Is Ralston still at the White House? (Rove’s deputy)

Pressure's on, Suzie.

She used to work for Abramoff, ya know. :rofl:

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Susan_B._Ralston

Susan Bonzon Ralston, Special Assistant to the President & Assistant to the Senior Advisor Karl Rove, was Jack Abramoff's executive assistant at Preston Gates and Ellis and later at the Greenberg Traurig law and lobbying firm, where "she served as the assistant director of governmental affairs. Before moving to the nation’s capital, she was an office administrator for M&J Wilkow, Ltd., a commercial real estate firm in Chicago, Illinois." <1><2>

"Ms. Ralston assists Mr. Rove in overseeing the strategic planning, political affairs, public liaison, and intergovernmental affairs efforts of the White House." <3>

Ralston is cited as being the highest ranking Filipino-American in the Bush White House. The Philippine News Online reported September 22, 2004, that "Ralston, who was promoted special assistant to the president last July, is also actively involved in courting the Asian American vote."

<snip>

Skybox Keeper

"On April 20th, 2000, Jack Abramoff's personal assistant Susan Ralston wrote a memo outlining guidelines for doling out skybox seats to clients, politicians and Capitol Hill staffers," Josh Marshall wrote.

Gatekeeper

"As presidential adviser Karl Rove set up shop in the West Wing in 2001, he was looking for an assistant to serve as the trusted gatekeeper of his new fiefdom. Superlobbyist and Republican fundraiser Jack Abramoff was happy to lend a hand. Abramoff knew just the right person for the job: his own assistant, Susan Ralston. She interviewed with Rove and got the position," Peter H. Stone wrote in the March 27, 2004, National Journal. "For a staunch conservative and smooth GOP operative like Abramoff, losing a valuable aide was well worth the opportunity to ingratiate himself with the president's senior political adviser."

Ralston "was of course one of many Team Abramoff players who got seconded into the administration. Given the close relationship between Abramoff and Grover Norquist, it's probably not surprising that she also had an arrangement with Norquist in which he gave her direction on who to let through to Rove," Josh Marshall wrote in his Talking Points Memo September 21, 2005.

...more...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/22/AR2005092202204.html

Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff bragged two years ago that he was in contact with White House political aide Karl Rove on behalf of a large, Bermuda-based corporation that wanted to avoid incurring some taxes and continue receiving federal contracts, according to a written statement by President Bush's nominee to be deputy attorney general.

Timothy E. Flanigan, general counsel for conglomerate Tyco International Ltd., said in a statement to the Senate Judiciary Committee last week that Abramoff's lobbying firm initially boasted that Abramoff could help Tyco fend off a special liability tax because he "had good relationships with members of Congress," including House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.).

Abramoff later said "he had contact with Mr. Karl Rove" about the issue, according to the statement by Flanigan, who oversaw Tyco's dealings with Abramoff and his firm and received reports from Abramoff about progress in the lobbying campaign. Flanigan's statement is the latest indication that Abramoff promoted himself as having ready access to senior officials in the Bush administration.

<snip>

Rove's personal assistant at the time, Susan Ralston, formerly worked as Abramoff's secretary. It could not be learned yesterday whether she was among those contacted by any of the 14-person Greenberg team recorded as working on the Tyco account.

...more...

Just what I've been waiting for: a tie to Abramoff *in* the White House!

I'll say it again, it's more the Abramoff thing that will tumble this house of cards than Plame.

bribery/corruption tie-in:

Alexander Strategy Group

http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20051204/news_1n4adcs.html

excerpt:

Poway military contractor Brent Wilkes – whom Justice Department officials identify as the co-conspirator – has long been active in local political circles, serving as the San Diego County finance co-chairman of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's campaign and the state finance co-chairman for President Bush.

<snip>

He also kept his donations flowing, targeting people with clout over the Pentagon budget: $43,000 to Jerry Lewis, who now heads the Appropriations Committee; $35,500 to Hunter, who heads the Armed Services Committee; and $30,000 to Tom DeLay, who flew on Wilkes' jet several times and has been a frequent golfing buddy.

Over the past three years, Wilkes' lobbying group in Washington – Group W Advisors – also paid about $630,000 in lobbying fees to Alexander Strategy Group, a firm headed by DeLay's former chief of staff Ed Buckham and staffed with former DeLay employees.

The firm has a well-publicized reputation in Washington as a conduit to DeLay's office.

