Have they no shame?
By Kirstin Ellison
Posted on Wed May 16, 2007 at 12:15:36 PM EST
It's hard to believe, but the Congressional Corruption Caucus can't seem to get enough of themselves.
Follow me as we wade through this unbelievable mess:
1) Rep. John Doolittle (R-CA) steps down from his position on the powerful House Appropriations Committee after the FBI raided his wife's office.
2) The Republican Steering Committee needs someone to fill his post on Appropriations. Of all the choices, who do they pick? This guy - Rep. Ken Calvert (R-CA), who is under suspicion of using earmarks for personal gain. Way to go - put someone who may have used federal funding to increase the value of his own land on the committee that oversees where federal funding goes. Genius.
3) But wait! It gets so much better! In order to take the Appropriations gig, Calvert left his position as the leader of the Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics of the House Committee on Science and Technnology. Who announced today that he was taking Calvert's place? None other than Rep. Tom Feeney (R-FL), of course. Feeney, you'll remember, took an Abramoff-paid golf trip to Scotland in 2003; former Congressional aide Mark Zachares recently pleaded guilty to charges related to that trip.
What a nice set-up they have here, right? One lawmaker gives up his position because he's under investigation for corruption, and they give it to another lawmaker who's under suspicion for corruption...and then they give that lawmaker's committee seat to yet another lawmaker under investigation. I'm almost dizzy trying to keep up with the sheer ridiculousness of it all. Talk about nerve...
Ethics Reform Now
By Michael Bohen
Posted on Mon May 07, 2007 at 09:45:01 AM EST
If everything goes as planned, it looks like we can finally get some movement on ethics...and not a moment too soon!
Last November, voters overwhelmingly voted to send legislators a message: ethics are important. Don't believe me? Take a look at the exit polls. 74% of voters said that ethics was either "very important" or "extremely important." Since voters made that statement, we've had scandals involving Rep. Rick Renzi (R-AZ), Rep. John Doolittle (R-CA), Mark Zachares, Rep. Tom Feeney (R-FL)...and scandals involving the Justice Department, specifically the ousted attorneys who were investigating people like Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-CA). There are also the Bush Administration officials that either are under investigation or who resigned in disgrace. And finally, there is the lobbyist at the center of it all, Jack Abramoff!
I don't know about you, but this is all getting a little hard for me to keep track of. I'm beginning to wonder if there is anyone left in Washington who doesn't have a Common Blog smart tag with their name on it! It's time for Congress to finally get serious on ethics reform. Lobbying reform would be a great way to start...
Zachares' predecessor recommended him after getting a job with Abramoff
By Kirstin Ellison
Posted on Thu May 03, 2007 at 10:37:06 AM EST
Yesterday I highlighted a Roll Call article by Paul Singer about some of the questions surrounding Mark Zachares' ascension to a senior position on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. Today comes the news that he did this with a little help from his predecessor, Duane Gibson, who left the committee to go work for Abramoff at Greenberg Traurig.
Beginning in 2000, Abramoff began looking for work for Zachares in Washington, D.C., according to the guilty plea, and "in June 2002, with the assistance of Abramoff and others, Zachares was hired onto the staff of the Transportation & Infrastructure Committee."
One of those others was Gibson, who passed Zachares' name on to his former employers at the committee, said sources familiar with the case.
Gibson had worked for Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska) when the Congressman chaired the House Resources Committee from 1995 to 2000, then moved to the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee when Young became chairman of that panel in 2001. He left the committee in May 2002 to join Greenberg Traurig; Young hired Zachares in June.
So Abramoff's been trying to land Zachares a job that will help his lobbying efforts, but isn't having much luck. Then he offers Gibson a sweet lobbying job and Gibson accepts, recommending Zachares as his replacement on the Committee. How perfectly generous of him.
By the way, Duane Gibson has an interesting history in politics, especially during the 2000 election Florida debacle.
The Long and Winding Road for Mark Zachares
By Kirstin Ellison
Posted on Wed May 02, 2007 at 03:17:18 PM EST
Who is this Mark Zachares character, and how did he get to his position on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee? This is the question Roll Call asks today (the article's subscription only, so I'll quote a little heavily).
Zachares' corruption plea last week includes the vague admission that he got his job on the committee "with the assistance of Abramoff and others." But the Justice Department has yet to explain how Zachares got the job, and then-Chairman Don Young (R-Alaska) has declined to comment on the matter.
Sources said that Young met Zachares before he was hired, and that Zachares joined the committee about a month after a senior Transportation and Infrastructure staffer named Duane Gibson left to join Abramoff's lobbying practice at Greenberg Traurig.
So we come to Rep. Don Young (R-AK) again. It's not that suspect that the two knew each other, given Zachares' position as secretary of the Department of Labor and Immigration in the CNMI.
In that capacity, Zachares met Young on at least two occasions, sources said. In February 1999, Young -- then serving as chairman of the House Resources Committee with jurisdiction over the territories -- led a Congressional delegation to Guam and the Marianas to discuss economic development, labor and immigration issues....
..."We met in the federal office" in Saipan for briefings, [then-Guam Delegate Robert] Underwood recalled, "and there were different federal officials from [the Department of] Interior and the U.S. attorney's office giving these reports. ... Mark's position was labor or immigration for the Northern Marianas -- he was sitting in the room along with us."
Seven months later, during a Resources Committee hearing that Young chaired, Zachares sat at the witness table in the Longworth House Office Building hearing room and answered questions from the chairman about the labor force in the Marianas.
Still, it's something else to chew on. I'm especially interested in the tidbit that Zachares' predecessor on the House committee left to work for Abramoff, conveniently opening up a spot for Zachares.
