Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community - View Single Post - And now the NEXT Republican Congressional scandal: Randy Cunningham

host · 12-08-2005, 05:22 AM

I know....I know....I can read it already; host...yer posting toooo much information !!! I don't make this stuff up....and you have to know it to discuss what is going on, unless you post here to disrupt the threads. C'mon....buckle down...get up to speed....question and challenge whatever I might have wrong here. Is anyone else outraged, and of the belief that Hastert should resign.....now?

Tell me again that this is all about "bi-partisan" corruption, in congress, in the white house, and in governor's mansions, all over the USA. That is what some of you....and much of the MSM, want the rest of us to believe.

Your house speaker, Dennis Hastert, wants to keep the House of Representatives closed for an extra two weeks at the start of the 2006 session, so this scumbag can have a better shot at regaining his house majority "leader" spot. Two questions for Hastert:

1.) Dennis, do you read the newspapers, watch TV news, or surf the net?

2.) What does it say about you...when you back "leaders" in you house, and in your party, like Delay and Pombo?

Some background....Bush fired the DOJ prosecutor, Mr. Black, who was investigating Abramoff's activities in the Northern Marianas in 2002. Karl Rove is said to have approved prosecutor Black's replacement. The replacement is a cousin of one the local politicians who Black was investigating, and the investigation ended. Congressman George Miller kept demanding that republican committee chairman Richard Pombo, launch an investigation into the Northern Marianas situation, and Pombo refused, until 5 months ago.

Pombo received $326,100 in campaign contributions from Indian tribes, apparently via Abramoff. The Abramoff/Delay preservation of the Northern Marianas as a minimum wage/labor law exempt "sweat shop" zone, was reported to include these quotes by Delay and countered by republican senator Murkowski, who went to the Marianas to view the worker's conditions for himself. The "deal" is that garments made there can be labeled, "Made In USA", and thus garner higher prices than garments from other low wage countries.

Quote:

http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/05/09/real.delay/
The real scandal of Tom DeLay
Monday, May 9, 2005 Posted: 12:14 PM EDT (1614 GMT)
.....Later, DeLay would tell The Washington Post's Juliet Eilperin that the low-wage, anti-union conditions of the Marianas constituted "a perfect petri dish of capitalism. It's like my Galapagos Island."

Contrast that with what then-Sen. Murkowski told me in a 1998 interview: "The last time we heard a justification that economic advances would be jeopardized if workers were treated properly was shortly before Appomattox.".

The following detail members of congress who received large amounts via Abramoff, and who had wives or key assistants hired by Abramoff. The governor elect of the Marianas, along with Michael Scanlon, are agreeing to co-operate with prosecutors. Hastert is in denial if he thinks that he can keep the congress closed long enough to put Tom Delay back "in charge", IMO.

Quote:

http://www.pacificislands.cc/pina/pi...rlpinaid=18756
GOVERNOR-ELECT Benigno R. Fitial says he will cooperate with federal authorities in the ongoing investigation of Rep. Tom Delay and former Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff, whom he once described as his “close friends.”

House leadership spokesman Charles P. Reyes Jr. said Speaker Fitial “will comply with all the legal requirements asked of him.”

But Reyes said it’s unfair that Fitial’s name is always being associated with Delay, R-Texas, and Abramoff.
In April, when news about DeLay’s and Abramoff’s possible ethical violations broke, Fitial issued a statement in their defense.

“I join Congressman DeLay in condemning this unfair criticism, which has even gone to the extent of attacking the Northern Marianas for its efforts to rightfully defend itself against hostile federal takeover attempts orchestrated by partisan political groups and other liberal special interest groups,” said Fitial in a statement issued on April 20.

Back then, Fitial said certain left-leaning parties hostile to the local garment industry are “attempting to undermine” his 2005 gubernatorial bid by linking him to the controversy surrounding DeLay and Abramoff, whom Fitial credited as the individuals who “successfully thwarted repeated federal takeover attempts against the CNMI.”

