In 2004 a massive Republican fungus of corruption in Washington DC was exposed. On Sunday, February 22, 2004 the Washington Post published their first report on the Abramoff scandal. In the days before that story landed on the front page, concerned emails and calls were flying between the members of Abramoff’s lobbying team and other Republicans living in the circle of corruption. As the WP was being printed, a draft of the story was pasted into an email and sent around to the GOP gang.
In an exchange released in the 11-2-05 Senate’s Indian Affairs Committee doc dump, key Abramoff aide Kevin Ring told a friend:
I know more than the article and the truth is worse.
Now Ring has been indicted and that indictment connects more Republicans to the scandal including Heather Wilson. She is now a top McCain surrogate. Perhaps it is her way of thanking John McCain for covering up her involvement in the scandal.
To the jump...
John McCain is a liar.
I have been saying this for some time, so I’m glad to see others come to the same point of view. This is what we have to scream from the rooftops. That is what this campaign is all about: After eight years of Bush/Cheney do we really need four more years of lies and deceit?
Nope.
I am happy to see that the progressive netroots are HOT and active when it comes to calling McCain out as a liar. I am also please to see that this irrefutable reality is seeping into mainstream coverage of the campaign. This is a good thing and we need more of it.
There are many, many lies that John McCain has told over the years. Some are fresh. Some of the current lies are merely recent iterations of older lies. One McCain lie that really needs some exposure is his work on the Abramoff scandal. It was more a cover-up than an investigation—and John McCain knows it.
That is why he barely mentions his Abramoff investigation cover-up on the campaign trail. I went to his web site tonight and searched for the term "Jack Abramoff". There were twelve hits and most were irrelevant. McCain rarely mentions Abramoff by name. This speech for June
"I know you're all aware of the various scandals concerning the lobbyist, Jack Abramoff, his abuse of his clients' trust and his relationships with members of Congress and their staffs. I won't dwell on it today other than to note that one welcome consequence of this discouraging story is that it has forced more of us to re-examine the way we do business in Washington. Various reforms affecting the relationship between members of Congress and lobbyists have been discussed and advocated, although, I'm sorry to say, Congress has not yet done enough to address the problem in a very significant way. [snip]
My friends, the best and only lasting answer to the problem of political corruption is a smaller government.
There is nothing inherently wrong with lobbying or with government officials meeting with lobbyists to consider their concerns as we make policies that affect the interests they represent. Americans, represented individually or by trade associations, social organizations, or labor unions have a right to petition their government. Where corruption can easily occur is when a lobbyist, knowing the rules of the game, receives special treatment for his or her client, irrespective of the public interest, simply by enjoying a relationship with a member of Congress who can, by the process we call earmarking, provide their clients a benefit that is seldom scrutinized by Congress as a whole.
This is classic McCain lying.
The problem according to Dishonest John, is not his Party or the easy access of lobbyists to politicians like him. No. It is "Big Government" and "earmarks". And did you notice how quickly he rushed by the Abramoff Scandal and corruption within the Republican Party in his speech with a quick: "I won't dwell on it today". Hell, McCain has NEVER examined that aspect of the scandal. That is why his Investigation of Abramoff was and is a cover-up and a lie.
Instead of straight talk, McCain offers distractions.
Even though "Earmarks" are a small but lucrative part of every corrupt lobbying practice (and an even smaller part of the Federal budget), John McCain would have you believe that they are the only problem behind the Culture of Corruption in Washington. Chasing this strawman has become the central theme of his campaign. To believe McCain, you have to buy the hype that if you stop Earmarks then everything will be OK. And if you only focus on Earmarks, then you’ll overlook all the lobbyists running John McCain’s campaign and controlling his every word. It is a classic misdirection. A focus ONLY on earmarks glosses over real corruption and protects the system. Earmarks are being sold by Dishonest John’s as the new "bad apples" of the system. And when you only look at earmarks, you ignore McCain's revolving door and his lobbyist supporters shoveling money into his pockets as they whisper sweet nothings into his well greased ear. Under a McCain Administration, Earmarks as recently defined may end, but the massive corruption will continue and accelerate.