Jack Abramoff and Rep. Don Young (R-AK)
By Kirstin Ellison
Posted on Mon Apr 30, 2007 at 07:30:01 PM EST
Given the recent developments with former Rep. Don Young (R-AK) aide Mark Zachares, the Anchorage Daily News decided to take a close look at Young's ties with Jack Abramoff. What they found is actually kind of startling.
I get the sense it may have surprised them a little, too:
The guilty plea last week by a former senior committee aide to Rep. Don Young sheds new light on the circumstances surrounding Young's success seven years ago in blocking reforms of the sweatshop industry on the Mariana Islands.
But the plea also raises new questions about why Young, R-Alaska, took the actions he did.
Zachares worked for the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas Islands (CNMI) from 1994-1998; Jack Abramoff was paid $11 million to lobby for the CNMI from 1994-2001. It was during these years that their paths intersected and they became personal and political friends. At the same time, efforts were afoot to institute labor reforms to CNMI garment manufacturers, who were running sweatshops under the legal label of "Made In the USA." Abramoff's chief task was to derail this reform legislation.
Enter Representative Don Young, chairman of the House Resources Committee, the committee of jurisdiction over the CNMI.
Jack Abramoff is obviously cooperating with investgators
By Kirstin Ellison
Posted on Mon Apr 30, 2007 at 05:31:45 PM EST
Jack Abramoff is yakking away - at least, that's the implication the Sacramento Bee gives in an excellent article summarizing the sudden flurry of Abramoff-related activity around the country.
"It's not clear to me or my lawyers exactly what they're doing," Doolittle said Thursday of his own case.
Really? This might clarify some things for you, sir:
The flurry of activity can be traced to the federal courthouse in Miami, where prosecutors revealed last month that they're prepared to reduce Abramoff's sentence for fraud in connection with his purchase of a fleet of gambling ships.
Prosecutors said he had more to tell about Washington corruption, and they were offering a lower sentence as an elixir to lubricate his tongue.
Seems to have worked, no? Since Bob Ney went to prison, nothing much had been happening in the investigation. Then, all of a sudden in the last couple of weeks we get:
- Rep. John Doolittle's (R-CA) home is raided.
- Kevin Ring, former aide to Doolittle and close friend of Abramoff's, resigns from his law firm.
- Mark Zachares pleads guilty to conspiracy with Abramoff.
- Rep. Tom Feeney (R-FL) announces he's being asked questions about an Abramoff-funded golf trip he took in 2003 - the same trip Zachares was on.
- Reports surface that Ed Buckham, former aide to Tom DeLay and lobbyist extraordinaire, may be nearing charges, which chould ensare DeLay. Buckham could also be a link between the Abramoff investigation and the Duke Cunningham bribery case (see also Brent Wilkes).
The common denominator? Jack Abramoff.
Yep, he's talking.
Don't forget about DeLay!
By Kirstin Ellison
Posted on Fri Apr 27, 2007 at 03:26:36 PM EST
Since the Abramoff scandal first broke, countless names have been mentioned in connection to the infamous lobbyist. With all the developments over the last couple of years, it's easy to forget the roots of the whole thing - one might argue, the ultimate face of the "culture of corruption."
I'm talking about Tom DeLay, of course. Now, despite being one of Abramoff's closest buddies on the Hill, "The Hammer" has not been charged with any specific Abramoff-related crime; he's under indictment on other corruption charges (he was a busy man). However, that may all change relatively soon.
From the Forth Worth Star-Telegram:
But prosecutors could decide within weeks whether to bring charges against Delay's former staff chief Edwin Buckham, according to sources close to the investigation who spoke on the condition that they not be identified. The decision should give a clear signal on whether DeLay remains in legal jeopardy, the sources said.
Yeah, Ed Buckham is pretty deep into a lot of this stuff. Frankly, it would be a bit of a shock if Buckham escaped from all this indictment-free.
$5,643
By Kirstin Ellison
Posted on Thu Apr 26, 2007 at 04:24:11 PM EST
$5,643. That's how much Rep. Tom Feeney (R-FL) repaid to the US Treasury for his Abramoff-organized golf trip to Scotland. Now let's see...private jet service...luxury hotel rooms...multiple rounds at the world's most prestigious golf courses...fancy meals and drinks...Does $5,643 sound like it would cover all that to you? I guess it's possible, but it sounds awfully unlikely.
In fact, it isn't likely. The actual cost of the trip for Feeney, Mark Zachares, and six others was more than $160,000 - closer to $20,000 per person. Rep. Feeney was just a teensy bit off...
Here are some of my favorite details of this angle of the story:
The $5,643 figure was reported identically by everyone, suggesting coordination with or by Abramoff.
Mass confusion!
Feeney spokeswoman Pepper Pennington would not provide many details Wednesday when asked how Feeney derived the $5,643 figure he listed on his disclosure forms.
At first, she said the figure came from the House ethics committee. But in a January statement, the committee said the number was reported by Feeney.
Later Wednesday, Pennington would not say where Feeney learned the cost of his share of the trip.
Pennington claimed Feeney left the trip early and paid his own way back to the States, and also paid all his own greens fees. If that's so, then why did he claim the same, full amount as everyone else who stayed?
Feeney has long denied knowing that Abramoff paid for the trip, but new documents show that Abramoff's assistant sent Feeney's executive assistant an email with instructions on who to say paid, and at what amount. Also, Zachares has said in court documents that he himself was well-aware that Abramoff was paying and that what they were disclosing to Congress was lies.
Perhaps the Representative from Florida was merely mistaken in his math...
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