As some may know I began following the career of Jack Abramoff back in 1999 (and since 2004, I’ve written quite a lot about his scandal over at Dkos). I work at a nonProfit in DC concerned with social, environmental and economic justice. Back in the mid to late 1990s we had a campaign to expose and end sweatshop labor. A particularly appalling case was the Chinese owned sweatshops on the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas Islands (CNMI), a US Territory some 40 miles north of Guam (here is a good place to go for details on the Marianas and the legacy of abuse that still goes on).
In 1998 it looked like the sweatshops, human trafficking, forced prostitution, forced abortions and callous disregard for human life and the laws of the United States was coming to an end. Legislation was poised to pass both House of Congress and be signed into law by President Clinton. It passed the Senate and despite a solid majority of Congressmen who were ready to vote yes, the Bill never came up for a vote in the House. The effort died and I wanted to know why.
I found out–it was Jack Abramoff. Working with Tom DeLay, Dick Armey and the rest of the GOP Congressional Leadership he made sure that any effort to protect the workers and harm the bottom line of the Chinese owned sweatshops died in the House.
As I dug into the scandal I learned more and watched in real time as fresh crimes were committed in 2000, 2001, 2002 and 2003. Very few reporters were interested in taking on this powerful lobbyist and I still have many ancient emails pleading with some folks to write about the scandal. Finally, the Washington Post took Abramoff on and the rest as they say is history.
Jack went to prison. And today, most of his co-conspirators are running the same old con–yet again–as elected officials, staffers, think tankers, pundits, lobbyists and all around grifters. Jack got out of prison this summer and lives in a half-way house in Baltimore. He works at kosher pizzeria about three miles from my house. A few weeks ago I stopped by for lunch.