Foleygate? Definetly serious, but more of a "drip" in the drip,drip,drip.
Bob Woodward's book? Not exactly surprising. No real new relevations there.
Bill Moyers' America? That ought to be the Straw the Broke the Camel's Back. Alrthough the information has been covered very superficiually before, Moyers really made it hit home how totally corrupt and cynical these people are.
Not just on a level that would predictably stir up liberals and moderates. But on a more basic level that ought to pull the wool away from the eyes of many conservative and fundamentalist Christians and others who have supported the GOP/Corporate oligarchs who used and abused their trust.
Any conservative Christian with half a brain ought to be incensed to see how they were they were used and misused and scorned by Abrhamoff and Co. Any conservative with half a sense of common decency ought to become ballistic to see how they were manipulated into supporting "issues" that had absolutely nothing to do with their values and beliefs.
Using their belief in "free market economics" to use US Government policy to protect Chinese Sweatshops on American soil? Using the Christians' anti-gambling beliefs to actually support gambling operations? Turning their hard-earned contributions into a Cash Cow?
I were an evangelical Christian and saw myself referred to as a "nut" to be manipulated to fill someone's pockets, I'd feel totally betrayed and be hopping mad.
And -- worse yet -- Moyers was using Abrahmoff as one example of a much larger nest of corruption and cynicism. It only revealed one tentacle of the much larger swamp that the GOP/Conservative/ Corporate/ Religious Right have made of our nation.
It ought to be required viewing for everyone -- especially conservative Republicans.
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/moyersonamerica/capitol/index.html----------
Excerpt:
BILL MOYERS: During the 1990's, pressure mounted in Washington to bring the Marianas in line with U.S. law. The factory owners convinced the government in Saipan they needed some big-time lobbying. Once again, Jack Abramoff was the man. Critics called the faraway garment industry America's biggest sweatshop. Abramoff set out to paint a different picture, promoting the Marianas to conservatives as a free-market Eden for maximizing profits. He began running all-expense paid tropical junkets for lawmakers, their staff, and conservative activists and journalists.
ALLEN STAYMAN: The first few times that these groups went out there, we asked for meetings, and we were simply blown off.
BILL MOYERS: Abramoff's marquee guest was Tom DeLay. When DeLay, his wife, and daughter and Ed Buckham arrived to ring in the new year of 1998, DeLay praised Abramoff as "one of my closest and dearest friends."
ALLEN STAYMAN: They were generally taken on a dog and pony show to one of the garment factories, where everything had been sanitized, and employers were there to monitor the workers and what they said.
BILL MOYERS: DeLay later told a Texas newspaper that contrary to reports that workers were being sexually exploited, he had interviewed them one ONE-on-one and found no such evidence. "It's a beautiful island with beautiful people who are happy," he said. Their first night, Abramoff and DeLay were hosted at a party thrown by Willie Tan, a Chinese textile tycoon who had paid the largest labor fine in U.S. history - $9 million for sweatshop conditions in his factories.
REP. TOM DELAY (R-TX): You represent everything that is good about what we are trying to do in America - and in leading the world in the free market system...
BILL MOYERS: But, DeLay warned his hosts, back in America, people wanted to spoil their deal: "You are up against the forces of big labor and the radical left. Stand firm. Resist evil. Remember that all truth and blessings emanate from our Creator." Later that night, DeLay and Willie Tan went to a cockfight. When he returned to Washington, DeLay called the Marianas a "petri dish of capitalism" and denounced efforts to enforce U.S. laws. And at the weekly meetings of Grover Norquist's conservative nerve center, a new item appeared on the agenda. Activists were now discussing not only Indian tribes, but the U.S. territory fourteen time zones away.
MICHAEL WALLER: I can't say it with a straight face. Why Saipan would become a conservative issue was beyond so many of us. Now, to some of us, Saipan is a huge Chinese sweatshop. To those of us getting money from those Chinese sweatshop interests, Saipan was a wonderful experiment in free market and low taxes at work. Every time Grover Norquist would take an issue, if you map it, you can see how Abramoff had a client. And there's a symbiosis there.
BILL MOYERS: Turning the Marianas into a conservative cause was crucial if Abramoff was to block the growing bipartisan consensus in Congress that U.S. minimum wage and immigration laws should be enforced in the islands.
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