While some
Congressional Democrats are afraid to raise a fuss at the GOP's culture of corruption, at least
the South Carolina Democratic Party is willing to make the Delay-Abramoff-Norquist scandals an issue at the state level.
Today, South Carolina Democratic Party Chairman Joe Erwin challenged Governor Mark Sanford to officially disclose all ties to Norquist and the Americans for Tax Reform group and to denounce Norquist's involvement in money laundering and the blatantly dishonest practices he has been involved in.
"If South Carolina's taxpayers and voters are being fed misinformation by an ally of the Governor, I'd say those people have to right to know that their source is involved in scandalous and outrageous activity," Erwin said. "Sanford needs to denounce the corruption that is swirling around his benefactor."
First, Jack Abramoff's trail of money laundering led to Grover Norquist at Americans for Tax Reform.
This week, Time Magazine reports that the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, which is investigating power lobbyist Jack Abramoff for illegal campaign contributions and bilking Indian tribes for millions of dollars, has uncovered emails that detail the involvement of Grover Norquist of the Americans for Tax Reform in a laundering scheme that took millions of dollars from Indian tribes. Norquist managed to personally pocket $50,000 of the laundered money, according to Time.
Then, it's just a hop, skip and a jump to Grover Norquist's favorite governor.
Arguably no one person has had a greater influence on Mark Sanford's governing philosophy than Grover Norquist and his extremist anti tax group. In 2002, Norquist's group spent over $150,000 in negative and misleading advertisements aimed at smearing then Governor Jim Hodges. Norquist's group has come to Sanford's aid several times since becoming Governor. In 2004 Norquist's group paid for advertisements attacking Sanford's chief Republican nemesis, Bobby Harrell. (AP - May 19, 2004). In November of 2004 Norquist even promoted Sanford as a Presidential candidate. (The Hill, November 4, 2004)