It's the REPUBLICANS, Stupid!

[PalJoey]

Posted: 1/3/06 at 11:14am

No this isn't about a muscial comedy performer...but I'm going to enjoy this almost as much as I would enjoy a revival of Mame with a reincarnated Judy Garland! (ALMOST...)

Jack Abramoff, the GOP lobbyist is pleading guilty and his testimony is supposedly going to bring down several BIG Republican senators and representatives and some local ones too.



The Republican spin will be "But...but...but...the Democrats did it too."

Don't fall for it. The Republicans implicated will be far greater in number than any Dems because this was about trading POWER, which the Republicans have been abusing since they seized control of the executive, legislative and judicial branches.

Snippet:

---

Official Washington has been on edge for months awaiting word of Mr. Abramoff's legal future. Once a masterful Republican lobbyist with close ties to the former House majority leader, Representative Tom DeLay, he earned tens of millions of dollars representing Indian casino interests and farflung entities like the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas Islands. Through a complicated web of financial arrangements, he helped funnel donations to his lawmaker friends' and their campaigns, and took members of Congress, mainly the Republicans in power, on lavish trips.

Now, after more than two years of investigations, prosecutors have developed a list of at least a dozen lawmakers, congressional aides and lobbyists whose work appears suspect and who are now at the core of the case. With Mr. Abramoff's cooperation, the Justice Department will have a potentially critical witness to alleged patterns of corruption or bribery within the Republican leadership ranks, which in some cases they believe also took the form of campaign donations and free meals at Mr. Abramoff's downtown restaurant, Signatures.



G.O.P. Lobbyist to Plead Guilty in Deal With Prosecutors

Updated On: 1/3/06 at 11:14 AM

[PalJoey]

Posted: 1/3/06 at 11:21am

Nice snippet from the AP article:

Any such plea agreement likely would secure the Republican lobbyist's testimony against several members of Congress who received favors from him or his clients. The Justice Department is believed to be focusing on as many as 20 lawmakers and aides

==

20!!! Wouldn't THAT be a kick in the GOP rubber parts!
Abramoff Makes Plea Deal, Will Cooperate

[SueleenGay]

Posted: 1/3/06 at 11:23am

He won't live to do the 11 o'clock number...

[PalJoey]

Posted: 1/3/06 at 11:59am

He's pleading guilty to "Conspiracy, Mail Fraud, and Tax Evasion."

Conspiracy...mmmm...sounds sexy! It takes two to do the Conspiracy Tango...or 20!

[YouWantitWhen????]

Posted: 1/3/06 at 12:14pm

I have the butter PJ, You got the Popcorn?

What kind of wine do you want. This is going to be getting good. My Damn DirecTV better be up and running by tomorrow. I just want to watch Hardball, Jon Stewart and Keith Olberman!

[PalJoey]

Posted: 1/3/06 at 12:19pm

When Republicans are indicted, I say break out the GOOD stuff!

Updated On: 1/3/06 at 12:19 PM

[YouWantitWhen????]

Posted: 1/3/06 at 12:28pm

The best I have is some nice Mumms right now, but if you are willing to go slumming, I can bring it along.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 1/3/06 at 12:33pm

Mumms, slumming? Hardly! Let's drink it all!

They're already saying on freerpublic.com that this will implicate more Dems than Repubs, but that talking point won't be borne out by the indictments.

They WISH it were 50/50. It's going to be more like 90/10. The oldRepublican payola trick is "Give $5 to my friends, a buck to my enemies"--so it looks bi-partisan.

And I say, prosecute any bribe-taking Democrats too.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 1/3/06 at 1:43pm

This might be just the sex this story needed to resonate with the public.



snippet:

But [finacee Emily] Miller had something on [Abramoff associate Jack] Scanlon. He confided in her all of his dealings with Abramoff, former colleagues said. She saw his emails and knew the intimate details of his lobbying work—work which is now the center of a criminal fraud investigation. After the breakup, Miller went to the FBI and told them everything about Scanlon’s dealings with Abramoff, her coworkers added.

In turning him in, she became the agency’s star witness against her former lover. Scanlon pled guilty in November and is cooperating with prosecutors; Abramoff reached a plea agreement today.

Scanlon's former colleagues did not speak warmly of him, saying he was not a very likable person because of the way he treated others, and that he later became flamboyant with his newfound wealth.





How they got caught: After lobbyist broke off engagement, ex-fiance told of illicit dealings to FBI

Updated On: 1/3/06 at 01:43 PM

[YouWantitWhen????]

Posted: 1/3/06 at 1:47pm

I have a feeling a decent number of Dems will be pulled into this mess. But dirty is as dirty does. If a dem is dirty, they need to go as well. It is not OK to accept money just because the other guy is doing it.

Pass the salt, this popcorn needs a little extra something!

[SonofMammaMiaSam]

Posted: 1/3/06 at 1:49pm

Everyone inside the beltway is dirty. It's how you get there.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 1/3/06 at 1:52pm

That's the Republican spin on this, but the truth is the Repubs were the only ones holding power during this period and they were the only ones worth bribing.

There will be a few Democrats touched but nothing like what will happen to the GOP.

[papalovesmambo]

Posted: 1/3/06 at 2:00pm

careful, sommsy (you republican in hiding, you traitor to the democratic cause, or maybe just weak minded sot fooled by the remarkable mind control powers of karl rove), the truth on this issue has been declared by her highness and no opposition from that truth will be tolerated.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 1/3/06 at 2:04pm

So far the only one named is "Representative #1," who apparently is Robert W. Ney, the Republican congressman from the formerly free state of O-hee-o.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 1/3/06 at 2:08pm

Funny...the Washington Post analysis of the plea agreement so far mentions only Republicans.

Har-di-har-har-HAR!!!

snippet:

---
Prosecutors are expected to seek information from Abramoff about official actions performed for his clients by the lawmakers, including DeLay, the former House majority leader, as well as by the former top Interior official, congressional aides and federal employees.

DeLay has taken three overseas trips with Abramoff since 1997 -- to the Mariana Islands, Moscow and the United Kingdom -- and received more than $70,000 from Abramoff, his associates and tribal clients for his campaign committees.

Investigating DeLay, who is facing separate campaign finance charges in Texas, could take up to a year and require the cooperation of other witnesses before issues surrounding the Texas Republican are resolved, according to people familiar with the case.

Prosecutors are expected to act more quickly in the case of Ney, who accepted campaign contributions, skybox fundraisers, drinks, dinners, gifts and a golfing trip to Scotland while allegedly performing official actions that benefited Abramoff and his clients.

Also of interest to prosecutors is former deputy Interior secretary J. Steven Griles, who received a job offer from the lobbyist in 2003 at a time when Abramoff was seeking department actions on behalf of his tribal clients.

Griles, who held the No. 2 job at Interior from 2001 to 2004, has said he never tried to intercede on behalf of Abramoff's clients, but e-mails released by a Senate committee show more than a half-dozen contacts Griles had with Abramoff or with a woman working as the lobbyist's go-between. The contacts concerned gambling-related issues affecting four tribal clients who were paying Abramoff tens of millions of dollars for representation.

Other lawmakers who had close dealings with Abramoff are Sen. Conrad Burns (R-Mont.), Rep. John T. Doolittle (R-Calif.) and other members of Congress involved with Indian affairs.

Abramoff Pleads Guilty to 3 Felony Charges

[papalovesmambo]

Posted: 1/3/06 at 2:13pm

see, it's silly rhetoric like this that makes folks cringe when partisans on either side start pontificating:

which the republicans have been abusing since they seized control of the executive, legislative and judicial branches.

did i sleep through some coup in which the gop thwarted the will of the people, or did the dems just fail to win enough elections?

the formerly free state of o-hee-o.

is ohio under martial law? how did i miss this when i left the house this morning? where were the soldiers guarding the streets? oh, what's that? it's hyperbole? oh, gotcha.

oh i can't wait to see the fall ads taped live at yearlykos with the democratic leadership.

as far as ney goes, he's going to go with the novel defense against his bribery charges that, "i'm not a criminal, i'm an idiot" which always plays well.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 1/3/06 at 2:19pm

Here's the email trail between Abramoff and Scanlon: what corrupt Republicans sound like when they email each other:


Scanlon/Abramoff email trail

Updated On: 1/3/06 at 02:19 PM

[YouWantitWhen????]

