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You are here: Home / Politics / Republican Stupidity / Crooks at the WH?

Crooks at the WH?

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ANd the DeLay/Abramoff imbroglio hits the WH:

A senior White House budget official who resigned abruptly last week was arrested Monday on charges of lying to investigators and obstructing a federal inquiry involving Jack Abramoff, the Republican lobbyist who has been under scrutiny by the Justice Department for more than a year.

The arrest of the official, David H. Safavian, head of procurement policy at the Office of Management and Budget, was the first to result from the wide-ranging corruption investigation of Mr. Abramoff, once among the most powerful and best-paid lobbyists in Washington and a close friend of Representative Tom DeLay, the House majority leader.

According to court papers, Mr. Safavian, 38, is accused of lying about assistance that he gave Mr. Abramoff in his earlier work at the General Services Administration, where he was chief of staff from 2002 to 2004, and about an expensive golf trip he took with the lobbyist to Scotland in August 2002.

In DeLay’s defense, he was probably too busy trimming all of the fat from the budget to notice his buddies were breaking the law.

Reader Interactions

62Comments

  1. 1.

    Zifnab

    Ah. He’s a budget offical. Perhaps he’s been the one rubber stamping all the “rase to an eight digit deficit” spending that’s been going on the past five years. I bet if we pin it on him, the rest of the Administration can walk clean.

  3. 3.

    jobiuspublius

    head of procurement policy at the Office of Management and Budget

    Crony Capitalism’s Ollie North?

  4. 4.

    Krista

    I bet this spreads a lot farther than most people would imagine. Do you think it might actually wind up affecting DeLay?

  5. 5.

    jobiuspublius

    According to his former colleagues in the Bush administration and interviews he gave, Mr. Safavian considered encouraging “competitive sourcing” or outsourcing government work to private contractors to be a primary goal in his job at the Office of Management and Budget.

    Oops! Privatization takes another hit?

    In an interview in June with Federal Times, a newspaper that focuses on the workings of the federal government, Mr. Safavian described his work for the office and said that “the best advice I’ve gotten was from my grandfather and that advice is that you’ve got to have ethics and integrity in everything you do, especially here in D.C.”

    ROFLAMAO. Of course.

  7. 7.

    Tim F

    Carpetbagger has more. The funniest part of the story, IMO is when you find out where his wife works. Before you click on the link, imagine the most blatant imaginable conflict-of-interest and you’re just about there.

  9. 9.

    Tim F

    Oh yeah, rumor has it that prosecutors are trying to flip him. If he does flip who do you suppose he’ll be testifying against?

  10. 10.

    AkaDad

    John writes,

    “In DeLay’s defense, he was probably too busy trimming all of the fat from the budget to notice his buddies were breaking the law.”

    To that I say, “A day without sarcasm is like a day without sunshine”

  11. 11.

    jobiuspublius

    He helped start Janus-Merritt Strategies, a consulting firm, with Grover G. Norquist, the head of the conservative advocacy group Americans for Tax Reform and a close political ally of the Bush administration.

    I can’t wait for Grover to make his entrance.

  13. 13.

    jobiuspublius

    Just for fun, an interview with Safavian playing the saint.

    …
    I think the biggest surprise I’ve had has been learning about OMB. Particularly on [Capitol] Hill, you don’t have an appreciation for what all the Office of Management and Budget does. Even over at GSA, OMB is a force to deal with, but you don’t really appreciate the expertise and the high level of activity that comes out of this building. The people who work here are amazing. They are nonpartisan, and they are so incredibly smart. I’ve never been in an environment like this.

    ROFLMAO.

  14. 14.

    jobiuspublius

    Lobbying at it’s finest:

    Beyond Abramoff: Gambling lobbyist joined with anti-gambling congressman, derailed gambling bills

    John Byrne

    Ex-lobbyist now oversees $300 billion in federal spending

    A friend and former colleague of fallen lobbyist Jack Abramoff who rose swiftly through the ranks of the conservative establishment quietly advanced the interests of former clients under the cloak of a vocally anti-gambling Utah congressman, RAW STORY has found.

    …

  16. 16.

    gratefulcub

    Anyone know if he was qualified for this job, or if he was just a political operative? I would like to know so I don’t have to assume

  17. 17.

    jobiuspublius

    So, if Safavin is doing his dirty deeds behind the cloak of an anti-gambling Sen. using gambling lobby money, what’s Grover doing behind Tax-Reform?

  21. 21.

    jobiuspublius

    ROFLMAO, same old MO.