And I am not surprised that McCain rarely mentions Jack Abramoff by name. He is desperately trying to get through this campaign without anybody examining his real record. He is desperate to protect his Abramoff investigation cover-up from exposure and review.
We should not let him get away with it. We should encourage the media to take a fresh look at what McCain’s investigation did and, more importantly, DID NOT DO.
Since 1999 I’ve been tracking Jack Abramoff and the Culture of Corruption. Over the years, I’ve often written about the John McCain’s investigation cover-up of the scandal (like in this Diary) and this work has led me to a simple fact that needs to be repeated:
John McCain is a liar.
I could point to many examples of the lies McCain has told over his long mendacious career, but the whopper he told on November 17, 2004 during a Senate Indian Affairs Committee Hearing on the Abramoff Scandal is a perfect example of a McCain Lie. Representatives of the Tigua Tribe of Texas—the Tribe that suffered the greatest damage from the crimes of Jack Abramoff—were testifying that day. In his opening statement, McCain laid out his case against Jack Abramoff and Michael Scanlon as isolated "bad Apples". He ended his statement with a promise to the Tigua Tribe and America (emphasis added):
"In closing, I just want to thank the Tigua Tribe, Lieutenant Governor Hisa and Mr. Schwartz for their invaluable assistance and continuing cooperation in the investigation and for their participation in today's hearing. Mr. Schwartz told my investigators that after the Washington Post articles broke earlier this year about the other tribes, Mr. Abramoff called him and said, ``Don't worry, no one will ever know about the
Tigua.''
Well, Mr. Abramoff, the committee knows and now the rest of the world knows, too, about the gross indignity it seems you and Mr. Scanlon perpetrated against the tribe. I pledge, as a member of the Committee on Indian Affairs, that we will not stop until the complete truth is told."
This was a promise that John McCain quickly broke.
Over at Indianz.com they link to the SIAC hearings and a story about a John McCain appearance on MTP. They also provide a link to video of the 11-17-04 Hearing. The above quote begins at 32:54 into the hearing and McCain’s broken promise to the Tribes and America is made at 33:29. It would be great if somebody could post this on YouTube (I just couldn’t figure it out).
By his December 2005 appearance on MTP, John McCain’s cover-up of the Abramoff Scandal was already well underway and his promise of November 2004 was already broken. He told the late Tim Russert (emphasis added):
MR. RUSSERT: Let me turn to corruption, and here's a headline from the Philadelphia Inquirer: "Lobbyist Jack Abramoff helped fuel conservative successes, but his dealings could lead to a powerful ethical fallout ... Christian Coalition founder Ralph Reed, antitax guru Grover Norquist, members of Congress, administration officials, and a host of lobbyists have been drawn into Senate or Justice Department investigations of Abramoff's lobbying activities. ... The Abramoff story `is breathtaking in its reach,' [John] McCain said."
Do you expect indictments?
SEN. McCAIN: Oh, sure. And lots of them. This is--this town has become very corrupt. There's no doubt about it. And we need lobbying reform. We need to have some reform of lobbying. But the system here, where so much is done in the way of policy and money, in appropriations bills where line items are put in in secret, which nobody knows about or sees until after they're voted on, is the problem. That's the problem today. So therefore, someone who wants some money or a policy change hires a lobbyist who is well connected. They go to the appropriate subcommittee or committee, appropriations, and they write in the line item. That part has to be fixed, I think, as much as anything else.
MR. RUSSERT: Senator, you said you're going to follow the money, but are you also going to investigate which legislators may have taken money and used that to influence legislation, to write into law what you're suggesting...
SEN. McCAIN: Tim...
MR. RUSSERT: ...the behavior of senators, your colleagues? Are you going to investigate them?
SEN. McCAIN: The--I will not, because I'm a chairman of the Indian Affairs Committee. This was brought to our--this whole thing started--was brought to us--attention by some disgruntled tribal council members in a small tribe in Louisiana, and we took it as far as we thought was our responsibility, which is where the money ends up. I'm not as--we are responsible for Indian affairs. [snip]
MR. RUSSERT: Do you believe that some legislators have committed a crime?
