Abramoff Said to Claim Close Ties to Rove

[wicket]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060214/ap_on_go_pr_wh/rove_abramoff

Three former associates of Jack Abramoff said Monday that the now-disgraced lobbyist frequently told them during his lobbying work he had strong ties to the White House through presidential confidant Karl Rove. The White House said Monday that Rove remembers meeting Abramoff at a 1990s political meeting and considered the lobbyist a "casual acquaintance" since President Bush took office in 2001.

New questions have arisen about Abramoff's ties to the White House since a photo emerged over the weekend showing Abramoff with Bush. Also surfacing were the contents of an e-mail from Abramoff to Washingtonian magazine claiming he had met briefly with the president nearly a dozen times. Three former business associates of Abramoff, who worked with the lobbyist in various roles between 2001 and 2004, told The Associated Press that Abramoff routinely mentioned Rove when talking about his influence inside the White House.

One said he was present when Abramoff took a call from Rove's office to confirm a White House meeting had been approved between Malaysia's prime minister and Bush in May 2002. Abramoff was being paid by Malaysia for helping it in Washington, according to evidence the Senate has made public.

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[CoffeeCat]

1. I'll bet they have close ties...

...I bet they tie each other up often.

hehe :)

[Generator]

30. I am shocked

That Rove fellow seems like such a nice family man.

[pk_du]

2. Abramoff - Norquist- Rove- Reed...College REPUBLICAN

Leaders from the 80s...

..gthe "photo-op" puc released yesterday was organised by "Americans for Tax Reform"...run by Grover Norquist...and who invited jacky-boy to the event ( Grover - with KKKarls approval no doubt) - see Senate Indian Gaming Investigation emails.

[starroute]

9. Rove was earlier than those others

Rove was a College Republican in the Nixonian dirty tricks days of the early 70's -- along with Lee Atwater, Terry Dolan, and Roger Stone. Abramoff and pals were there in the early 80's Reagan years.

They all seem to have known each other to a degree, but the Abramoff/Norquist/Reed bunch is far more free-market ideological. The Rove gang never cared about much besides power.

[tularetom]

3. IIRC, the Abramoff/Rove connection

goes back to the days when they were both honchos in that most despicable of organizations, the college repubs. Seems to me that grover norquist and/or ralph reed were also big mucky mucks in this gang as well. So I'd tend to believe Mr. jackoff when he boasts of his ties to rove.

[Klukie]

4. Rove sure does get around

He is up to his elbows in just about every scandal out there.

[Synnical]

5. He "said"

Not solid evidence, hearsay, in fact, but rate the story up, nonetheless.

[goforit]

6. The beat goes on...the beat goes on...ladidadida...

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

7. Of COURSE. They share a common interest in screwing over their fellow man.

Is it just me, or is Abramoff starting to take on a bit of a Jennifer Aniston tone?

You know..."Brad left me and it really hurts," repeated to anyone who'll listen?

Probably IS just me.

:evilgrin:

[DoYouEverWonder]

8. Jack Abramoff - CRNC National Chairman, 1981-85

I had to go back into the Wayback Machine to find this gem. Apparently the College Republicans have deleted a lot of stuff on their website. Can't imagine why?

Alumni

Jack Abramoff

Senior Director of Government Affairs, Greenberg Traurig

CRNC National Chairman, 1981-85

Jack Abramoff's practice focuses on building legislative coalitions, grassroots organizing and Washington, DC based lobbying efforts. Jack is considered a top issues strategist. He has been consistently named as one of the nation's most powerful and effective lobbyists in rankings by publications including the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, New York Times, National Journal, Roll Call and Washingtonian Magazine. Jack is directly involved in the Republican party and conservative movement leadership structures and is one of the leading fund raisers for the party and its congressional candidates. He is a former executive director of President Ronald Reagan's grassroots lobbying organization, Citizens For America, where he directed and crafted lobbying efforts on a broad range of issues. Jack also had a direct role in shaping the agenda of the second Reagan presidential term, which, in its later applications, ultimately brought the Republican Party to control of Congress in 1994.

Before this position, Jack was twice elected Chairman of the College Republican National Committee beginning in 1981. He was oversaw the largest and most effective College Republican National Committee ever, with over 1100 chapters nationwide. He also changed the direction of the committee and made it more activist and conservative than ever before. Jack ran our most successful field programs until that time with very little funding by sending the field representatives out in vans to recruit for months at a time, making the committee more successful than ever before. Jack brought two famous future activists into his administration, Grover Norquist and Ralph Reed, as his Executive Directors. Before this time Jack ran the youth effort for Reagan in Massachusetts which produced 10,000 absentee ballot votes in Reagan’s 3000 vote margin of victory. Jack designed and ran the anti nuclear freeze campaign He is a regular lecturer at Georgetown Law Center on entertainment law topics. Jack has hands-on experience in the entertainment industry, he spent ten years as the producer of a number of feature motion pictures including Red Scorpion, an anti communist film made just after Jack’s term as national chairman of the College Republicans.

http://web.archive.org/web/20040225234451/http://www.crnc.org/page.asp?LinkID=119

[Straight Shooter]

12. "... one of the nation's most powerful and effective lobbyists ..."

Also a Pioneer. Yet bush tries to give Jack the "Kenny-boy" treatment.

10,000 absentee ballots for Reagan. What did Jack do for bush in Florida 2000? He had to have been involved somehow, some way.

