Peace On That

You won't hear the Conservatives talking about Jack Abramoff without tossing in their default excuse of 'the Liberals do it too' line. Whenever the misdeeds of their representatives are exposed, they run through the archives looking for corrupt Democrats to show that the Left is no better and the story gets twisted into a statistics fight. With that said, members of Congress and other politicians are very nervous about the plea agreement 'superlobyist' Jack Abramoff. No one exactly knows what the impact of Abramoff's plea agreement will be, but you can rest assure that the money trail is long and deep.

The truth is this: Money and politics is all about access and influence. The GOP controls the House, the Senate, the White House and most top government jobs in state government. DeLay and his K Street Project enabled the GOP to control the hiring of lobyist and that is how we got here.

For you non-political junkies, I offer you this quick snapshot of what is happening.

• Paid to oppose a casino while partner paid to support rival casinos.

...in order to block the ambitions of a rival tribe to the Choctaw Indians who had paid Abramoff millions, the U.S. Family Network sent a mailing to Alabama residents warning shrilly that, "The American family is under attack from all sides: crime, drugs, pornography, and one of the least talked about but equally as destructive -- gambling. We need your help today to prevent the Poarch Creek Indians from building casinos in Alabama." The letter conveniently failed to mention, however, that the U.S. Family Network had received at least $250,000 from the
gambling proceeds of the Choctaws. source

• Tom Delay sponsors bill to exempt Seipan from US labor laws where the law is that pregnant women are forced to have abortions and must live and work under inhumane conditions.

According to law firm records recently made public, lobbyist Jack Abramoff, paid millions to stop reform and keep the status quo, met personally at least two dozen times with DeLay on the subject in one two-year period. The DeLay staff was often in daily contact with Abramoff.

DeLay fully approved of the working and living conditions. The Texan's salute to the owners and Abramoff's government clients was recorded by ABC-TV News: "You are a shining light for what is happening to the Republican Party, and you represent everything that is good about what we are trying to do in America and leading the world in the free-market system" source

There is so much more to this story that it would take me a week to just touch the tip of the iceberg. Rather than do that, click this Google link to read more. We will see how it plays out over the summer, but right now there are a lot of nervous politicians talking with public relations experts and lawyers in an attempt to distance themselves from Jack Abramoff. In one week Jack has gone from being called a "superlobyist"' to "supercrook". That's gratitude for you - and that's politics for you.