McCain covered up the Abramoff Scandal! (Must see)

[Dems Will Win]

This is the REAL, big scandal for McCain.

McCain went after Abramoff with a vengeance. Before Jack and his team could organize a defense McCain subpoenaed ALL of Jack’s records. Now Jack could stall on papers, but not electronic files. Those really belonged to his employers: Preston Gates from 1995 to 2000 and Greenberg Traurig from 2000 to 2004. These firms were tied to the scandal and McCain held their fate in his hands.

A major concern for any corporations tied to a growing scandal in early 2004 was the fate of Arthur Andersen. The Enron scandal had proved that a company tied to a corruption scandal could get a "death sentence" if they did not cooperate with investigators.

Jack’s lobbying firms got the hint from McCain and turned over everything they had related to Jack Abramoff, his team and his clients. It turns out that they had a lot of records.

Jack liked new technology. He liked to update his toys and he wanted access to all of his files with every upgrade. Turns out the IT departments of his firms had learned to keep back-ups of all his emails, memos, reports and electronic files so they could always meet Jack’s needs.

D’oh.

These documents and many, many more were turned over to McCain. When the dust settled McCain had 750,000 pages of documents.

He had everything. He had Jack’s Little Black Book as it were.

He had the goods on Jack and everybody who ever worked with Jack.

It was easy to leak details to the press to drive the story in whatever direction McCain wanted the narrative to take.

It was easy for McCain to let the folks who took him down in 2000 know that payback time was on the horizon.

There would be blood and there would be fall guys.

Jack was first.

Then a bunch of staffers. Then Bob Ney.

Tom DeLay lost his power base as well.

...

In an interview with National Journal last year, after the Abramoff scandal broke, Norquist charged that Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., chairman of the Indian Affairs Committee, who has been leading the Senate inquiry into Abramoff's alleged lobbying abuses, "hates Bush and hates DeLay, and Jack is an ally and friend of both."

A funny thing happened to McCain’s payback investigation—reality intruded.

As the details of the scandal emerged it quickly became clear that this was bigger web of corruption than anybody thought (well except me, I had been following Jack for year by 2004—and I knew it was and is a massive scandal). It quickly became apparent that the Abramoff scandal—if fully investigated—would defeat George W. Bush in 2004 and throw Republicans out of power in the House and Senate. By mid 2004, McCain was slow-walking his "investigation". After Bush was re-elected it picked up a little steam in 2005 but went dark again as the 2006 election approached.

Finally, with little fanfare, McCain’s committee released a report of their investigation in July 2006. The investigation had been slow-walked into a cover-up. Still, McCain took parting shots at Reed, Norquist and Abramoff.

...

McCain staffers said the 373-page report, the culmination of a two-year investigation, is a neutral, factual account of Abramoff’s movements. E-mails from Abramoff cited in the report indicate that the disgraced lobbyist used ATR — for a fee — as a conduit for moving money from the Mississippi Choctaw American Indian tribe to anti-gambling grassroots activists who would have been uncomfortable receiving money from gambling profits.

McCain and Norquist have had a contentious relationship since 2000, when Norquist banded with conservative groups like National Right to Life, the National Rifle Association and the National Right to Work Committee to criticize McCain on campaign-finance reform. McCain’s campaign faltered after he lost to George W. Bush in South Carolina’s primary.

And even as he was attacking Grover, McCain had an eye on running for President in 2008 and was signaling that Norquist really had nothing to worry about—Grover would not be a fall guy like Jack:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/2/23/03912/3990/390/462347

On the stump, Sen. John McCain often cites his work tackling the excesses of disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff as evidence of his sturdy ethical compass.

A little-known document, however, shows that McCain may have taken steps to protect his Republican colleagues from the scope of his investigation.

In the 2006 Senate report concerning Abramoff's activities, which McCain spearheaded, the Arizona Republican conspicuously left out information detailing how Alabama Gov. Bob Riley was targeted by Abramoff's influence peddling scheme. Riley, a Republican, won election in November 2002, and was reelected in 2006.

In a December 2002 email obtained by the Huffington Post -- which McCain and his staff had access to prior to the issuance of his report -- Abramoff explains to an aide what he would like to see Riley do in return for the "help" he received from Abramoff's tribal clients.

An official with the Mississippi Choctaws "definitely wants Riley to shut down the Poarch Creek operation," Abramoff wrote, "including his announcing that anyone caught gambling there can't qualify for a state contract or something like that."

The note showed not only the reach of Abramoff, but raised questions about Riley's victory in what was the closest gubernatorial election in Alabama history.

And yet, despite the implications of the information, McCain and the Senate Indian Affairs Committee sat on the controversial portion of the email. According to an official familiar with the investigation, McCain also subsequently refused to make the email public after the report was released.

There was a brief footnote in the report that quoted William Worfel, former vice chairman of the Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana, saying that Abramoff told the chief of a Mississippi tribe to spend $13 million "to get the governor of Alabama elected to keep gaming out of Alabama so it wouldn't hurt ... his market in Mississippi."

But Riley's name and the details of what was being asked of him were not mentioned once in the 373-page document.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/02/25/mccain-withheld-controver_n_88304.html

PLEASE RECOMMEND TO HELP GET THIS OUT

[seemslikeadream]

1. LOVE IT

Thanks :hi:



THIS TOO!

Jack Abramoff: John McCain’s other Lobbyist problem...
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x2914442

[seemslikeadream]

2. EVIL MONKEY SAYS

[fooj]

3. Stick a fork in him.. He's done.

[The Backlash Cometh]

4. McCain sounds like a guarantee of staying the course.

I hope they keep the information drip coming.

[annabanana]

5. Of those 750,000 pages of Abramoff papers.... what % has been released?

I seem to remember seeing a bar graph somewhere... There's a MOUNTAIN of stuff sitting there...

[seemslikeadream]

6. ..

:hi:

[annabanana]

10. Yup! That's the one. . You ROCK! ~. . . . .n/t

[hootinholler]

8. Shouldn't it be available via FOIF? n/t

[AwakeAtLast]

7. Kickety, kickety

and recommendity!

:kick:

[L. Coyote]

9. K & R + Where are the White House and VP visitor logs? Cover up at work folks!!

[troubleinwinter]

11. He's MY "senator", as Renzi is MY "congressman". I am SICK of these creeps.

Flush this shit down the toilet. Get rid of this stink. Clean the carpet... somebody tracked shit over our county's carpet. I am sick of this filth.

[Dems Will Win]

12. I agree