Interesting tidbit about that movie Jack made. Little georgie also dabbled in the film industry, a B movie, slasher variety, wasn't it?

[0007]

14. Great find!

Associated Press reports that Abramoff routinely mentioned Rove when talking about his influence inside the White House.

One said he was present when Abramoff took a call from Rove's office to confirm a White House meeting had been approved between Malaysia's prime minister and Bush in May 2002. Abramoff was being paid by Malaysia for helping it in Washington, according to evidence the Senate has made public.

All three associates would describe the Abramoff comments only on condition of anonymity, citing the ongoing investigation of Abramoff's work and fears that speaking out could affect their current businesses. At least one said he had been interviewed by the FBI.

Abramoff was a $100,000 fundraiser for Bush and lobbying records obtained by the AP show his lobbying team logged nearly 200 meetings with the administration during its first 10 months in office on behalf of one of his clients, the Northern Mariana Islands.

The contacts between Abramoff's team and the administration included meetings with Attorney General John Ashcroft and policy advisers to Vice President Dick Cheney, the AP reported last year.

Abramoff's former assistant, Susan Ralston, went to work for Rove in 2001. Abramoff's legal team declined comment Monday night.

According to one of the three former associates, frequently Abramoff's cell phone would ring and the lobbyist would tell the associate that the White House was calling. To prove that he wasn't making up what he was telling the associate, Abramoff occasionally would hold up the phone so that the associate could see the incoming call was indeed a White House phone number.

Asked about the three former Abramoff associates' account, the White House said Rove shared a common past with Abramoff as leaders of a young Republicans group decades ago.

"Mr. Rove remembers they had met at a political event in the 1990s," White House spokeswoman Erin Healy said. "Since then, he would describe him as a casual acquaintance."

Healy said Rove has "no recollection" of talking to Abramoff about the Malaysian prime minister's meeting in May 2002. She said Bush first met the prime minister at a foreign summit in October 2001 and that the 2002 meeting in the Oval Office was "another opportunity to get together to discuss the war on terror."

More Here

[DoYouEverWonder]

16. There's more

if you've got time to dig around.

Most of the College Repug website is now gone now but the Wayback Machine has 1000's of pages in their archive.

http://web.archive.org/web/*sr_2441nr_10/http://crnc.org/*

I got up page 245 last night in the list and found some interesting stuff. A bunch of pages are peoples' enteries in their online forum. Seems these folks fight like cats and dogs a fair bit.

[wicket]

26. wow, they must be in massive scrub mode!

:wow:

[wicket]

17. Nice find!!!!

Nope, I can't imagine why the College Republicans would want that scrubbed from their site :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[AlCzervik]

10. drip drip drip---open up the floodgates and let it all out.

[young_at_heart]

11. Of course, Rove will deny it

None of them ever heard of Abramoff.....just another money-maker for them, that's all.

[Wilms]

13. K&R n/t

[PBass]

15. They've known each other for 20 years. (eom)

[roseBudd]

18. rated it a 5 on yahoo

[leftchick]

19. Abramoff Said to Claim Close Ties to Rove

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060214/ap_on_go_pr_wh/rove_abramoff
WASHINGTON - Three former associates of Jack Abramoff say the now-convicted lobbyist frequently told them he had strong ties to the White House through presidential confidant Karl Rove.

The White House said Monday night that Rove remembers meeting Abramoff at a 1990s political meeting and considered the lobbyist a "casual acquaintance" since President Bush took office in 2001.

New questions have arisen about Abramoff's ties to the White House since a photo emerged over the weekend showing Abramoff with Bush. The White House would not release the photo or any others that Bush had taken with Abramoff. Also surfacing were the contents of an e-mail from Abramoff to Washingtonian magazine claiming he had met briefly with the president nearly a dozen times and that Bush knew him well enough to make joking references to Abramoff's family.

Three former business associates of Abramoff, who worked with the lobbyist in various roles between 2001 and 2004, told The Associated Press that Abramoff routinely mentioned Rove when talking about his influence inside the White House.

[JNelson6563]

20. There it is.

Shit, meet fan.

[leftchick]

22. That is what I thought too!

all of the sudden everybody is talking!

:popcorn:

[stop the bleeding]

21. I love this statement

Three former associates of Jack Abramoff say the now-convicted lobbyist frequently told them he had strong ties to the White House through presidential confidant Karl Rove.


and this one

According to one of the three former associates, frequently Abramoff's cell phone would ring and the lobbyist would tell the associate that the White House was calling. To prove that he wasn't making up what he was telling the associate, Abramoff occasionally would hold up the phone so that the associate could see the incoming call was indeed a White House phone number.

[Punkingal]

23. What total bullshit Rove is trying to pass off.....

They were no doubt big chums, and Rove is trying to say they were acquaintances. I sinceerely hope there are emails, etc. that the prosecutor has proving how tight they were.

[Jawja]

24. Well at LEAST

they weren't "renting out" the Lincoln bedroom...geesh! :shrug:

[wicket]

25. kick

:kick:

[Beaverhausen]

27. Kick again

:hi:

[WhiteTara]

28. Rove is denying knowledge of Jack!

NPR says Rove barely knows Jack...like going to college and being friends ever since constitutes barely knowing someone....maybe he means in the biblical sense.

[wicket]

29. kick

:kick: