The Abramoff saga won’t flare up into a massive conflagration, at least not yet, and it won’t stop making under-the-fold news. Here’s the latest poop:
* Mike Scanlon decided to cop a plea and testify about his years scamming Indian clients, and so much more. Along with the Indian extortion activity, Scanlon played a key role in that famous trip to Scotland that promises to cause so much trouble for Tom DeLay and Bob Ney.
The general outline here is that Scanlon and Abramoff funneled massive amounts of extortion money from Native American gambling interests into a slush fund that benefitted GOP interests, as well as stranger things like an academy in Brooklyn and a sniper school in Israel. Expect to see a lot of Michael Scanlon if the investigations into sundry bad actors and members of Congress eventually go to trial. As things stand I’d put him on top of the ‘tragic accident‘ watch list.
* Italia Federici, the head of a sham GOP enviro outfit, made a decent effort to cover her tracks in testimony before Congress, but her own records and testimony from Michael Scanlon (see above) will probably carry the day.
* The Associated Press outlines how Abramoff channeled donations from one tribe to lawmakers who helped block a comepting tribe’s casino. It’s not good news for the congersscritters involved that the AP draws a parallel to the ‘Keating five.’ Stories mention ‘dozens’ of congresscritters, including Harry Reid and southwestern PA’s own Melissa Hart.
* Red State comments . I’m glad to see that everybody who has commented so far sees this scandal for the dry rot that it is.
***Update***
The Polunatic has an updated who’s who as well as commentary here.
Dodd
You’re probably right, given that we now know just how bipartisan Abramoff was with his generosity (and how consistently that generosity was followed by action on the part of Congresscritters from both parties):
I look forward to seeing Tim explain how it’s a clear indication of massive corruption when Republicans take money from Abramoff and write letters on behalf of his clients, but means nothing when Harry Reid and Dick Gephardt do it.
I also wouldn’t mind an explanation for this little tidbit:
One strains to conjure up any possible meaning for this comment other than as a suggestion that those eeeeevviiiilll Republicans might fit Mr. Scanlon with a pair of concrete overshoes to ensure his silence. I thought the purpose of adding Tim to the front page was to provide balance and alternative POVs, not to turn this consistently excellent blog into a bastion of Democratic Underground moonbattery….
jaime
The Republican majority in congress is due in large part to the scumbaggery of Jack Abramoff. His money reached into the Democratic party, but much more money was cleary given to many more Republicans. If we tossed everyone touched by Happy Jack, how many of what party would still be left standing?
The Party of Personal Responsibilty has turned into “Democrats do it too” Is blame dispersal one of those “Judeo-Christian” values?
Dodd
I think that you misunderstand my post. The cyncism in my comment is not that it’s okay for Republicans to do it if Democrats do, too but, rather, that we’re less likely to hear a lot about it now that we know that he gave to Democrats, too. That being the case, this story will probably have a much lower profile from here on out.
OTOH, your response seems to say that Democrat appearances of impropriety are ir-relevant where the GOP has more of them. Isn’t that pretty much the same thing you accused me of?
Tim F.
Amramoff has mafia connections who stand to go down as well, and he’s already connected with one gangland hit. If you follow my link it’s a Republican aide who got attacked. But don’t let me stop you from interpreting my sentence in the most jaded way imaginable.
Steve S
Does anybody remember the really bad scandals of the Democratic years?
Sending personal letters with government stamps, and floating checks at the Congressional bank?
Makes me yearn for the good old days when that was all I had to worry about.
jaime
I should have elaborated, Anyone doing anything illegal should be thrown out on his ass Democrat or Republican. How many republicans are willing to say that? Shit, they’re sending Tom Delay locks of hair and panties in Freeperland.
skip
Why am I so sure that if Abramoff were John Sununu and the sniper school were for arabs in the same disputed area, the front page stories would NEVER end.
A school for snipers in the West Bank, paid for with Indian money. Amazing!
j.d.
Tim/John:
Any chance of organizing all the Abramoff posts in one place? Maybe a little project like the one for the Plame affair?
I’d call myself a conservative, but I wonder if it isn’t time for a bit of housecleaning after this.