George W. Bush is a liar. That fact is proven daily by anybody who fact checks his statements, policies and actions. So you could prove it by focusing on anything he said.
Yesterday he was out giving interviews to his favorite fluffers. And in his interview with his Head Fluffer, Brit Hume, he told two lies about Jack Abramoff (emphasis added):.
Bush: "Ahhh-secondly, I'm umm-ahhh, you know the, the Abramamoff-I'm frankly, I'm not all that familiar what's going on up there in Capitol Hill, but it seems like to me he was an equal money dispenser. That he was giving money to people on both political parties."
The second lie was the easy one to spot and Sylvester McMonkey McBean and kos posted Diaries today that debunk and link to Jack's GOP only donations.
It is the first lie that I want to focus on. Bush seems to have no idea who Abramoff is and that's odd because they have connections going back to his days as Governor of Texas.
More on the jump.
I can understand why Bush would want to grant interviews and try to keep the focus on the Iraq elections and off any other story (like the 12-15-05 fourth anniversary of Osama Bin Laden's
escaped from Tora Bora) that might deserve some attention. And I would understand why he would want to downplay the growing GOP culture of corruption. I can even understand his two lies about Abramoff.
In the second he wants to support the GOP "Everybody Does It" narrative that offers red meat to a "balance bias" MSM that is having trouble covering a fully GOP owned and operated scandal.
And as for the first lie. George wants to keep Jack connected to Capital Hill and obscure his connections to the White House.
Nice try, but it won't work.
Earlier this year, the AP reported some of W's earliest Abramoff ties to support Jack's lobbying efforts on the Commonwealth of North Marianas Islands (CMNI):
The records from Abramoff's firm, obtained by The Associated Press from the Marianas under an open records request, chronicle Abramoff's careful cultivation of relations with Bush's political team as far back as 1997.
In that year, Abramoff charged the Marianas for getting then-Texas Gov. George W. Bush to write a letter expressing support for the Pacific territory's school choice proposal, his billing records show.
"I hope you will keep my office informed on the progress of this initiative," Bush wrote in a July 18, 1997, letter praising the islands' school plan and copying in an Abramoff deputy.
Jack use the
school choice issue as a way to generate support for other activities on CNMI like protecting sweatshops from US labor, custom and immigration laws. Keep in mind that Democratic Senators who wrote letters supporting Tribal education programs that Abramoff also supported have been raked over the coals. Bush's letter is the same type of action.
The same AP article, Controversial lobbyist had close contact with Bush team has a wealth of information about the history of close Bush-Abramoff ties. The May 6, 2005 LA Times and NYT also reported on the Bush-Abramoff connections (but those reports are now behind walls).
The AP story established that Jack and George know each other, even as the WH tried to create distance between the two:
White House spokeswoman Erin Healy said Thursday that Bush didn't consider Abramoff a friend. "They may have met on occasion, but the president does not know him," she said.
Sure he didn't know Jack. And Jack just happened to log over 200 connects with the Bush WH on CNMI sweatshops alone without any inside track to the Administration:
In President Bush's first 10 months, GOP fundraiser Jack Abramoff and his lobbying team logged nearly 200 contacts with the new administration as they pressed for friendly hires at federal agencies and sought to keep the Northern Mariana Islands exempt from the minimum wage and other laws, records show.
The meetings between Abramoff's lobbying team and the administration ranged from Attorney General John Ashcroft to policy advisers in Vice President Dick Cheney's office, according to his lobbying firm billing records. [snip]
"Our standing with the new administration promises to be solid as several friends of the CNMI (islands) will soon be taking high-ranking positions in the Administration, including within the Interior Department," Abramoff wrote in a January 2001 letter in which he persuaded the island government to follow him as a client to his new lobbying firm, Greenberg Traurig.[snip]
At least two people who worked on Abramoff's team at Preston Gates wound up with Bush administration jobs: Patrick Pizzella, named an assistant secretary of labor by Bush; and David Safavian, chosen by Bush to oversee federal procurement policy in the Office of Management and Budget.
"We have worked with WH Office of Presidential Personnel to ensure that CNMI-relevant positions at various agencies are not awarded to enemies of CNMI," Abramoff's team wrote the Marianas in an October 2001 report on its work for the year.
Abramoff's team didn't neglect party politics either: There were at least two meetings with Republican National Committee officials, including then-finance chief Jack Oliver, as well as attendance at GOP fundraisers.
And one of Jack's guys, David H. Safavian, resigned his post as the Bush administration's top federal procurement official after his arrest on lying and obstructing of justice charges related to the growing scandal.