    “He doesn’t have a lot of background in procurement, so the hope is that he’s a good learner,” says Steven Kelman, who served as federal procurement administrator in the Clinton administration. “I don’t know where David Safavian comes out on [acquisition reform],” says Allan Burman, another former procurement chief. Angela Styles, who held the top acquisition post until last September, says Safavian has “no apparent philosophy” on procurement issues. The Senate Governmental Affairs Committee approved Safavian’s nomination on June 2.

    In some fields – financial management, for instance – federal executives can go their entire careers without articulating a philosophy about their work. But Safavian has been tapped to lead the procurement community, where debate over the acquisition reforms of the 1990s still rages. Kelman, the architect of those reforms, remains a steady voice in favor of them. Styles is a skeptic, a provocateur who charges that the reforms – including creating governmentwide contracts, lifting restrictions on General Services Administration schedules, and streamlining bid proposals and competition – have gone too far and fostered abuse. As an example, she cites misuse of information technology contracts by GSA’s Federal Technology Service.

    Safavian’s supporters say he is less ideological than some of his predecessors. He cut his procurement teeth at GSA, where he served as chief of staff when problems at FTS surfaced. He did not associate those improprieties with acquisition reform. “He walked away with an appreciation that what we need is good guidance on how we manage services,” says a procurement official at a civilian agency who requested anonymity. OMB declined a request for an interview with Safavian because he is not yet confirmed by the full Senate.
    …

    P.S. Are we having a meltdown yet? Oh, this is tooooo rich!

  22. 22.

    Nikki

    WHY ARE YOU EVEN POSTING THIS? YOU’RE NOTHING BUT A REPUBLICAN APOLOGIST!

    We never said John was a Republican apologist. We said he was a Bush apologist.

  23. 23.

    space

    Yawn. Political corruption in the GOP is so dog-bites-man. This IS the GOP, people.

    Sure the Dems have had their share of grifters over the years, but bribery and embezzlement was never their raison d’etre. Dems continue to believe that effective government is possible. Repubs don’t. Repubs take no pride in government that works; indeed making government work would undermine their ideology that government is the problem. Ironically, looting the treasury serves two purposes: it enriches Republicans personally and it proves conservatives right philosophically. It’s a win-win for the GOP.

  25. 25.

    jobiuspublius

    Tim F Says:

    Carpetbagger has more. The funniest part of the story, IMO is when you find out where his wife works. Before you click on the link, imagine the most blatant imaginable conflict-of-interest and you’re just about there.

    Bonnie and Clyde

  27. 27.

    Darrell

    Yawn. Political corruption in the GOP is so dog-bites-man. This IS the GOP, people.

    Sure the Dems have had their share of grifters over the years..

    Ever wonder why all those dead indians and disney characters always seem to vote Dem? funny how that is. Remind me, which party made the strong push for ‘motor voter’?

  29. 29.

    Another Jeff

    So, has anyone heard the one about the 2 billion dollars that went missing in Iraq?

    You mean the story from the same article that John linked to yesterday? No, haven’t heard about it.

  30. 30.

    =0=

    Ever wonder why all those dead indians and disney characters always seem to vote Dem? funny how that is.

    Maybe I’m slow today. Totally missing the reference here – what are you saying?

  31. 31.

    Otto Man

    Safavian has been tapped to lead the procurement community, where debate over the acquisition reforms of the 1990s still rages.

    I don’t know about the rest of you, but this line made my job seem more interesting and meaningful. Any job where “debate over acqusition reforms” can “rage” for a decade is just sad. It’s like hearing accountants getting into shouting matches over the new W-2 forms.

  32. 32.

    Darrell

    Par for the course with Dems.
    Dems embrace voter fraud.. it’s why they scream so loudly whenever Repubs dare to suggest that voters should provide legit photo ID(!), it’s why Dems pushed the Motor Voter act which makes no citizenship checks before issuing voter cards thereby opening the floodgates to more fraud. It’s why the homeless voted en masse for Dems in Washington. It’s who they are

  34. 34.

    jobiuspublius

    Otto Man Says:
    I don’t know about the rest of you, but this line made my job seem more interesting and meaningful. Any job where “debate over acqusition reforms” can “rage” for a decade is just sad. It’s like hearing accountants getting into shouting matches over the new W-2 forms.

    That’s doable, just Boltonize the IRS.

  35. 35.

    SeesThroughIt

    Dems Republicans embrace voter fraud. It’s why Florida and Ohio are complete clusterfucks yet always seem to go Republican. It’s why a whole shitload of South Florida Jews suddenly decided in 2000 that Pat Buchanan may be a total anti-Semite, but he should be president! It’s why the president of Diebold stated he was determined to deliver Ohio for Bush, and nobody thought that was a slight conflict of interest and furthermore got Republicans on board with the retarded idea that electronic voting should under no circumstances have a paper trail.

