How’s Abramoff doing in the pen, JD?
” How’s Abramoff doing in the pen, JD?”
How would J.D. know?
Were you in the pen with Abramoff, and just want to check up on him?
Learn the facts....McCain got more $$$ from Abramoff’s firm than Hayworth ever did!
Indians, Lobbyists and Arizona Politics...OH MY!
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2440173/posts
McCain Received $100,000 From Firm Of Abramoff Notoriety
A review of campaign finance filings shows that the Arizona Republican has accepted more than $100,000 in donations from employees of Greenberg Traurig, the very firm where Abramoff once reigned.
And while the report pushed for greater transparency and accountability, towards the end, McCain and the other authors seemingly put the onus for change not on Congress itself, but on the tribes that Abramoff bilked.
Those donations include several thousand dollars from registered lobbyists who represent, or have represented, businesses such as NewsCorp, Rupert Murdoch’s media empire; Spi Spirits, a Cyprus based company that has fought with the Russian government for the rights to the Stolichnaya vodka brand name; El Paso Corp, a major energy company; General Motors; and the Essential Worker Immigration Coalition, a group of businesses and trade associations “concerned” about the shortage of lesser skilled and unskilled labor.
All told, McCain has received more than $400,000 from lobbying firms, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. And among his major fundraisers (”bundlers”) 59 have been identified as lobbyists by the non-profit organization Public Citizen.
[snips] McCain portrays himself as a Washington maverick unswayed by special interests, referring recently to lobbyists as “birds of prey.” Yet in his current campaign, more than 40 fund-raisers and top advisers have lobbied or worked for an array of gambling interests - including tribal and Las Vegas casinos, lottery companies, and online poker purveyors.
When rules being considered by Congress threatened a California tribe’s planned casino in 2005, McCain helped spare the tribe. Its lobbyist, who had no prior experience in the gambling industry, had a nearly 20-year friendship with McCain.”
McCain has been chair of the Indian affairs committee since 2005, having served on it for many years prior. He used this position to bring down Abramoff, who was second only to handing out tribe dollars to McCain’s man Scott Reed. Some have speculated the move was not so much to rid politics of the likes of Abramoff, but to gain a monopoly on tribe campaign dollars. There’s even a book, ‘The Perfect Villain: John McCain and the Demonization of Jack Abramoff’ speculating McCain’s motives.
In one such article, Chuck Muth writes:
“When stories of Jack Abramoff taking various Indian tribes to the cleaners first hit the press, McCain - Chairman of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee and author of the un-American, anti-free speech McCain-Feingold campaign censorship law - decided this would be an excellent opportunity to settle some old scores, help out some old pals, and do what Sen. McCain does best...get media attention for Sen. McCain.
As the Washington insider newspaper The Hill reported in March 2004, McCain wrote at least one letter on Senate letterhead praising Reed to one of Abramoff’s clients, the Saginaw Chippewa. Five days later, Abramoff was fired and the Saginaw Chippewa tribe retained Reed. In addition, columnist Bob Novak reported last December that on the eve of the investigation’s hearings, Reed handed some $200,000 in bundled contributions to McCain. Does this smell, or what?
The thing is, this McCain “investigation” looks like a real scandal in and of itself. If there are/were actual crimes involved, that’s what the Justice Department is for, not the Senate Indian Affairs Committee. Instead, McCain appears to be using his committee and his position to (a) grandstand for his 2008 presidential campaign, (b) pay back conservatives who opposed him in 2000, and (c) scratch the back of a well-heeled lobbyist who is scratching right back. “
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An interesting note. McCain, as head of Indian Affairs in congress, refused to work on any issues except Abramoff (not really that committee’s venue to start with) and has irritated many of the tribal people over this.
http://64.38.12.138/News/2005/010493.asp
top individual recipient of Indian gaming money during election 2000 was none other than anti-soft money crusader Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who sits on the Senate Committee of Indian Affairs.
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John McCain, Indian Agent
I thought the days of Indian Agents deceptively crafting words to steal land and resulting in forced relocation were long gone, but now there’s a republican presidential candidate running sliming for the highest office in the land,who’s done just that. McCain introduced legislation (S1973-1 and S.1003) and claimed that legislation was justified by a non-existent range war between the Dineh and the Hopi.
http://www.nativeamericannetroots.net/diary/87/