Quote:

http://www.texasobserver.org/showArt...ArticleID=1743
Stranger Than Paradise Feature: 9/10/2004
How Tom DeLay's deregulatory ideology stretched to the island of Saipan

...... Stories about the Marianas reached George Miller, a congressman who represents the East Bay area near San Francisco. Miller is the ranking Democrat of the House Committee on Resources, which has jurisdiction over U.S. territories and commonwealths. In 1992, when the Democrats still controlled the House, he chaired the committee and convened a hearing on the garment industry in the Marianas (known in U.S. federal-speak as CNMI for Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands). Miller said at the hearing, “I am concerned by the attitude that it is acceptable to underpay and mistreat alien workers who are willing to accept substandard conditions in the CNMI that are better than their homeland. It is unacceptable when U.S. farmers abuse Mexican field workers, and it is unacceptable when CNMI garment manufacturers abuse Chinese workers. It cannot be tolerated anywhere.”.......

Quote:

http://www.forward.com/campaignconfi...ves/001927.php
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/06/po.../06ethics.html

Per NYT:
Justice Department Is Asked to Widen Inquiry of Lobbyist
By PHILIP SHENON
Published: July 6, 2005
WASHINGTON, July 5 - Criminal investigators at the Justice Department have been asked by a House committee to consider broadening their corruption investigation of a Washington lobbyist whose ties to Tom DeLay, the House Republican leader, and other prominent lawmakers are the subject of inquiries throughout the government, Congressional officials disclosed on Tuesday.

The request about the investigation of the lobbyist, Jack Abramoff, was made in a letter last week to Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales from the Republican chairman and the senior Democrat on the House Resources Committee.

The letter, dated June 30, cited a flurry of accusations of wrongdoing involving Mr. Abramoff's multimillion-dollar lobbying on behalf of the Northern Mariana Islands, a small American commonwealth in the Pacific, and said that "any allegations of criminal matters of this sort are best addressed to the Department of Justice."

The Justice Department has refused to discuss details of its investigation of Mr. Abramoff, which began more than a year ago. Congressional officials who are trying to monitor the investigation say that it has focused until now on accusations that Mr. Abramoff defrauded Indian tribes who paid him millions of dollars in lobbying fees on behalf of their gambling operations.

The Resources Committee request could suggest new scrutiny for Mr. DeLay, because he worked closely with Mr. Abramoff for years to block Washington from imposing the federal minimum wage on large clothing factories in the Northern Marianas. Human rights groups have long criticized the factories, which employ mostly migrant Asian workers.

Quote:

http://www.insidebayarea.com/trivall...ews/ci_3287617
Article Last Updated: 12/07/2005 02:25 PM
Pombo's donations under fire
U.S. representative from Tracy has collected $326,100 from tribes and affiliates since 1999
By Michael DoyleTHE FRESNO BEE
Inside Bay Area
WASHINGTON — Tribal lobbyist Jack Abramoff sent a calling card of sorts when Tracy Republican Richard Pombo became chairman of the House Resources Committee.

Two weeks after Pombo took over the committee that oversees tribal issues in January 2003, Abramoff contributed $2,000 to Pombo's re-election effort. Later that year, Abramoff gave an additional $5,000 to Pombo's leadership committee.

"He was a big Republican donor, and I had become chairman," Pombo said Monday night, "and he obviously had a lot of clients who had business before the committee."

Some of those clients likewise began cutting checks for Pombo once he vaulted over more senior members and became committee chairman. These include at least $27,000 from members of the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe of Massachusetts, who would benefit from tribal recognition legislation backed by Pombo.

Nor have Abramoff and the Mashpee Wampanoag been alone in their targeting of the one-time Tracy City Council member. Since 1999, Pombo has collected $326,100 from tribes and tribal members, a tally by Political Money Line shows. The bulk of that has come following his 2003 promotion to chairman, and it's made him the third leading recipient of tribal funds in Congress.