    See how easy this is, Darrell? See how simple it is to cast aspersions and make one side pure evil and the other side pure righteousness? Did you get that point from the above, or are you giving it the most superficial reading possible? I’m hoping for the former but assuming the latter.

  36. 36.

    Darrell

    Darrell, I see your motor voter and I raise you fellon list

    Great point. Of course Dems want felons to vote. Felons are generally stupid and uninformed, and the stupid and uninformed are more likely to be persuaded by leftist dogma. And since felons are often habitual criminals, they of course want Dem judges and Dem politicians to make things either for them.

    Felons will vote for people who make it easier and more profitable to commit crime. In other words, for Democrats.

  37. 37.

    Darrell

    See how easy this is, Darrell? See how simple it is to cast aspersions and make one side pure evil and the other side pure righteousness?

    I guess you missed my initial post which was a RESPONSE to this:

    Yawn. Political corruption in the GOP is so dog-bites-man. This IS the GOP, people.

    Sure the Dems have had their share of grifters over the years..

    Sure the dems have made a few mistakes, but the Repubs, well they are pure evil, blah

  38. 38.

    Tim F

    Great point. Of course Dems want felons to vote. Felons are generally stupid and uninformed, and the stupid and uninformed are more likely to be persuaded by leftist dogma. And since felons are often habitual criminals, they of course want Dem judges and Dem politicians to make things either for them.

    Felons will vote for people who make it easier and more profitable to commit crime. In other words, for Democrats.

  40. 40.

    JoeTX

    Felons Republicans are generally stupid and uninformed, and the stupid and uninformed are more likely to be persuaded by leftist dogma right-wing spin.

    Opps, sorry, that isn’t totally true, the other half of the right-wingers are crooks who aren’t finished feeding off the treasurys tit…

  41. 41.

    slide

    charges of lying to investigators and obstructing a federal inquiry

    Karl Rove, Scotter Libby please take note. Bet their little sphincter muscles are doing a number on them after reading that.

  42. 42.

    Krista

    Ewwwww….Karl Rove’s sphincter.

    I’ll take, “Mental Images I Just Didn’t Need” for $1000, Alex!

  43. 43.

    Con Com

    Come on, all White Houses operate like this. You’re going to tell me this kind of thing never happened under Clinton? Does travelgate ring a bell?

    It doesn’t sound like a big deal to me, just lying about a trip on a form. If the guy broke the law, he should go to jail, but I think this is the case of a pretty honest administration investigating itself pretty honestly. I give Bush credit for that.

  46. 46.

    jobiuspublius

    Darrell Says:

    Darrell, I see your motor voter and I raise you fellon list

    Great point. Of course Dems want felons to vote. Felons are generally stupid and uninformed, and the stupid and uninformed are more likely to be persuaded by leftist dogma. And since felons are often habitual criminals, they of course want Dem judges and Dem politicians to make things either for them.

    Felons will vote for people who make it easier and more profitable to commit crime. In other words, for Democrats.

    OK, now you’re pulling a DougJ on us.

  47. 47.

    BARRASSO

    Darrell says

    Felons are generally stupid and uninformed, and the stupid and uninformed are more likely to be persuaded by leftist dogma

    Oh god please let voting rights be decided by some sort of intellegence test, republicans would never win another election. There is a reason that cities vote democratic and trailer parks vote republican. Smart people get degrees in difficult fields and move to where the jobs are, creating a smart person gravitational area, which atracts like minded smarties and scientists and artists and generally anyone interested in culture or arts or theatre.

    Your red states have an interesting problem with education and culture, the more red an area the less educated the people.

    So I’m all for intelligence tests for voting. And domminance by the left forever and ever.

  48. 48.

    Com Con

    Jobiuspublius, what’s your comment there all about? DougJ seems like possible liberal, while Darrell is a conservative. Are you saying Darrell is joking? *Is* Darrell joking? This is the most confusing comments section I’ve ever seen. It’s like watching The Big Sleep.

  49. 49.

    Darrell

    OK, now you’re pulling a DougJ on us.

    Actually, DougJ can be found right here

    Con Com Says:

    No way any of this touches the Hammer. He’s way too smart for that.

    How much you wanna bet that’s the same IP as Dougie?

  50. 50.

    Another Jeff

    Your red states have an interesting problem with education and culture, the more red an area the less educated the people.

    OK, so using that logic, here in Philly (the bluest part of a blue state) the public school system must be the best in the state and model for the nation, what with all these educated and intellectually curious people here.

    What, you mean it’s not?

