As many as 60 Congressmen may be implicated in Bribery scandal

How many of those 17 staffers were Delay staffers?
This is a nice article if you don't mind the site. It seems very comprehensive and should put a little fear into Republicans everywhere.


By the end of last week, there were press reports that at least four Republican legislators and 17 staffers and former staffers were the targets of the Justice Department investigation into the Abramoff affair. The Wall Street Journal named DeLay, Congressman Robert Ney of Ohio, Congressman John Doolittle of California, and Senator Conrad Burns of Montana as targets, as well as several former Bush administration officials. The Washington Post reported that prosecutors had informed Congressman Ney that he was the subject of a bribery investigation and added that the wives of DeLay and Doolittle had also been linked to Abramoff’s influence-peddling schemes.

The Abramoff affair could have much wider implications. A reporter for BusinessWeek, on a television interview program, said that his Justice Department sources had told him that as many as 60 congressmen could be implicated in the bribery scandal—far more than enough to threaten control over the House of Representatives, where the Republican majority is 231-202, with one independent.

The Associated Press named eight more congressmen and senators who received contributions engineered by Abramoff in return for political favors, four Republicans and four Democrats. The Republicans were congressmen Charles Taylor of North Carolina, J. D. Hayworth of Arizona, Todd Tiahrt of Kansas and Dave Camp of Michigan. The Democrats included three senators, Carl Levin and Debbie Stabenow of Michigan and Byron Dorgan of North Dakota (the senior Democrat on the committee now investigating the Abramoff affair), and Congressman Dale Kildee of Michigan.
<snip>
While some of these contributions went to leading Democrats, particularly members of the Indian Affairs committees of both houses, the bulk of the cash went to the Republicans—both because they had the deciding role, as the majority party in both houses, and because Abramoff built his lobbying empire on his longstanding ties to top Republican figures like DeLay, chief Bush political aide Karl Rove, anti-tax lobbyist Grover Norquist and Ralph Reed, former head of the Christian Coalition.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2005/nov2005/abr1-n29.shtml

Even if some are Dems, who cares? I know I speak for a lot of people here when I say that the D after someone's name does not entitle them to break the law.

Throw 'em out.

I didn't think Levin of all would be mixed up in this. Dorgan and Stabenow though, I'd expect. It would be nice though, to see that big mouth idiot JD Hayworth go down.

and divert attention for the agenda you are really pushing.

If the Dems performed any quid pro quo, then they deserve the hit, but, if it's a regular donation unconnected to favors, then it's typical diversionary tactic.

Did anyone believe that Rupert Murdoch was being genuine when he donated to Gore and then Kerry's campaign? It was intended to give him the APPEARANCE of being nonpartisan, when we all know his entire network is directed against Democrats and is used in full support of BushInc, just as Abramoff's network was set up to further the power of Republicans and their agenda.

"Free enterprise" propagandists show their stripes and constantly lobby to gain government-edicted privileges - i.e. entitlements - in the form of a marketplace closed to new providers. It's emblematic of the hypocrisy of "free market" right-wingers.

No one honestly believes he supported those campaigns. But he hedged his bets, like so many major corporations do.

They give most of their money to republicans cause they go with them.

If anyone breaks the law they should deal with the consequences too. Even if it's someone I like.

If they broke the law, no letter after their name exonerates them. Criminals should not be in Congress. If they did it, dump 'em.
The Professor

I would add though, I would want to know how they got their donations, how much they were and if there was quid pro quo involved. A 50 dollar donation to a candidate from a criminal operation is really irrelevant, just as a 1,000 dollar donation would hardly be proof of criminal activity. A 100,000 dollar donation is another matter and one that should be thoroughly investigated.
I would add, I hope the Reid thing is incorrect. I think Sen Reid has done an excellent job as Senate Minority Leader. But, if it turns out he took money for favors he's gotta go.

This article is talking about RALPH REED who is slime beyond slime. He's one of those not-Christian "Christians". Don't worry. I think the press corps(e) can report what it wants, but at least a few of these Dems are not going to be found guilty of anything.