"Obviously, they want to have some access," Pombo said of the contributors,

Quote:

<a href="www.house.gov/georgemiller/newweb/cnmifollowup.pdf+&hl=en">http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:rD5Dvin9PzYJ:www.house.gov/georgemiller/newweb/cnmifollowup.pdf+&hl=en</a>
May 11, 2005

The Honorable Richard Pombo
Chairman, Committee on Resources
1324 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515

Dear Mr. Chairman:

Recent media reports have uncovered information about suspected wrongdoings by lobbyist Jack Abramoff, his associates, and clients in the CNMI. This new information adds additional weight to my request of April 14, 2005 that you begin a thorough investigation of the matter by the Committee on Resources which has jurisdiction over territorial affairs. Your staff asked for documents associated with my request, and on April 22 I provided 428 pages of evidentiary materials related to my initial request to you.

In my April 14 letter to you, (please note that it was in fact April 14 and not April 12 as stated in your letter to me of May 9), I wrote that in 1999, two men associated with then-Majority Whip Tom DeLay - Ed Buckham, a one-time chief of staff who later became the head of ARMPAC, and Mike Scanlon, a DeLay spokesman - were reportedly involved in an effort to influence the election of the Speaker to the CNMI House of Representatives. I have since learned of additional evidence to suggest these two men may have traded political favors to sway the election in favor of a candidate most likely to renew a contract with lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

In 1999, Mr. Abramoff's contract with the CNMI government was suspended, with no clear prospect of renewal.1 At the same time, an Abramoff supporter, Mr. Benigno Fitial, was a candidate for Speaker of the CNMI's House of Representatives. Mr. Fitial, however, was two votes behind his opponent, Mr. Heinz S. Hofschneider, according to press reports of a letter signed by 10 out of the 12 CNMI Republican House members in support of Mr. Hofschneider, including Representative Alejo Mendiola and Representative Norman S. Palacios. These 10 Republican legislators were enough to secure Mr. Hofschneider the election.2

New reports by the Los Angeles Times and Marianas Variety confirm that in 1999 Mr. Fitial did indeed meet with Mr. Buckham and Mr. Scanlon - who was still on Mr. DeLay's payroll at the time. At the meeting, Mr. Fitial recommended that the two men meet with Representatives Mendiola and Palacios, both of whom had signed the letter in support of Mr. Hofschneider, to encourage them to switch their votes for Speaker.3

When Mr. Scanlon and Mr. Buckham met with the two legislators, they reportedly promised to help secure money for local projects in exchange for their votes for Mr. Fitial, including federal resources for repairing a breakwater on the island of Tinian, a priority for Mr. Palacios. They were successful, and Mr. Fitial was elected Speaker. Mr. Abramoff's contract was subsequently renewed.4

The following year, Congress passed one appropriations bill in October that included $150,000 for the breakwater restoration project in Mr. Palacios' district and another appropriations bill in May that listed funding for an airport repaving project in Rota in the committee report as a priority for discretionary grants. The Rota project was located on the island that Mr. Mendiola represented.5

Mr. DeLay was a member of the conference committee on the bill that included the breakwater project, as well as a member of the subcommittee that approved the transportation project. His aide, Mr. Scanlon, was on the appropriations committee payroll when he traveled to the Mariana Islands with Mr. Buckham to secure Mr. Fitial's election as Speaker.6

This new information makes it even more imperative that you launch a bipartisan and thorough investigation into potential unethical and illegal behavior by Mr. Abramoff and others with respect to U.S. territorial matters, including whether there was inappropriate congressional interference into CNMI elections. As you may already be aware, both the CNMI legislature and Governor Babauta's office have publicly stated that they have no objection to such a congressional investigation.7

Yesterday, I received your letter requesting additional documents concerning my initial request and the substantial information I have already provided to you. You asked that, in order "to better evaluate the need for a Congressional investigation," I should submit to you "a full and complete document log" that is "bound in a three ring binder, annotated, and separated with a formal list of items included in the piece; each entry should include its source and author, its date, and the number of pages." You further requested "any correspondence with nongovernmental entities in the related history of this request." Providing such information, you wrote, will assure the Committee "an organized and thorough foundation of information."

