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This is my favorite part...............
http://www.tfproject.org/tfp/showpos...27&postcount=3

One of the most intriguing Bush appointees is Susan Ralston:<br />

Here is a link to the "map" of "west wing" offices at the white house, and a description of Susan Ralston's job title. What <br />

follows are links and excerpts about her background and "duties". Susan Ralston was Abramoff's long time assistant, before <br />

coming to work at the white house in 2001. Her duties include screening Karl Rove's calls, and apparently submitting names of <br />

callers to Grover Norquist, who reportedly decides who then is cleared to speak with Rove. Special prosecutor Fitzgerald <br />

subpoenaed Ralston, and she testified before his grand jury in July, 2005:
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<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/custom/2005/06/06/CU2005060601310.html" target="_blank">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dy...5060601310.html</a><br />
.....9. Susan Ralston, Special Assistant to the President and Assistant to the Senior Advisor (Karl Rove)<br />
Steve Atkiss, Special Assistant to the President for Operations

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<a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7577133/site/newsweek/?page=2&amp;#note" target="_blank">http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7577133...k/?page=2&amp;#note</a><br />
<br />
STATE OF THE NATION | APRIL 21, 2005<br />

<br />
............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. That level of close access to Bush, DeLay and other GOP leaders has been cited by many of the Indian tribes who hired Abramoff with hopes of gaining greater influence with the administration and Congress on gaming issues. Whether the tribes got their money’s worth is a question still being investigated by Congress, but there’s no question some doors were opened. In 2001, Bush met personally with a group of Indian leaders—including at least one tribe represented by Abramoff—to talk about his tax cut plan. The meeting was reportedly arranged by Grover Norquist, a prominent GOP activist with close ties to the administration and Abramoff.<br />
<br />
While many GOP lawmakers have sought to distance themselves from Abramoff, the White House has remained largely quiet on Bush’s ties to the controversial lobbyist. Last fall, when Congress opened hearings into Abramoff’s lobbying and fund-raising, the Bush-Cheney campaign pointedly refused to return a $2,000 contribution check from the lobbyist and said there was no reason to question any other checks Abramoff brought in as a top fund-raiser for the campaign.<br />
<br />
Editor's Note: On April 21, a White House spokesman told NEWSWEEK that Abramoff had played no role in Rove's hiring of Ralston.<br />

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<a href="http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2004/05/24/armey/index1.html" target="_blank">http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2...mey/index1.html</a><br />
House divided<br />
GOP enforcer Tom DeLay and his former partner Dick Armey are locked in a nasty dispute over the future of the Republican <br />
<br />

Party.<br />
<br />
By Mary Jacoby<br />
<br />
May 24, 2004 | WASHINGTON <br />
<br />
.....Although he is out of Congress and the GOP leadership, Armey makes his comments at some personal risk; he is now a <br />
<br />
lobbyist on Washington's fabled K Street, which is ruthlessly patrolled by DeLay and his key ally, Americans for Tax Reform <br />
<br />
president Grover Norquist. For years, Norquist and DeLay have worked to purge the nation's corporate lobby shops of <br />

<br />
Democrats, and companies that fill GOP campaign coffers with money are rewarded with access to lawmakers. Enemies don't get <br />
<br />
their calls returned, and without access, they lose clients. Access is coordinated by the White House, often through the <br />
<br />
office of another powerful Texan, political strategist Karl Rove.<br />
<br />
For two years, the assistant who answered Rove's phone was a woman who had previously worked for lobbyist Jack Abramoff, a <br />
<br />
close friend of Norquist's and a top DeLay fundraiser. One Republican lobbyist, who asked not to be named because DeLay and <br />
<br />
Rove have the power to ruin his livelihood, said the way Rove's office worked was this: "Susan took a message for Rove, and <br />

<br />
then called Grover to ask if she should put the caller through to Rove. If Grover didn't approve, your call didn't go <br />
<br />
through." ........<br />

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<a href="http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2004/0406.whoswho.html" target="_blank">http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/fe...06.whoswho.html</a><br />
........How did Norquist attain such influence over Ralston? Flowers every Friday? Redskins tickets? The answer, actually, is <br />
<br />
what the White House ethics lawyers call a "preexisting relationship." Ralston had formerly worked for lobbyist Jack <br />
<br />
Abramoff, a close friend of Norquist's and a top fundraiser for House majority whip Tom DeLay (R-Texas).<br />

<br />
Ralston has since left the pressure cooker White House job for possibly the most isolated island in Washington. She is now <br />
<br />
executive assistant to Eddy R. Badrina, the senior advisor of the President's Advisory Commission on Asian Americans and <br />
<br />
Pacific Islanders. ............<br />

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