The AP story also does a good thumb sketch of Jack's direct donations to Bush:
The access of Abramoff and his team to the administration came as the lobbyist was establishing himself as a GOP fundraiser.
Abramoff and his wife each gave $5,000 to Bush's 2000 recount fund and the maximum $1,000 to his 2000 campaign. By mid-2003, Abramoff had raised at least $100,000 for Bush's re-election campaign, becoming one of Bush's famed "pioneers."
Money also flowed from the Marianas to Bush's re-election campaign: It took in at least $36,000 from island donors, much of it from members of the Tan family, whose clothing factories were a routine stop for lawmakers and their aides visiting the islands on Abramoff-organized trips.
Two Tan family companies gave $25,000 each to the National Republican Senatorial Committee for the 2002 elections. Greenberg Traurig, too, was a big GOP giver. Its donations included $20,000 to the Republican National Committee for the 2000 elections and $25,000 each to the GOP's House and Senate fundraising committees in 2000 and again in 2002.
And this was just the tip of Jack's donations from one client back to Bush. Hundreds of thousand of dollars that flowed to Bush's 2000 Campaign, the Florida recount and his 2004 Campaign came through Jack. And then there are the millions that flowed through Jack to GOP Congressmen, Senators, think tanks and operatives to support the policies of Bush and one-party GOP rule.
As mentioned above, Jack donated directly to the Florida recount. He also sent down his team of Hill-staffers-turned-lobbyists to stop any recount effort. A recent Rawstory report details the connections including a $314,000 debt still owed by the Bush Campaign to Abramoff lobbying firm, Greenberg Traurig. The Rawstory article presents more of the Bush-Abramoff ties, like:
Bush has largely ducked the scandals surrounding Abramoff, but he was certainly a beneficiary of the lobbyist's fundraising: Abramoff was a Bush Pioneer, raising more than $120,000 for the 2004 presidential campaign.
He had the largest lobbyist accounts of any Pioneer, at $26 million.
In his Greenberg Traurig biography, which has since been stripped, the firm wrote, "Jack is directly involved in the Republican party and conservative movement leadership structures and is one of the leading fund raisers for the party and its congressional candidates."
Those close to Abramoff--including his partner Michael Scanlon, a former DeLay press secretary who is also being investigated for lobbying deals--bragged about their access to the president.
"Jack has a relationship with the President," Scanlon told the New Times Broward-Palm Beach in February 2001. "He doesn't have a bat phone or anything, but if he wanted an appointment, he would have one."
Abramoff was a member of the Republican National Committee executive body from 1981-1985. The tribal lobbyist advised the Interior Department--which oversees Indian affairs--during the Bush transition in 2001. His tribal clients gave more than $300,000 to a conservative environmental group founded by Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton.
Did you catch that other connection: Jack also served as a member of the Bush-Cheney Transition Team after Bush was appointed by the Supreme Court. And Jack was on the team to set policy and patronage positions for the Department of the Interior. That was great for Jack because his largest clients, CNMI and the Tribes were both under the oversight of the DOI.
And then there are all of the many stories of Jack getting White House meetings for his clients, either directly or through his 25-year partner in crime, Grover Norquist.
The point here is that when Bush makes a statement that sounds like he has no idea who Abramoff is or what Jack's role in the GOP was, George is lying.
Perhaps one of the best indications of Bush's awareness of Jack and his work came when the CNMI Governor talked about a coming meeting with Bush in the Saipan Tribune on Feb. 15, 2003:
U.S. president George W. Bush knows about Saipan for some reasons-reasons that cannot be disclosed, according to Governor Juan N. Babauta.
"President Bush is very much aware of where Saipan is for a number of reasons.reasons which I can't disclose," told reporters yesterday when asked about his upcoming meeting with the President at the White House.
" I just need to mention the word Saipan and that's where I'm from, the Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands. He will know what I'm talking about," Babauta said.
Babauta and the other governors from 50-plus states and territories are scheduled to have dinner with Bush and First Lady Laura Bush at the White House on February 23.
My guess: George knew all about CNMI because he knew all about Jack.
As the Abramoff Scandal grows around the GOP, it will be tied to the House, the Senate and the White House. It can not be stopped. More folks will follow Mike Scanlon and cut deals.
George can pretend to play dumb, but those reasons that cannot be disclosed, are going to be disclosed.
Feel free to add more Bush-Abramoff connection details. The first lie of his answer is more important to refute than the second...
