him that he had special influence with the president. Abramoff said he was ''close" to Bush, and that the president asked him for recommendations to fill key positions at the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Hisa told the Globe.
Perino, Bush's spokeswoman, said in response about Abramoff: ''While they may have met on occasion, the president does not know him."
Perhaps Bush knows him, perhaps he doesn't, but somebody in the White House sure does:
Long before he came under investigation for his lobbying practices and ties to power brokers like DeLay, Abramoff was an enthusiastic fundraiser for Bush's election races. In 2000, Abramoff was among the first Washington lobbyists to jump on the Bush bandwagon and eventually became one of the campaign's top fund-raisers. In 2004, the now-embattled superlobbyist brought in even more money and was christened a "Major League Pioneer" by the campaign. While his exact take isn't known, Abramoff told The New York Times in July 2003--months before active fund-raising really began--that he had already raised $120,000 for the president's re-election effort. "And I haven't even started making phone calls," Abramoff told the Times. An Orthodox Jew, Abramoff was considered an important intermediary between Jewish groups and the Bush campaign, which worked heavily to make inroads with the voting bloc. When fundraising began for Bush's re-election effort, Rabbi Daniel Lapin, a prominent Seattle radio host and activist, urged friends and colleagues to steer campaign checks to Bush via Abramoff.
But the lobbyist's ties to the White House extended well beyond money. When top Bush adviser Karl Rove was looking for an assistant in early 2001, Abramoff suggested his own top aide, Susan Ralston. She remains one of Rove's top deputies. At the same time, Bush tapped Abramoff as member of his Presidential Transition Team, advising the administration on policy and hiring at the Interior Department, which oversees Native American issues. [Emphasis added.]
Add that to the fact that Abramoff "logged nearly 200 contacts" with the White House in Bush's first 10 months, the racket Abramoff and Norquist had "pimping the president," the mysterious $300,000 steered to a random and barely-existent environmental group associated with Gale Norton that was never accounted for, and I'd say that's pretty cozy.
That Globe article quotes that same Tom Grey:
''We had great hopes and expectations when Bush was elected," said Tom Grey, a Methodist minister who heads the National Coalition Against Legalized Gambling. But now ''gambling has become the feeding trough" for politicians, he said.
Grey called on Bush to take the lead in returning gambling contributions and to speak out against casinos.
''To have nothing come out of his mouth is tantamount to saying, 'It's OK, you can operate business as usual vis-a-vis gambling,' " Grey said.
That's putting it nicely. It's no surprise that a spectacular scandal such as this would find the likes of Rove and DeLay in its midst. While there are plenty of decent lobbyists around (honestly trying to persuade lawmakers is not inherently evil), there seem to be a certain number whose real profession is simply directing campaign contributions to the appropriate recipients in the majority party. In this light, the K Street Project, a grand strategy for an unholy alliance with those who direct campaign contributions, takes on a new light. With Rove, one can see that the Interior Department and BIA were just playgrounds for this kind of activity. For both Rove and DeLay, persuasion is not a factor because the merits of a policy play no role in the decision-making process.
Pure, unadulterated transaction.
