Via the Austin Statesman, John Cornyn is the latest Republican to be embarrassed by the expanding Abramoff scandal:
WASHINGTON — Former Christian Coalition director Ralph Reed claimed in a 2001 e-mail to a lobbyist that he choreographed John Cornyn’s efforts as Texas attorney general to shut down an East Texas Indian tribe’s casino.
The lobbyist was Jack Abramoff, who is under federal investigation, along with his partner Michael Scanlon, on allegations of defrauding six Indian tribes of about $80 million from 2001 to 2004. The e-mail, along with about a dozen others, was released last week as part of the investigation.
In 2001, Abramoff was working as a lobbyist for the Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana to prevent rival gaming casinos from siphoning off its Texas customers. He paid Reed as a consultant, and Reed lobbied to get the Alabama-Coushatta and Tigua casinos closed in Texas.
In the Nov. 30, 2001, e-mail, Reed told Abramoff that 50 pastors led by Ed Young, of Second Baptist Church in Houston, would meet with Cornyn to urge him to shut down the Alabama-Coushatta tribe’s casino near Livingston. He said Young would back up the request in writing.
“We have also choreographed Cornyn’s response. The AG will state that the law is clear, talk about how much he wants to avoid repetition of El Paso (where the Tigua casino was) and pledge to take swift action to enforce the law,” Reed wrote. “He will also personally hand Ed Young a letter that commits him to take action in Livingston.”
You can find a useful rundown of the most prominent Abramoff-tainted politicians here, via wikipedia.
As I said before this scandal has the potential to bring down an amazing variety of Republican politicians and party activists. Some Democrats stand to go down as well, which anybody who cares about weeding sleaze out of government should see as a good thing.
***Update***
And another reason why the confiscation of Abramoff’s records makes Republican leaders very, very nervous:
E-mail unearthed in Abramoff investigation reveals the contempt in which lobbyists held the Christian conservatives they wooed as allies
E-mail unearthed in Abramoff investigation reveals the contempt in which lobbyists held the Christian conservatives they wooed as allies
Two federal investigations of the activities of Washington, D.C., lobbyist Jack Abram-off provide a window into the mindset of the cynical group of influence peddlers that received $45 million from Indian tribes to further their gambling interests.
Judging by the sentiments of Mike Scanlon, a former spokesman for U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay, R-Sugar Land, and Abramoff’s secret partner, conservative Christians provided an essential and unwitting tool in the lobbyists’ fight in Louisiana on behalf of the Coushatta tribe against rival gambling operations. Scanlon composed a memo in October 2001 that he sent to Coushatta lawyer Kathy VanHoof and Abramoff describing the role religious radio could play in the effort:
“Simply put,” Scanlon wrote, “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. The wackos get their information from the Christian right, Christian radio, mail, the Internet and telephone trees.”
ppGaz
Let the chips fall where they may.
Davebo
Wow, I grew up in Livingston.
And mistakenly voted for Cornyn.
Won’t make that mistake again.
Otto Man
Agreed. This is more important than any party allegiances.
Steve S
So be it.
This is the kind of shit that makes people disgusted at government and distrustful of the motives of politicians. A good house cleaning is in order.
rilkefan
Not clear to me how this taints Cornyn.
Otto Man
Really? Read the article again.
Abramoff was a lobbyist working for an Indian casino that wanted to shut down its competition.
Abramoff, through payments to Reed, got the Attorney General (Cornyn) to shut down the competition.
Seems pretty clear that Cornyn was taking orders from paid lobbyists.
rilkefan
Umm, I’m opposed to casinos, and I assume Cornyn is too, and if what he did was legal, then more power to him.
Zifnab
Anyone who didn’t suspect Cornyn of shilling for shit like this either doesn’t live in Texas or has avoided Texas politics like the plague. Cornyn practically humps GOP special interests in this state in public, especially in his run up to Senate alongside Bush for president.
That, and the GOP just recently became a big proponent of legalizing gambling in Texas state-wide. Guess which of America’s favorite big money casino lobbyists would have cashed in on that proposal. Funny that, because I distinctly remember them being against casino gambling in ’01, before they were for it.
Zifnab
http://www.truthout.org/cgi-bin/artman/exec/view.cgi/37/11581
demimondian
I, too, was against gaming before I was not, though.
I changed my mind when one of my gambling friends asked me a question: “[Demi], how much do you and [FDDD] spend on dinner together?” I did the math, and the answer is about $60/month, when all expenses are computed. The kicker is that he and his wife go gambling once every two months for about twice that amount, fully burdened cost.
That changed my mind. Viewed as a way to make money — which is, indeed, how lotteries are sold — gambling is a rip-off. Viewed as a chance to play for fun, and lose some money over the course of a long evening, gambling is no more expensive than other forms of entertainment. Is gambling “addictive” for some people? No doubt. Should we be selling lotteries as a money maker? No. But are casinos, per se, a bad thing. I’m not sure.
ppGaz
Looks like Republican power-brokers have the same respect for the “Christian” right as they have for the rest of us …. none.
And they wonder why we want to be rid of them.
Miller
Independent bloggers can have a major positive influence on the political process by documenting all verifiable instances of lobbyists controlling the political agenda. The politicians (and judges) who have sold their souls and their votes to the lobbyists may not be guilty of criminal wrong-doing. But the voters should have knowledge of who their elected officials truly represent. Let these officials defend their financial and voting arrangements with lobbyists.
rilkefan
“But are casinos, per se, a bad thing. I’m not sure.”