SEN. McCAIN: Well, I don't want to--everyone deserves the presumption of innocence until proven guilty. I'm not a judge and jury.
MR. RUSSERT: But there's strong evidence to suggest that.
SEN. McCAIN: There's strong evidence that there was significant wrongdoing, but I'm not a judge or jury.
MR. RUSSERT: Do you think some legislators may be indicted?
SEN. McCAIN: All I know is what I read in the media. We stopped in the Indian Affairs Committee with where the money went, and that was our--the extent of our responsibilities.
For John McCain it was a short moral journey from:
"I pledge, as a member of the Committee on Indian Affairs, that we will not stop until the complete truth is told."
To admitting he was letting his Party off the hook:
"I will not, because I'm a chairman of the Indian Affairs Committee. This was brought to our--this whole thing started--was brought to us--attention by some disgruntled tribal council members in a small tribe in Louisiana, and we took it as far as we thought was our responsibility, which is where the money ends up. I'm not as--we are responsible for Indian affairs.
Earlier that year, on March 10, 2005, Roll Call reported that McCain met with his colleagues and promised them protection from their crimes:
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) has assured his colleagues that his expanding investigation into the activities of a former GOP lobbyist and a half-dozen of his tribal casino clients is not directed at revealing ethically questionable actions by Members of Congress.
Now this was a promise that McCain has kept.
In fact, everything about McCain’s Abramoff investigation was designed to protect his Party. That is why he is uncomfortable talking about Jack Abramoff and why he does not want anybody to look too closely at what his investigation revealed and, more importantly, what it covered-up.
Heather Wilson is a case in point.
Her connections to Jack Abramoff were recently in the news:
An examination by TPMmuckraker of the indictment of former Jack Abramoff associate Kevin Ring, filed yesterday, suggests that Wilson's office was tied in to Abramoff's corruption network at a level not previously known. And John McCain's 2005 investigation into Abramoff's fleecing of Indian tribes, which McCain conducted as chair of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, made no mention of that fact.
Even if, the McCain investigation was only going to follow the money flow between Abramoff and his Tribal Clients, it would have been impossible to overlook money and gifts flowing to Members of Congress, their staffs and employees of the Executive Branch. Clear evidence of this money flow was everywhere.
On page 6 of John McCain’s own Report on the Scandal he discloses that the investigation gathered 750,000 pages of documents. Less than 5,000 of these documents have ever been released to the media or the public. Absent from the documents release from McCain were the billing records for Abramoff’s Tribal clients, the Daily to do list prepared for Jack by his secretary and his weekly client updates from the member of his team taking the lead for that client.
We know that these types of documents are included in the 750,000 pages because some examples of these Team Abramoff documents have been released. For example, Henry Waxman’s Abramoff Investigation released a spreadsheet of Abramoff/White House contacts that were based on a review of Abramoff’s Tribal billing records. The information in this spreadsheet is in the same format as Abramoff’s billing records for the CNMI, Guam and other clients that other Abramoff-related investigations or Court cases have released.
John McCain has hidden the full details of these records from the press and the public. It would be impossible to read the billing records and other documents suppressed by McCain and not see how connected Jack Abramoff was to the Bush White House, Republicans in the House, the Senate and throughout the Conservative movement. And yet, somehow, this was a mountain of corruption that John McCain could not see when he was "taking on his own Party". Oh my God, He is such a liar!
And after leading such a failure, such a cover-up, John McCain hid the evidence of his negligence. Right after he released his final report in the summer of 2006 he shipped the 750,000 pages of documents off to the National Archives and had them sealed for fifty years.
In return, his grateful Party Nominated him as their Presidential Candidate of the leader of their Corruptionist Movement.