And if they are, they deserve to lose their jobs, any respect they had left, and a nice prison sentence with the rest of the slimeballs.

Abramoff and Scanlon used Ralph Reed as their contact with Christian right groups and also contacted John Cornyn, then the Texas attorney general, now a US Senator, seeking legal action to block the Jena casino. Reed organized a group of 50 pastors to meet with Cornyn. He subsequently told Abramoff in an e-mail, “We have also choreographed Cornyn’s response. The AG will state that the law is clear... and pledge to take swift action to enforce the law.” The ministers were reportedly unaware that their moral outrage at gambling was being used to aid one gambling interest against another.

I cannot find words to adequately express my contempt for that miserable, self-seeking lump of human flesh.

Pelosi May Find Herself Third in Line for White House
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x5471771

I hope so! I love it!!! The first woman president!!

Once the pResident and Veepcreep are impeached, and the House flips, she's next in line.

I suggested the possibility of President Pelosi a couple months ago and the only response was to ask where they could get some of whatever I was smoking.

to get away with it!!!

That would be a sweet takedown! That guy is always a talking head repuke on the news channels!

get rid of the fuck.

Come get your indictments. :nopity:

how the names describe their tactics so well. First (Frist?) do little, then delay, if that doesn't work... burn(s) the enemy, or send up a bill and vote Ney!
:toast:

is that guy in the picture Patrick Fitzgerald?

young_pjfitz.jpg

Big tent or no, if you take money on the sly, we don't want you.

It would suck if there were any dems involved, but we can't have this stuff happening.

lets make sure the charges aren't bogus too :)

Very rarely we do not look up info when we see someone going down when there is info out there that could show they are innocent.

I kind of confused myself with that statement. Let me try again...

Lets just make sure there aren't any BULLSH*T charges against us to make it look like the "Dems are just as guilty as the Reupbs."

Look at their standard procedure of calling veterans "cowards." I would expect the same in this matter. Let's look carefully at each charge. If it looks legit, well, crime is crime and good riddance, whether (R) or (D). If it's a swiftboating, scream bloody murder about it.

I could care less what party a crook belongs too.

Stabenow, I won't miss. But I have a soft spot for Levin :shrug:

the others...

He got like 5k dontation at the same time he voted to put a school up. That isn't exactly like taking 700k in bribes to secure a defence contractor a job.

We need to see more info before we can see what happened.

I don't trust these republicans either to tell the truth about all of the indictments and whatnot with the democrats.

so the GOP whorepress could say, "See, everyone is doing it." Don't help them catapult the propaganda. Wait until there's a more compelling case, before beginning the circular firing squad.

I was surprised to see the editor from the New Republic on tv saying that it was absurd to use an equivalent standard for these two cases (ie., between Delay and Dorgan). Right now the system is one of accepting money, so you can't accuse a politician for having accepted any money from anyone tainted. (By that standard, you'd only have like Kucinich left.) The relationship between Delay and Abramoff, for example, was categorically different. The two men are good friends, give to each other's "charities," travel together, share staff together, and actively conspired in their emails to do business together. There was a quid pro quo appearance to their transactions, one that is expected to be corroborated by Scalon.

Please folks. I won't excuse any Democrat found corrupt either, but at this stage you're just helping the GOP deflect blame.

So true! And wouldn't really hurt my feeling in the least. ;)

this could change the political dynamic for a decade.

He was also linked to Abramoff. Hastert got a lot of campaign money from him, and was accused in Vanity Fair (the Sybyl Edmonds story) of whoring his votes for the Turks and other special interests.

Too many more of these kind of stories will lead to a REAL anti-incumbent sentiment on election day. THAT bodes well for a lot of Dems nationwide. However, in Hastert's case I swear he'd have to get filmed having sex with GAY farm animal to get voted out by the voters in that district...




Laura

which is fine because both parties need cleaning up. I'm just disappointed that two of the casulties may be Levin and Dorgan.

I am scared that is the point of the article. This has not been talked about in the MSM for over a year and all of a sudden when "dems may be implicated too" the story is all over the place. I am just a little suspicious. However, if they are guilty, throw 'em out.