I think they prey on the poor and the ignorant and the addicted, so I’d say they are in essence evil. Plus they encourage crime and assorted vices and their advertising is uniformly offensive to any sensible design criteria.
On the other hand, I’m not at all sure the govt should be in the business of interference in people’s lives at that level. I certainly think it’s an abomination for poor states with an inability to provide basic education (due to a lack of political will to raise the necessary taxes) to run lotteries.
rilkefan
“about $60/month, when all expenses are computed”
I guess you don’t live in the Bay Area. Our post-movie dinner of Tomatina pizza was $30, and my wife remarked, “So cheap”.
Shopgirl is excellent btw, at least if you like good acting and elegant writing and so forth.
DougJ
Again, relative to what went on in Tammany Hall, or under Nicholas II of Russia or Emperor Nero of Rome, this is kid’s stuff. Why are we even talking about it? There’s people out there who want to kill us, you know. And I’m not just talking about Bill O’Reilly.
demimondian
No — Puget Sound. Food is cheaper here than there, but the baby sitter adds a lot.
DougJ — compared to the amount of baby eating that Swift suggested, we’re falling behind there, too. Why do you liberals hate America’s competitiveness?
DougJ
I’m waiting for Tom Friedman’s article “Baby-Eating China”.
demimondian
That was the working title. Reliable sources tell me that the publication title will be “The World’s Babies are Pancakes”.
DougJ
Zifnab, good post. Because that’s what this is about: keeping gambling illegal in Texas to protect good Christians from vice. It certainly has nothing to do with Jack Abramoff taking money from another casino tribe.
Jcricket
I’m with ppgaz, let the chips fall where they may. I really don’t care who gets strung up, as long as the investigations aren’t whitewater-esque (i.e. driven by a multi-million dollar partisan blood fued). I’m in favor of throwing more money at the non-partisan government watchdog and auditing agencies. I’d much rather we pay attention to the facts coming out of the GAO than the press releases of either party or the WH.
In fact, I’d love for Democrats to lead the charge in investigating political corruption using existing laws. Despite the absurd projection coming from the Malkin and Powerline, any investigation into corruption will end up removing 25 Republicans for every one Democrat, at least at the National level. That’s just a reflection of how much the Republicans were “in charge” and how much they thought they were above the law.
This is one reason things like minority rights are important. Without them the party in charge does everything it can to block any oversight into its behavior. I believe that’s called “the tyranny of the majority”.
As others have said, in just 10 years Republicans have achieved a level of corruption it took Democrats over 40 to get to :)
Steve S
I’m actually against gambling too… That’s not the issue here. The issue is that they took money from other gambling establishments, not to halt gambling overall, but rather just to kill off some competition.
p.lukasiak
as much as I wish it wasn’t true, except for those politicians that get indicted, I don’t see the Abramoff scandal being meaningful in the least in political terms.
First off, its about campaign finance laws — even political junkies can be put into irreversible comas by forcing them to pay attention when “violations of campaign finance laws” are explained.
Secondly, its way too spread out and non-hierarchal. There is no “drama” inherent in the scandal….it can’t build because its already caught “the big fish” (Delay), all it can do is spread to lots more little fish — so its never gonna make it “above the fold” in the national consciousness.
Steve S
Actually, yes. The Republican Governor in Minnesota(and other midwest states I’m sure) have been pushing for more state-run or at least chartered gambling casinos. See the way they figure it, they can get some money out of the deal. The more money the state gets from one armed bandits, the less they have to raise taxes.
It just shows me that they really don’t have any faith… They just bring up issues as it is politically expedient.
Steve S
I generally agree. I think it’s going to have more play on some local races. Like I’ll bet Ralph Reed does not become governor of Georgia like he hopes.
Where it will probably pick up some steam is if the authorities do actually link Abramhoff to the Mafia Hit on that Casino owner. Then you’ve got a made for TV movie.
rilkefan
“As others have said, in just 10 years Republicans have achieved a level of corruption it took Democrats over 40 to get to.”
This is wildly inaccurate. The Democrats’ corruption wasn’t even pocket change – stealing postage stamps, running their own bank that forgave late fees, something-or-other about a penny-ante book deal done slightly awkwardly – compared to the millions and hundreds of millions and tens of billions the Republicans are playing with.
DougJ
What about Tammany Hall? Those were Democrats. And what about the corruption in the former Soviet Union? They were leftists. You see, both sides are equally bad.
Perry Como
In an ideal USA, we wouldn’t need all of these backroom deals to make public policy. Politicians would be bought and sold in public and the free market would decide what laws would best serve Americans. You could set up political hedge funds, derivatives and the like in order to speculate on which way legislators would vote. This sort of system would be a boon for our economy and our democracy.
Sine.Qua.Non
It’s simply a true joy residing here in TexAss with Cornyn, DeLay, and Hutchinson … and let us not forget the Texas Legislature, many of whom are tied to DeLay’s purse strings. sigh….
demimondian
Even as crooks, we’re pikers.
No wonder we can’t win elections.
Horshu
Ronnie Earle & Valerie Plame are just the “Ka” before the Abramoff’s “BOOM”, and the timing on his stuff is coming along at an extremely bad time momentum-wise for the GOP. Best case scenario is for DeLay and Rove to get off the hook in time for ’06, but the Abramoff case just too much of everything bad.