Heather Wilson is an especially grateful McCain supporter. In 2006, she was in a very close race to hold onto her seat in Congress. Her connections to Jack Abramoff were dogging her. Jack gave her $1,000. So did Team Abramoff member Kevin Ring. Over the years, Jack’s firms, Preston Gates and then Greenberg Traurig kept sending in donations as well. And Jack even held a fundraiser for Wilson at his DC restaurant, Signatures.
In 2002 and 2004, Abramoff also helped Wilson by raising money for the United Seniors Association, a "Stealth PAC" that spent $350,000 on ads promoting Wilson is 2002 and even more in 2004. Jack Abramoff was a Bag-Man for the GOP. He raised money and got it where it was needed in a hurry. If there was a close race, he showed up with off-the-books cash for the final push. Jack was there for Wilson. And when Jack needed a favor, Wilson was there for him.
The other day, Land of Enchantment wrote about how Wilson is tied to latest Abramoff Indictment. It is an interesting story.
On the edge of Albuquerque sit the Sandia Mountains. This is a sacred place for the people of the Sandia Pueblo. For years, over 255 in fact, the Tribe had been trying to reclaim the land from the Spanish and later the American government. In 1978 they filed a lawsuit to get title to the land. Twenty years later, Albuquerque was growing and development threatened to cover this sacred land. Then, the Tribe won their lawsuit and the Judge directed the Federal Government to make plans to turn control of the Mountain over to the Tribe.
Local developers were not happy and they turned to Heather Wilson and Sen. Pete Domenici to lead to fight against the ruling.
Within weeks of the ruling, Wilson and Domenici had thrown up a road block. They had insisted that any deal about the Sandia Mountain had to be approved in Congress and signed by the President. Lawsuits went back and forth for years. On April 5, 2000, the AP reported that a deal had been worked out between the Clinton Administration and the Tribe:
Sandia Pueblo has agreed to drop its decades-old claim of ownership of the west face of the Sandia Mountains in exchange for assurance from the federal government that the mountainside will not be developed
Of course, Wilson and Domenici were not happy that the Clinton Administration had solved a 255 year-old land dispute by blocking development:
Sen. Pete Domenici and Rep. Heather Wilson, both New Mexico Republicans, fired off a letter to U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno late Tuesday expressing "grave concern" that the settlement leaves out affected parties and that the matter belongs in court and not on the negotiating table.
Wilson and Domenici told Reno, "We believe that the federal government would abdicate its responsibility to the more than 1 million visitors a year who utilize the Sandia Mountain Wilderness, and the landowners who reside within the claim area, by failing to appeal."
The deal had an expiration date. It had to be approved by Congress and the President before the end of 2002. In December of 2001 Senator Jeff Bingaman introduced a Bill to just that. It was an uphill fight because Wilson and Domenici still opposed the deal. Throughout 2001 they had tried to get the Bush Administration block the deal.
Things did not look good for the people of the Sandia Pueblo at the start of 2002. They had support from the Democrats in the New Mexico delegation, but not the Republicans. They needed help and they needed it quickly. They hired Jack Abramoff and his team.
This was a small account for Abramoff, but it was important account to Kevin Ring, a former Hill staffer now on Jack’s Team. Ring was building his client base and this was a large account for him. Jack and Kevin convinced the Sandia Pueblo to hire Michael Scanlon to run a "grass-roots" campaign to build support for the Tribe in the Albuquerque area. An April 24, 2002 article in the Albuquerque Journal mentioned the effort:
Support from Domenici and Rep. Heather Wilson, a Republican in whose district the disputed land lies, is considered so key that the pueblo's governor has undertaken a letter-writing campaign among businesses that contract with the pueblo's large casino, asking them to weigh in with the delegation.
The grass-roots effort has also been noted in McCain’s Report on the Scandal and the various Court documents citing the crimes of Abramoff and his Team. Central in those citations is a kick-back scheme between Scanlon, Ring and Abramoff. When Jack or a member of his team would find Scanlon off-the-books work with their clients, Scanlon would tip them with a very healthy "finder’s fee". Turns out, that was very illegal.
