Nbadan
11-04-2005, 03:01 AM
Abramoff-Scanlon School of Sleaze
Wednesday's Senate hearings yielded more scandalous revelations about how the dynamic lobbying duo bilked American Indian tribes out of millions and used the money to win elections for their Republican clients.
By Michael Scherer
Michael Scanlon takes the Fifth at a Senate Committee on Indian Affairs Oversight Hearing in Washington Nov. 17, 2004. Jack Abramoff, right, listens to his attorney on Capitol Hill in this Sept. 29, 2004, file photo, as Abramoff refused to answer questions before the Senate Indian Affairs Committee.
Up-and-coming Republican hacks would do well to watch closely the ongoing Senate investigations of superstar lobbyist Jack Abramoff and his former business partner Michael Scanlon. The power duo stand accused of exploiting Native American tribes to the tune of roughly $66 million, laundering that money into bank accounts they controlled and then using it to buy favors for powerful members of Congress and the executive branch.
But they sure did know how to play the game.
Consider one memo highlighted in a Capitol Hill hearing Wednesday that Scanlon, a former aide to Rep. Tom DeLay, R-Tx., sent the Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana to describe his strategy for protecting the tribe's gambling business. In plain terms, Scanlon confessed the source code of recent Republican electoral victories: target religious conservatives, distract everyone else, and then railroad through complex initiatives.
"The wackos get their information through the Christian right, Christian radio, mail, the internet and telephone trees," Scanlon wrote in the memo, which was read into the public record at a hearing of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee."Simply put, we want to bring out the wackos to vote against something and make sure the rest of the public lets the whole thing slip past them."
Salon (http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2005/11/03/abramoff/index_np.html)
:lol
Wednesday's Senate hearings yielded more scandalous revelations about how the dynamic lobbying duo bilked American Indian tribes out of millions and used the money to win elections for their Republican clients.
By Michael Scherer
Michael Scanlon takes the Fifth at a Senate Committee on Indian Affairs Oversight Hearing in Washington Nov. 17, 2004. Jack Abramoff, right, listens to his attorney on Capitol Hill in this Sept. 29, 2004, file photo, as Abramoff refused to answer questions before the Senate Indian Affairs Committee.
Up-and-coming Republican hacks would do well to watch closely the ongoing Senate investigations of superstar lobbyist Jack Abramoff and his former business partner Michael Scanlon. The power duo stand accused of exploiting Native American tribes to the tune of roughly $66 million, laundering that money into bank accounts they controlled and then using it to buy favors for powerful members of Congress and the executive branch.
But they sure did know how to play the game.
Consider one memo highlighted in a Capitol Hill hearing Wednesday that Scanlon, a former aide to Rep. Tom DeLay, R-Tx., sent the Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana to describe his strategy for protecting the tribe's gambling business. In plain terms, Scanlon confessed the source code of recent Republican electoral victories: target religious conservatives, distract everyone else, and then railroad through complex initiatives.
"The wackos get their information through the Christian right, Christian radio, mail, the internet and telephone trees," Scanlon wrote in the memo, which was read into the public record at a hearing of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee."Simply put, we want to bring out the wackos to vote against something and make sure the rest of the public lets the whole thing slip past them."
Salon (http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2005/11/03/abramoff/index_np.html)
:lol