With all due respect, we are talking about investigating charges of serious wrongdoing, not the parameters of a term paper. I have served in Congress and on the Resources Committee for more than 30 years, chaired or served as ranking member of three full committees, and initiated numerous substantive investigations. You now possess more than enough information to initiate an investigation into the very serious charges about Mr. Abramoff's lobbying activities as they pertain to the jurisdiction of the Resources Committee. Your request pertaining to binder types, annotation, pagination and tabulation trivializes these allegations and the widening public concerns about the integrity of the Congress.

As Chairman, you have the resources, the staff, and the authority, including the authority to issue subpoenas, to obtain any and all necessary documents and information related to the Mariana Islands and potential abuses in Congress. I stated at the outset that I looked forward to working with you on this request, and I have provided you substantial additional information at your request. In addition, I am providing to you today copies of the Department of Interior reports, obtained at my request on your behalf, and the documents associated with the information mentioned in today's letter.

The only question now is whether you are or are not going to launch this important investigation. For years, my colleagues and I have sought stricter oversight of conditions and events in the CNMI but have met with resistance and inactivity from committee leaders. Failure to pursue this investigation in light of the information I have already provided to you and your staff would be a serious abdication of this Committee's responsibility to oversee a critical area of its jurisdiction, and would ignore the public interest in these widely reported and well-substantiated charges.

Thank you very much for considering this request. I look forward to your response as to whether or not you will launch this investigation and I look forward to working with you to uncover all the facts associated with these activities.

Sincerely,

GEORGE MILLER
Member of Congress

1 Los Angeles Times, 5/6/05.
2 Marianas Variety, 11/24/99, 12/17/99.
3 Los Angeles Times, 5/6/05, Marianas Variety, 4/29/05.
4 Marianas Variety, 12/17/99, Los Angeles Times, 5/6/05.
5 Los Angeles Times, 4/6/05
6 Los Angeles Times, 5/6/05.
7 Saipan Tribune, 4/17/05.

Quote:

http://galvestondailynews.com/story....9d24435d0c3d0e
DeLay disputes charges of abuse in Saipan
By Marty Schladen
The Daily News

Published May 15, 2005
“Incredible lies” was the way House Majority Leader Tom DeLay described charges that some foreign workers on Saipan labored in sweatshops in the 1990s while others were forced into sex slavery.

DeLay’s vehement denials come despite findings by two federal agencies and by congressmen from both parties that the charges were true.

Quote:

http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:c...olumn%22&hl=en
DeLay's worst: a dirty drama of bondage
May 10, 2005
.........But the question arises: Is the pond hop to historic links the worst thing the Texas Republican has ever done? Hardly. There are many qualified candidates, but one stands out for its squalor. That's DeLay's personal campaign to ensure that garment industry sweatshop workers and sex slaves in the Northern Mariana Islands - a U.S. territory - were exploited in a system that resembled indentured servitude............

Quote:

<a href="http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache

WV3345E9KIJ:www.knoxnews.com/kns/national/article/0,1406,KNS_350_4269152,00.html+&hl=en">www.knoxnews.com/kns/national/article/0,1406,KNS_350_4269152,00.html</a>

Abramoff probe broader than first thought

By BRODY MULLINS, The Wall Street Journal
November 27, 2005

......any suggestion that Doolittle "may have had some improper involvement in matters recently disclosed about Mr. Abramoff and others comes as a complete surprise and is simply ridiculous."

Prosecutors also are investigating at least 17 current and former congressional aides, about half of whom later took lobbying jobs with Abramoff, say lawyers and others involved in the case. Five of the former aides, including Tony Rudy, Ed Buckham and Susan Hirschmann, worked for DeLay. The three were top aides to DeLay and are now Washington lobbyists. None returned calls or e-mails seeking comment. ............

Quote:

http://www.sacbee.com/content/politi...14757775c.html
Doolittle's dealings draw closer scrutiny November 30, 2005

....WASHINGTON - For more than a year, Rep. John Doolittle's connections with Jack Abramoff, a one-time high-flying Washington lobbyist, have made occasional news.