When you read McCain’s report describe the case of the Sandia Pueblo (starting on page 183) most of his focus is on two points. The kick-back scheme between Abramoff and Scanlon and Team Abramoff’s efforts to hang onto the account in 2003 after some in the Tribe express concern over the high fees they were paying to Scanlon. McCain’s report works hard to make the case that Abramoff and Scanlon did nothing for the money. The report goes on to praise Team Abramoff member Kevin Ring and claims that he was the reason the Tribe wanted to work with Team Abramoff:
One of the Washington lobbyists who was of particular interest to the Tribe was Kevin Ring. [snip]
In February 2002, arrangements were made for the Tribal leaders to meet with Ring
who was accompanied by his boss, Jack Abramoff. [snip]
Abramoff also offered to halve Greenberg Traurig’s $125,000 per month retainer if the Tribe hired Scanlon. And, finally, he proposed, on Scanlon’s behalf, a "slight" reduction from how much Scanlon originally wanted to charge the Tribe, plus a success
fee. But, Abramoff cautioned, he could not go lower because Scanlon’s "10% profit margin is locked [into that reduced figure]." [snip]
The Pueblo of Sandia and their counsel chafed at the cost of the Scanlon proposal, but
they wanted Abramoff and, particularly, Ring on their side.
Ultimately, the Tribe selected Abramoff and Ring at Greenberg Traurig, and entered into a separate contract with Scanlon to conduct the grassroots effort. [snip]
In the end, the combination of support from the New Mexico Delegation and a homegrown grassroots effort was the key to Congressional approval. Success was achieved, but for reasons wholly unrelated to the extraordinarily expensive pretensions of Abramoff and Scanlon.
I’ve been re-reading McCain’s report lately and it is an amazingly deceptive document. It is very interesting to compare McCain’s account of Abramoff’s relationship with the Sandia Pueblo Tribe to the accounts emerging in the various Plea Deals and Indictments coming out of the Department of Justice.
The recent Indictment of Kevin Ring is a case in point (a PDF is here). The account of what Team Abramoff did and did not do for the Sandia Pueblo is very different than the narrative spun by John McCain. For one thing, the indictment makes it clear that Kevin Ring was just as bad as Scanlon or Abramoff (and maybe a bit worse), but including Rind as a villain in McCain’s Report would have moved the Abramoff scandal along and kept the Media digging during an Election Year. More reporting might have even connected more Members of the Republican Party to the corruption. By downplaying Ring’s involvement and complicity in the crimes, McCain actively protected the guilty and obstructed the truth. He also protected his narrative of a two greedy "bad Apples" taking advantage of gullible Native Americans.
The Ring Indictment is also an indictment of McCain’s Report and the myths it promotes as fact.
Perhaps the biggest myth was that Abramoff never earned his fees. I’ve been looking into this guy for almost a decade and he almost always delivered the goods for his clients and his Party. The Sandia Pueblo is a case in point.
Their effort to get the deal that protected their Mountain through Congress seemed to be doomed when they hired Abramoff in February 2002. It was actively opposed by Heather Wilson who represented the Tribe in Congress and Senator Domenici. By the end of the year Domenici was supporting Sen. Bingaman’s Legislation and Heather Wilson had flip-flopped and was now introducing similar legislation in the House. By early, 2003 the legislation was signed into law by George Bush. Abramoff had delivered the goods.
After the battle was won, some in the Tribe did not want to renew their contract with Abramoff and Ring. It was not a large client for Abramoff, but it was an important client for Ring. Much of his indictment focuses on the effort and pressure Team Abramoff brought down on the Sandia to keep renew the contract. Heather Wilson was the strongest pressure point. The Tribe knew she only supported the Sandia Mountain Agreement because of Abramoff and the Ring Indictment makes it clear that the tribe could have new trouble with Wilson if they dropped Abramoff as their lobbyist:
161. On or about March 4,2003, a lobbyist at Finn B emailed defendant RING, "I'm going to kill [the New Mexico tribe] with [its U.S. Representative] if we don't get hired."