"The Alexander lobbyists' sales pitch was, 'Either you hire me or DeLay is going to screw you,' " an anonymous source identified as a top Republican lobbyist told the Congressional Quarterly weekly last month. "It was not really a soft sell."

...more...

(editing to add Brent Wilkes political contributions link):

http://www.newsmeat.com/fec/bystate_detail.php?st=CA&last=Wilkes&first=Brent&city=POWAY&zip=&xst=&next=25

check out the hundreds of thousand given and to whom

http://www.city-data.com/elec/elec-FAIRFAX-VA.html

excerpt:

Allen, Terry (Alexander Strategy Group), (Zip code: 22032) $500 to LEWIS FOR CONGRESS COMMITTEE on 04/15/04

http://www.newsmeat.com/ceo_political_donations/Mitchell_Wade.php

Mitchell Wade
MZM founder; implicated in Cunningham bribery scandal
$77,250 Republican
$3,000 Democrat
$13,500 special interest
total: $93,750

http://www.techpolitics.org/congress/delayalum.php

excerpt:

Edwin Buckham, another former DeLay chief of staff and now chairman of the Alexander Strategy Group who is also being investigated for his ties to the Congressman, contributed $32,500 during this period.

...more with a great "contributions" list...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/04/AR2005050402054.html

excerpt:

In turn, Abramoff profited from his close association with DeLay and others in the newly ascendant GOP majority. The pitch wasn't subtle. "He has access to DeLay," DeLay's then-chief of staff, Ed Buckham, told the National Journal in 1995. (Abramoff later helped Buckham launch his own lobbying shop.) DeLay himself testified to Abramoff's effectiveness: On a 1998 trip to the Northern Marianas, where Abramoff clients were lobbying furiously to preserve the territory's exemption from minimum-wage laws, DeLay called Abramoff "one of my closest and dearest friends, . . . your most able representative in Washington."

...more...

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/05/03/politics/main692643.shtml

excerpt:

The Preston Gates billing documents also included a hotel bill for DeLay's chief of staff in 1996, Ed Buckham, and travel upgrades for Buckham and another DeLay aide at the time, Tony Rudy. DeLay was then majority whip, the third-ranking House Republican.

The documents show Abramoff used his credit card to pay at least some congressional travel to the islands, and then sent urgent e-mails because the territorial government was slow in paying, leaving the travelers possibly in violation of House rules.

"Per instructions from Preston, we have been using Jack Abramoff's credit card for past tickets," a travel agent e-mailed the island government on Dec. 11, 1996, regarding airfare. "I have been asked to contact you regarding direct payment . . . for future tickets."

From http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/week_2005_09_18.php

Josh Marshall reported:


I've been a little unclear on whether Ralston still works for Rove. And today when I called the White House I was told that she's no longer his 'executive assistant'. When I asked what her title was I was told only that she now worked for him "in a different capacity."


The report from the Phillipine News is dated today, but while it's more recent, it's unconfirmed by the WH (as though they ever tell us anything).

to find her a job in NYC? I hear they have openings in the company Monica Lewinsky went to work for.

between Abramoff and the President of the United States.

Who ARE these people that George Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and Condoleeza Rice are spiriting away on 'dark' flights, and throwing into dungeons in middle Europe to be tortured? Why can't we know who they are? Isn't it a human right to have a name on your grave?

It's hard work keeping track of so many lies!

you'll have to go to this link:

http://www.philippinenews.com/news/view_article.html?article_id=4997403295ea354107194d4960b18353

(sorry, not sure why I could not copy the photograph directly).

great pic! Well worth clicking on the link - also the text was very interesting:

WASHINGTON D.C. – Filipino American Susan Ralston, chief of-staff to presidential adviser Karl Rove, is one of nearly two dozen White House officials – including President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney – believed to have knowledge about the outing of Central Intelligence Agency operative agent Valerie Plame.

Ralston, Rove’s right-hand man, is scheduled to appear again before Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald who is investigating the circumstances surrounding the leak of Plame’s identity in the media.

...more...

:pals:

They need their Filipino House Ho to keep her lips closed for a spell.

Leandro Aragoncillo - the Phillipino spy in the Whitehouse (in Cheney's office) anymore?

http://abcnews.go.com/US/LegalCenter/wireStory?id=1120463

Wonder what she's working on? Someone wanna call and ask her?


ed: props to Rawstory, where I found this.