Posted: 1/3/06 at 2:35pm

Well, the GOP has done a pretty good job in Ohio of thwarting the will of those who are not in the republican demographic - especially during the 2004 election. Do we really need to rehash the sucessful efforts to supress voting in the urban areas, while making it a breeze to vote in more traditionally Republican areas? Do we really need to revisit the issue of making voting machines a scarcity in traditionally democratic precints, while making them easily accessible in Republican precints.

The Republicans through use of questionable voting machines, and intentional actions, stole Ohio.

The head of Diebold guaranteed the Republicans a victory in Ohio, and they got it. There have been many irregularities in the vote tallying of those electronic voting machines, and they should not be used unless they can be verified by separate paper ballots tracking each vote. This was not done.

And in 2000, the same tactics were used in Florida, purging people off of the voting pols without notice for having names similar to convicted felons - when many in fact were not. People were told that any one with a record, whether it be misdemeanor or a felony could not vote, which was a lie.

And then we have those butterfly ballots, which are not the fault of the republicans, but surely resulted in many Gore votes going to Buchanan. How else can you explain Buchanan getting so many votes in a predominatly Jewis area.

But this would not have mattered, if voters had not been purged, and minorities not discouraged from voting based upon false info.

What would you call that Pappa?

[papalovesmambo]

Posted: 1/3/06 at 2:42pm

examples of acceptance by some of a so-called conventional wisdom that is anything but.


seriously folks, win an election.

Updated On: 1/3/06 at 02:42 PM

[PalJoey]

Posted: 1/3/06 at 2:43pm

Think Progress has compiled a list of all of Abramoff's associates who may be implicated.

Of the senators and representatives, 15 are Republicans and 3 are Democrats.

[YouWantitWhen????]

Posted: 1/3/06 at 2:48pm

I guess if one party cheats, and you don't, you are going to lose the election. The Democrats have done some pretty shady things in past elections (Kennedy beating Nixon, for one) but what went on in Ohio in 2004 is something we all should be ashamed of.

Here are some accounts:

"SWORN TESTIMONY TAKEN SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2004, IN COLUMBUS, OHIO:

Victoria Lovegren, Ph.D, Cleveland:


“I also found it kind of odd that nowhere on the voter registration card did it say that the date of birth was required, and when I went down to ask about that, the guy that was -- the clerk [Cuyahoga County Board of Elections] there was actually, was actually discarding voter registrations because there was not a date of birth, even though it didn't say it was required. He said that they were going to mail them back. Hopefully, they will be fixed, but that was a red flag. He also told me about layoffs that were going to be happening in the near future and that they were going to be losing a lot of their staff, and we both sort of laughed. Well, like this is a good time, the most important election, most of the largest election in our lifetimes, and they are laying off people.”
Mike Swinford, Knox County:


“…Knox County has two colleges. The one that has been profiled is Democrat, had long lines, that has already been testified to. The other one, Mt. Vernon Nazarene University, that has been profiled as a Republican. That one did not have any problems as to waiting lines, and then they were not intimidated by the representative from Blackwell's office.”
Eliza Jane Schneider, Franklin County, moveon.org witness:

“The night before the election, just after midnight we received a call at the vote mob headquarters that there had been fliers posted on South Green stating that due to unprecedented voter registration turnout, voting dates had been changed by the bipartisan voting authority. Republicans and undecideds will vote on November 2nd. Democrats and undecided will vote on November 3rd. It went on to stay make sure you bring proper ID and go to the proper voting place for you.”
Jerry Doyle, Franklin County:


“I voted at precinct 13, and I got there around a quarter till nine, and I didn't get out of there until about ten minutes to one. And there is a lot of, you know, my wife and I, we both went to vote, and so there is a lot of people, elderly people behind me that couldn't stand, that was in worse shape than I was, and they were not offered any assistance, and I thought that was wrong, you know. And I was there for all of that time, over four hours, and I wasn't offered any assistance, you know. And there was a lady about three, four people behind me, she was arguing on her cell phone, I guess to her employer, and she asked, she said well, I have been in this line for two hours, you know, and it looks like it is going to be another hour, and she was telling him -- I am telling you what I heard her say, you know, she was on the cell phone. And she said, I will make it up, the time I lose, no matter what, or no matter how long, I will make it up, please let me stay here, and I guess he said no, because she got very upset and she had to leave to protect her job, you know.”
Murlien Featherstone, Franklin County:


“I have been a proceed presiding judge for 20 years, I have been at the Ohio Avenue School for I guess six years or so. This election I was at Ohio Avenue School as presiding judge. We always had four machines at election time. During the primary, we had four machines. When I walked in the door Tuesday morning, we had three, and I couldn't understand why we only had three, knowing that this election was going to be the way it was, and I called them up and I asked them, where is my other machine? And first they told me, ma'am, we are going to try to get you a machine. I called back the second time and told them I don't need one, I need two, I said because we got a line. They said how long was the line, is it 100 feet? I said, yeah, about 150 feet, and some people had been in line three and four hours. When I called them the third time and asked them about the machine, they said, ma'am we are not going to get you no machine, we are not going to get you any machine, and what we want you to do is do best you can with what you got, and that is what we did. We had people leaving.”
Kimberly Richardson, Franklin County:


“Also I worked at the Broad Street Presbyterian Church. At that particular location there were three voting machines in the morning. They did not work. Some people that got there early wanting to vote were not able to vote. They waited until 11:30 and they finally got the machines working, and the people were able to vote. But, of course, people had to leave, they had to come, they had to leave because they got children, families, have jobs, they have lives. So they could not continue. The lines were out the door. First of all, it was raining, it was wet. We know it was cold. The weather was horrible. People were standing -- this was all across the inner-city precincts, two to three hours' waits, not enough machines, and broken down machines, all across the even inner-city precincts. They knew we had a record turnout this year. They did nothing to accommodate us, nothing.”


Also look here: http://globalresearch.ca/articles/SOL411A.html

Move to Ohio, live in one of these districts, and then tell me that this election was not stolen and that these people were not intentionally disenfranchised.

The Mess in Ohio Updated On: 1/3/06 at 02:48 PM

[PalJoey]

Posted: 1/3/06 at 2:52pm

With any luck, whatever happens to Ohio Republican Bob Ney may help to dismantle the shameful Republican dictatorhip in O-hee-o.

[Mamie]

Posted: 1/3/06 at 2:58pm

"seriously folks, win an election"

Seriously folks - make it an honest election and we will.

Mamie
(born in Franklin County, Ohio and right now, ashamed of it.)

[papalovesmambo]

Posted: 1/3/06 at 3:01pm

my buddy, the former budget director for mahoning county, the current vice chair of the democratic party in mahoning county, whose daughter ran kerry's campaign in mahoning county (where he managed to pull over 60%) and i talked about this and he laughed and said, "idiots who preach that sh*t just make us all look like a**holes. if those pieces of sh*t in those counties had had their sh*t together, kerry woulda walked off with ohio. but they f***ed up and now everyone is scrambling to cover their a**es with conspiracy theories. no f***ing way bush shoulda won this state. but he did because they had morons running things for kerry." i'll take the word of a guy who paid his dues running more than his share of winning campaigns for the democrats.

[YouWantitWhen????]

Posted: 1/3/06 at 3:01pm

Amen Mamie.

And Pappa - all I want is that for the Secretary of State to be non-partisan - that way the crap that happened in Ohio and Florida would not have the smell of a huge pile of crap coming from it.

If everyone who shows up, is registered to vote, gets to vote, then you have a point.

I wonder if your friend lives in an, affluent neighborhood, or a poor urban area?





Franklin County, Where only Republican Votes Count. Updated On: 1/3/06 at 03:01 PM