162. On or about March 7,2003, a lobbyist at Finn B emailed defendant RING, "[The staffer for the New Mexico tribe's U.S. Representative] is going to be in the meeting with [the New Mexico tribe] when they come to town. He's going to give the 'are you guys staying with [Finn B] this cycle? They did a great job on ... legislation ... and really cleared the path for you guys .....yadda yadda.' He's gonna gather as much intel as possible for us."
It is safe to bet that the lobbyist emailing Ring is Abramoff and it is certain that John McCain had this evidence that the Abramoff money trail went through Members of his Party. The Ring Indictment not only connects the dots to Heather Wilson, it also links the corruption to John Doolittle, Ernest Istook, the Bush White House, the Department of Interior and the Department of Justice. The indictment makes it clear that many others are involved in the scandal as well:
31. Defendant RING and his coconspirators employed these manner and means with the Office of Representative 4, the Office of Representative 5, the Office of Representative Ney, the DOJ, the DOI, and other congressional offices and executive branch entities.
And now we have another Abramoff scandal narrative to add into the mix—the story as told by Jack Abramoff himself.
On Tuesday, a new book will be released. It is The Perfect Villain: John McCain and the Demonization of Lobbyist Jack Abramoff by Gary Chafetz
I got a copy the other day and I’ve been going through it. It is a book with some serious flaws, but it is also fascinating in many respects. This is the first time since the scandal broke that we get to hear the voice of Jack Abramoff telling his side of the story. The author has been interviewing Abramoff since before he went to prison. There are some interesting and newsworthy facts and assertion in the book. For instance, Abramoff claims to have raised over $3 million dollars in one day to fund the 2000 election cycle smear campaign against John McCain in South Carolina. The money was funneled through Jack’s old pal Ralph Reed who led the effort with an assist from the third caballero, Grover Norquist. And yes, Rove knew that Jack had found the money to fund the smear. This makes McCain’s current embrace of most of these weasels all the more amazing and indicative of his current lack of honor.
Abramoff’s recollections about the Sandia Tribe are also interesting when compared to the McCain SIAC Report and the DOJ Plea Deals and Indictments:
For the Sandia Indians, the overarching issue was not slot machines and blackjack. It was lucre of a different sort: A sacred mountain. The ability to purchase and place "land into trust" was complex and frustrating. Delays could take decades. Abramoff had pulled off a coup for the Choctaws by obtaining nearly 9,000 acres, placed into trust, portions of which the tribe had originally applied for in 1927. This had required Congressional approval, which, thanks to Abramoff’s wining and dining of DeLay, was finally accomplished. For the Sandia Indians, a clock was ticking on a land issue of paramount importance to the tribe. The Sandia Mountain had served "as [the tribe’s] church and...spiritual sustenance for hundreds of years." Because of an erroneous 1859 survey and because of its location on the northern city limits of Albuquerque, developers had begun encroaching on the mountain’s foothills. After protracted litigation, a time-sensitive settlement was reached, incorporating the mountain into the tribe’s reservation. The agreement, however, would expire if not ratified by Congress before November 16, 2002.
With the deadline only nine months away, the tribe’s anxiety was growing as its confidence in its lobbyists was diminishing. The Sandia needed a lobbyist with muscle in Washington to make it happen. They met with Abramoff and Scanlon in February 2002. Abramoff told them that although there were never any guarantees, they rarely lost, which happened to be true. But the tribe balked at Scanlon’s $2,875,000 fee for a database and a grassroots effort. Later, a tribal lawyer told McCain that that Abramoff had insisted that Scanlon was "part of the package" and essential to success. Abramoff reduced Scanlon’s fee to $2,750,000, and to sweeten the deal, halved his firm’s $125,000 monthly retainer. The reason was that "Abramoff [was plotting] with Scanlon to split the...Sandia profit as part of their ‘gimme five’ scheme," wrote McCain. "The... elements of deception are much the same. However, the financial loss to the... Sandia and the subsequent financial gain to Abramoff and Scanlon were, relatively speaking, on a scale considerably smaller than what the other Tribes experienced. This fact was not lost on Abramoff and Scanlon early in their relationship with the [tribe], as [seen in] the following e-mail exchange on March 7, 2002:"
Scanlon: [$]2.75 [million from Sandia] is chump change!!! What [t]he hell were we thinking?