    Jeez, BARRASSO, I live in a blue state and even i think you’re an idiot (although you did do a nice job between the pipes for those two Cup winning Penguin teams).

  51. 51.

    Krista

    Ah, stereotypes again…how refreshing.

    Let’s face it, anybody who has spent long enough in the surreal world of politics and/or big business is going to be somewhat corrupt. They completely lose touch with anything outside of their bubble of privilege and entitlement. Some of them are just able to keep their greed to within legal bounds. And others are able to keep their tracks covered. And then you have ones like Safavian, who have probably been bending rules for so long that they think they’re untouchable.

  52. 52.

    slide

    My requirement for voting: a full set of teeth (fake or real)
    Guarantee you we wouldn’t be talking about Intelligent Design anymore.

  53. 53.

    Darrell

    slide Says:

    My requirement for voting: a full set of teeth (fake or real)

    How about gold capped teeth which read “SEXY”?

  54. 54.

    Defense Guy

    Top 1000 high schools in the United States.

    Way to go Alabama.

    Not that it has anything to do with red state vs blue state, but the trend lately has been a move to the south (think climate) and away from cities.

  55. 55.

    Defense Guy

    By the way, when I was growing up and going to high school, that list was dominated by schools in the NE.

  56. 56.

    jobiuspublius

    Com Con Says:

    Jobiuspublius, what’s your comment there all about? DougJ seems like possible liberal, while Darrell is a conservative. Are you saying Darrell is joking? Is Darrell joking? This is the most confusing comments section I’ve ever seen. It’s like watching The Big Sleep.

    Darrell is joking, but, he doesn’t know it. Shh.

  57. 57.

    space

    Defense Guy:

    That list is pretty much worthless. I don’t know anybody who thinks that the average number of AP tests TAKEN (it’s not even a measurement of passing scores) per student is a valid metric for evaluating the quality of a school.

    Obviously, the list is going to be dominated by wealthy communities which send a large majority of their graduating students to college; hence the students will take a greater than average number of AP exams. Big deal.

    Look at actual educational quality and, I can assure you, Alabama is way, way down there. (Way to go!)

  58. 58.

    DougJ

    Actually, space, a lot of southern states are doing their damnedest to improve their public schools. I lived in Georgia for a while and I was stunned by how fixated the state was on the quality of public schools. North Carolina has a statewide Science and Math Magnet school that rivals Bronx High School of Science. Southern states are to be commended for their efforts to improve their schools, not mocked.

  59. 59.

    summr

    DougJ Says:
    Actually, space, a lot of southern states are doing their damnedest to improve their public schools. I lived in Georgia for a while and I was stunned by how fixated the state was on the quality of public schools.

    Well they’d better be doing their damndest to improve those schools. Your post made me remember a July New York Times editorial on Toyota moving its plants to Canada:

    There has been fierce competition among states hoping to attract a new Toyota assembly plant. Several Southern states reportedly offered financial incentives worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

    But last month Toyota decided to put the new plant, which will produce RAV4 mini-S.U.V.’s, in Ontario. Explaining why it passed up financial incentives to choose a U.S. location, the company cited the quality of Ontario’s work force.

    What made Toyota so sensitive to labor quality issues? Maybe we should discount remarks from the president of the Toronto-based Automotive Parts Manufacturers’ Association, who claimed that the educational level in the Southern United States was so low that trainers for Japanese plants in Alabama had to use ”pictorials” to teach some illiterate workers how to use high-tech equipment.

    But there are other reports, some coming from state officials, that confirm his basic point: Japanese auto companies opening plants in the Southern U.S. have been unfavorably surprised by the work force’s poor level of training.

    There’s some bitter irony here for Alabama’s governor. Just two years ago voters overwhelmingly rejected his plea for an increase in the state’s rock-bottom taxes on the affluent, so that he could afford to improve the state’s low-quality education system. Opponents of the tax hike convinced voters that it would cost the state jobs.

    But education is only one reason Toyota chose Ontario. Canada’s other big selling point is its national health insurance system, which saves auto manufacturers large sums in benefit payments compared with their costs in the United States.

  60. 60.

    Steve S

    I’ve been thinking. I need to get myself into gulf recovery reconstruction business.

    That’s where the real money is going to be made.

  61. 61.

    Sojourner

    Dems continue to believe that effective government is possible. Repubs don’t.

    And we certainly know why the Repubs believe that. The Bush administration clearly demonstrates the Repub position.

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Trackbacks

  1. […] Also via John Cole. The good news is that his title is now preceeded by the word former. It is also good that he hasn’t been afforded any benefit from his status within the administration, being behind bars and all. His arrest will provide fodder for the critics but it will certainly provide little comfort for Mr. Safavian. […]