It's OK to report on once both sides are (may) be involved. Typical msm.

and the Party of General Jesus Baby Doc will be impaled a la Vlad Tepes.


Yeah, I am always sad when I see an otherwise good Dem go bad, but anyone who so much as took a candy bar from Jack the golfer knew that his money was smack.

Here's hoping that Grover goes down hard on this, and takes K Street with him.

Dorgan, at least, is innocent. The Republicans are using the "they do it too" smear - he never received any money from Abramoff, only from the Native American tribes who'd been donating to him for years already.

Don't for for the trap - the Republicans are in trouble here, not the Dems.

Any idea of a list of all the one's being investigated?

Particularly ominous, from the standpoint of targeted congressmen, is the prospect that criminal bribery charges could be brought over campaign contributions, even though the cash did not go directly into the congressmen’s pockets, but to finance their reelection efforts. The whole purpose of the elaborate Federal Election Commission ritual has been to legalize the escalating financial subsidies from corporate interests to legislators.

One of Abramoff’s favorite tactics was to hire the wives of congressional staffers or of the congressmen themselves, providing what amounted to a direct payoff under the cover of employment. One Abramoff-linked company, Alexander Strategy Group, run by former DeLay staffers Edwin Buckham and Tony Rudy, hired Christine DeLay, the congressman’s wife, “to determine the favorite charity of every member of Congress,” according to a Washington Post account. This not terribly complex job—presumably 435 phone calls would have sufficed—resulted in payments to Christine DeLay of $3,200 to $3,400 a month for three years, for a total of $115,000. The DeLays’ family lawyer, Richard Cullen, told the Post, “It wasn’t like she did this 9 to 5, but it was an ongoing project. This was something that she found to be very interesting, very challenging and very worthwhile.”

As the criminal information published by the Justice Department in connection with Scanlon’s guilty plea states, the contributions to the congressional campaign funds as well as personal gifts, such as Super Bowl tickets, vacation trips, and expensive restaurant meals, were “in exchange for a series of official acts.” These included passing legislation, agreeing to put statements into the Congressional Record, contacting federal officials to influence decisions, meeting with Abramoff’s clients, and awarding contracts for improvements in congressional office buildings.

While the Republican lobbyist has so far only been indicted in the Florida case, and has not yet been convicted of any crime, the details flooding out into the media demonstrate the extraordinarily corrupt alliance of Christian fundamentalists, Jewish ultra-Zionists, anti-tax zealots and rabid neo-conservative ideologues in the service of corporate America.

The scandal—the word is unavoidable but inadequate, since it is here describing the rule, not the exception, in today’s Washington—reaches into the highest rungs of the Republican Party leadership and the Bush administration. DeLay, forced to step down as House Majority Leader after his indictment on an unrelated political corruption case in Texas, is the first top-level casualty. He once described Abramoff as “one of my closest and dearest friends.”

let's just send them all back home!

ralph reed one of my favorite uptight pinch facers..
sorry but he even looks guilty to me always has.

There will soon be enough congressmen in federal prison to make up a quorum. nyuk, nyuk.

Talk about cleaning house! Get rid of them, every crooked last one of them.

If they don't have the spine to stand against corruption and refuse obvious bribes masked however they were masked, then they probably didn't have the spine to vote against the Iraq War.

I bet if any senators are snagged, they voted yes on the Iraq War Resolution.

On EDIT:

Dang I was wrong. Levin voted NO. Stabenow voted NO.

Henry Brown is in on it!!

Just Wow.

admission, but I love double-features.

:popcorn:

Wow, you'd think that politicians were dishonest and we shouldn't trust them.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/12/1/111457/813

It's a smear-job, in the line of "Hey, the Dems do it too!" and it won't work.

While Dems and Pubs both will have gotten money from these interests, the PAYOFFS probably went to PUBs, because they have been the leadership. It's the leadership of House that decides what gets passed, specifically, the committee chairs and the top floor leadership.

I think it has to do a lot more damage to pubs.

Bet you ten to one, it's not the democrats that will be proven to have received it. For damn sure, not Levin, Dorgan or Reid.