Abramoff: No kidding....
Scanlon: Hey – it’s still a W[in]—and I will take the W[in] any way we can—now a [$]4.5 [million] W[in] would be nicer—but wait till Thursday when COush [Coushatta] comes to town!
Abramoff remembers it differently: "Their other lobbyists had failed them and it was the 11th hour, but the lawyer who was negotiating for them didn’t like Mike [Scanlon]. For reasons I don’t want to go into, the guy hated him. It was uncomfortable doing the pitch meeting." The lawyer claimed the tribe was poor and had no money, but Abramoff knew the tribe had constructed a dazzling casino, golf course, and resort. "Finally, I put my foot down and figured they’d walk away, but I didn’t care. They came back and said yes, but this guy had so poisoned the atmosphere that Scanlon was reluctant to do it, although the profit on this was good. Negotiations over the fees for [the firm] and [Scanlon] were parallel but separate. I agreed to $50K per month, down from our usual $150K a month, and Scanlon agreed to lower his fee a bit."
There appeared to be little doubt that the tribe was unhappy with Scanlon—either because of interpersonal conflicts or because Scanlon’s work was not up to snuff. Later, McCain did not equivocate. He insisted that the eventual Congressional ratification of the Sandia Mountain agreement came about due to the "support from the New Mexico Congressional Delegation and a homegrown grassroots effort..." Abramoff laughs: "That homegrown grassroots effort was Scanlon!"
In the final sentence of his concluding remarks of the Sandia section of his report, McCain stated unequivocally, "Success was achieved for reasons wholly unrelated to the extraordinarily expensive pretensions of Abramoff and Scanlon." What incontrovertible evidence did he have to make such an unqualified statement? But it was telling that McCain omitted something that would have undermined his declaration. Soon after the Sandia Indians got their mountain, the tribe renewed its contract with Abramoff.
Yeah, Scanlon and Abramoff were greedy. I think the same is true about many, many lobbyist—including the ones running McCain’s campaign. And yes, Jack and his team stepped way over the line. A lot of them have pleaded guilty. I hope more will follow them and that some taking the long perp walk will be those Republican players who owe their freedom to the John McCain’s active cover-up of the Abramoff Scandal
Heather Wilson is one of those weasels. And not surprisingly this Abramoff connected and McCain Protected corruptionist is a familiar surrogate for the McCain Campaign. The next time she is on a media call she should be asked about her involvement in the scandal. She should be asked which staffers of hers were working with Team Abramoff. She should be asked how and why she changed her position on the Sandia Mountain legislation.
And John McCain (if he ever holds another press conference) should be asked why he has so many people connected to the Abramoff scandal speaking for, raising money for and advising his campaign. These questions should be asked, but expect the answers to be lies (if they come at all).
John McCain is a Liar without Honor.
Any discussion of this campaign MUST include that fact that John McCain is a liar.
So, have you told somebody today that John McCain is a liar?
If not, you still have some time. There are many examples John McCain’s dishonesty. And each one is an example of his lack of honor. We must drive this point home: John McCain is a liar.
McCain wears his "honor" like a patina of armor. It is his suit of clothes woven by the lobbyist grifters who have managed and profited off of his political career for decades. Finally, the crowd is pointing out that the Maverick Emperor has No Clothes and some in the media are turning away from the group think that has protected this liar for decades.
Once more: John McCain is a liar.
Memorize and repeat
It is a strange world when I find myself thinking that Jack Abramoff has more honor than John McCain, but that is where I am.
At least Jack Abramoff shows some remorse.
McCain just piles on the lies, hype and self-promotion.
We need to work hard and defeat this Corruptionist in the next two months. Every day counts.
Volunteer.
Register folks to Vote.
Take Action.
Donate.
We have Country to Take Back and a planet to save.
We can do this.
Yes. We. Can.
Cheers