Jack Abramoff: John McCain’s other Lobbyist problem...

[seafan]

If there are any remaining mainstream journalists who have any shred of curiosity left in the last days of our Constitutional Republic, here is a timely investigation to research and inform the American people about (if any of you have the time or inclination). We think there will be an election this year.


For the full story:

Jack Abramoff: John McCain’s other Lobbyist problem..., February 22, 2008, Daily Kos



The major issue to address before the election:


As Chairman of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee investigating the bilking of American Indian tribes by Jack Abramoff, McCain withheld from its final 2006 report crucial information linking Jack Abramoff's money machine to the dirty campaigns of Alabama Governor Bob Riley against Don Siegelman.


Why did John Straight Talk Maverick McCain protect these corrupt members of his own party from exposure during his own investigation?


And why did McCain refuse to allow Abramoff's extensive evidentiary files to be released to the public?


And why does it happen repeatedly that after McCain intervenes for lobbyists when they get into trouble, he magically receives large sums of money for his campaigns from these same people?



McCain Withheld Controversial Abramoff Email, February 25, 2008, HuffingtonPost

.....

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.

.....

Choctaws spent $13 million to elect Riley, Senate reports, June 29, 2006

.....

MONTGOMERY — A U.S. Senate committee reported that disgraced Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff told a tribal leader that the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians spent $13 million to elect Gov. Bob Riley in 2002.

The Senate Indian Affairs Committee issued a lengthy report that quotes William Worfel, former vice chairman of the Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana, as saying that Abramoff told him that Mississippi Choctaw Chief Phillip Martin had spent the money "to get the governor of Alabama elected to keep gaming out of Alabama so it wouldn't hurt . . . his market in Mississippi."

The committee, headed by Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, used the ellipses and did not give the full quotation. It also did not say in its report whether it thought the comment was fact or fiction.

"It just obviously can't be true," said Jeff Emerson, Riley's communications director.

The $13 million would have represented nearly every dollar that Riley reported raising and spending in his 2002 campaign for governor, Emerson said. There were also no large expenditures by outside groups on Riley's behalf that could have been funded by Indian money, Emerson said.

Riley's opponent this year, Democratic Lt. Gov. Lucy Baxley, said she doesn't know whether Worfel's comments are true or false, but Riley needs to clear up the issue raised by the Senate committee's report, including explaining whether any Indian contributions found their way into political action committees that supported him.

"Thirteen million dollars of Indian gambling money illegally funded into an Alabama governor's race sounds like corruption of the highest level to me," Baxley said in an interview Tuesday.

.....

Another good place to start is an interview with former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman.

He "lost" his 2002 election to Bob Riley by 3,120 votes.




McCain--Abramoff---Norquist---Riley---Rove---Siegelman


McCain and lobbyists: He disses them in public, but kisses them in private.





Get up off your lazy behinds and start doing your jobs, presstitutes.


America is waiting, mainstream media. And there is not much time left.

[ColbertWatcher]

1. Thank you for posting this! n/t

[seafan]

2. Morning kick for any yawning media types. n/t

[seafan]

3. Hello, media? Yoo hoo. n/t