A company run by Doolittle's wife did work for Abramoff, and the grand jury investigating his activities served her with a subpoena. Doolittle belatedly reported using Abramoff's skybox for a fundraiser. A former Doolittle staffer had joined Abramoff's lobbying team. And records show Abramoff, his associates and their clients, primarily Indian tribes, have contributed at least $140,000 to the Roseville Republican's campaigns and political action committees since 1999....

........Doolittle's office has described Abramoff as a "close friend" of the congressman. Even if that relationship does not draw Doolittle directly into the Abramoff investigation, it has become volatile fodder for the 2006 Republican primary, in which he is being challenged by Auburn City Councilman Mike Holmes.

"Representative Doolittle presents himself as a person of high moral values," Holmes said Tuesday. "This relationship with Abramoff and the fact that he takes money from casinos when he is against casino gambling makes one wonder what his ethics really are."

The connections between Doolittle and Abramoff, who already is under indictment in a separate bank-fraud investigation, are extensive.

Doolittle's wife, Julie, did fundraising work for Abramoff between August 2002 and March 2003. Her records were subpoenaed last year by the Abramoff grand jury.

A former Doolittle staffer, Kevin Ring, later joined Abramoff's lobbying shop and recently cited the Fifth Amendment in declining to answer questions before the Senate Indian Affairs Committee about his activities.

In the past five years, Abramoff, Ring and their clients and associates have put $140,000 into Doolittle's campaign and leadership political action committee coffers, records show.

Abramoff personally contributed $4,000 to Doolittle's re-election committee, while a handful of associates, including Ring, gave another $9,000.

Meanwhile, Abramoff's tribal clients and lobbying associates gave substantially to the congressman's PACs.

As much as $92,000 flowed to his Superior California Federal Leadership PAC since 2002, another $20,000 went to Doolittle's state leadership PAC, and $15,000 to a PAC Doolittle controlled for a conservative Republican group called the Conservative Action Team.

All of the contributions appear to fall within campaign finance limits, and the law permits members of Congress to accept donations from tribes, lobbyists and former employees. The issue for investigators looking into the Abramoff scandal is whether any acts by elected officials were expected, promised or received in exchange for contributions.

Some of the tribal contributions occurred about the time Doolittle signed onto a congressional letter opposing the Jena tribe of Choctaw Indians' request for a new casino in Louisiana, which two of Abramoff's tribal clients saw as unwanted competition.

"It should come as no surprise that Congressman Doolittle would sign a letter opposing Indian gaming since he has an established, 25-year record of fighting against the expansion of all forms of gaming here in California and across the country," Blackann said. "To suggest that the reason he signed a letter along with 35 other members of Congress opposing the establishment of a casino was because of anything other than his long-held anti-gaming position is both ludicrous and insulting."

Doolittle also used a popular Capitol Hill restaurant that Abramoff once owned, Signatures, for fundraising events. He held a 1999 fundraiser at Abramoff's skybox at Washington's MCI Center that coincided with a game between the Washington Wizards and the Sacramento Kings.

After reports that Doolittle had failed to report the skybox use to the Federal Election Commission, which he called an oversight, the congressman last year belatedly sent Abramoff's law firm $1,040 for its use.

Julie Doolittle operates a political fundraising and events-planning business out of the couple's home in suburban Oakton, Va.

Last year, a grand jury looking into Abramoff's tangled activities subpoenaed Julie Doolittle and her company, Sierra Dominion, for its records.

Julie Doolittle's attorney, William Stauffer Jr., told The Bee last year that Julie Doolittle did not do any work for Indian tribes and that the grand jury's interest appeared to be limited to her association with one of Abramoff's many business spin-offs, the Capitol Athletic Foundation.

Stauffer said Julie Doolittle was public relations director for the foundation. According to other reports at the time, the foundation raised money in part for an Orthodox Jewish school in Washington that has since closed.

While Julie Doolittle's job involved planning and marketing services, Stauffer said the event she was hired to handle never came off because of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Stauffer said last year that Julie Doolittle was never called to testify before the grand jury and that he regarded the handover of requested documents as an end to the matter. On Tuesday, Stauffer essentially reiterated that comment. He said there have been "no developments" since then, "nor are any changes or developments expected."..........