WASHINGTON - New evidence is emerging that the top Democrat on the Senate committee currently investigating Jack Abramoff got political money arranged by the lobbyist back in 2002 shortly after the lawmaker took action favorable to Abramoff's tribal clients.
A lawyer for the Louisiana Coushatta Indians told The Associated Press that Abramoff instructed the tribe to send $5,000 to Sen. Byron Dorgan's political group just three weeks after the North Dakota Democrat urged fellow senators to fund a tribal school program Abramoff's clients wanted to use.
The check was one of about five dozen the Coushattas listed in a tribal ledger as being issued on March 6, 2002, to various lawmakers' campaigns and political causes at the instruction of Abramoff, tribal attorney Jimmy Faircloth said Monday.
Many of the recipients were lawmakers who had just written letters to the Bush administration or Congress supportive of Abramoff's tribal causes, documents show.
"I am confident of that fact," Faircloth said when asked whether Abramoff had requested the donations listed in a tribal ledger obtained by the AP.
Yes, here's another exciting episode of The Jack Abramoff Show! What is especially interesting here is that the top Democrat investigating Abramoff was also taking political contributions from Abramoff. Continuing on with the story:
The revelation came as Dorgan took to the offensive Monday, saying there was no connection between the $20,000 in donations he got from Abramoff's firm and tribal clients in spring 2002 and a February 2002 letter he wrote urging the Senate Appropriations Committee to fund the tribal school building program.
Dorgan's letter noted that the Mississippi Choctaw, one of Abramoff's clients, had successfully used the program and requested lawmakers consider long-term funding for it. It made no mention of Abramoff or any of his other tribes that were interested in the program.
Dorgan sharply criticized an AP story last week that divulged he and about a dozen other lawmakers had gotten Abramoff-related donations around the time they sent letters supporting the school building program.
Dorgan told a news conference in North Dakota he had never met Abramoff, did not know about the donations from the lobbyist's clients around the time of his letter and saw no reason to step aside from the Senate Indian Affairs committee investigation of Abramoff.
"I don't have any idea what was contributed to me, or by whom. No contribution has been made to me that was ever represented as a contribution coming from Mr. Abramoff, or any relationship to things that he was involved in," Dorgan said when quizzed about the $20,000 in donations.
Dorgan said he wrote the letter because he supported the tribal school construction program and believed tribes in his state might benefit. "The Bush administration wanted to shut the program down. I disagreed. The program saves the federal government money and gets results. That makes sense to me," he said.
Dorgan's staff said Dorgan believes the letter was drafted by Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., who also signed it and got similar donations from Abramoff's clients in the same time frame.
I love how these Congressmen say there's no connection between their voting records and these campaign contributions. Like I'm suppose to believe them? Dorgan got $20,000 from Abramoff and in exchange, Dorgan urged lawmakers to fund a tribal school program that Abramoff's indian tribe clients were using.
This corruption just goes on and on.
the Coushattas' check ledger shows the tribe on March 6, 2002, wrote checks for $5,000 to Dorgan's political group, called the Great Plains Leadership Fund, and $25,000 to Burns. That money ultimately landed in Burns' Friends of the Big Sky political group, records show.
Other checks listed as being issued that day were made out to groups or campaigns associated with Sens. Trent Lott, Mary Landrieu, Harry Reid and John Breaux and Reps.
Tom DeLay, Charles Taylor and Pete Session, all of whom wrote letters favorable to Abramoff tribal client causes, the ledger shows.
Those lawmakers, like Dorgan, have denied any connection between the letters and the donations.
"The suggestion in the story that I may have supported that school construction program because of Jack Abramoff or because of campaign contributions from Indian tribes is clearly and despicably wrong," Dorgan said.
The culture of corruption, where our lawmakers have become hypocrits.
Republican *or* Democrat, I want corrupt congresscritters to start going *down*. They're not representing their constituents, they're not serving the country's interests. To hell with 'em.
ReplyDeleteAmen to that. The problem here is that the system is pretty much jury-rigged for this game. Lobbying firms representing big corporate interests give large amounts of money to Congressmen in exchange for access to the said Congressmen, where the corporate interests can tell the lawmakers how to vote according to their corporate interests. Oh, and if you like, these lobbyists and corporations can write the bills needed to reform the system--again benefitting the corporate interests. Congressmen need lots of money to finance their election campaigns. It is a self-perpetuating cycle.
ReplyDeleteThe only way to break this cycle is to break the money out of politics. Eliminate all forms of campaign contributions from corporations, lobbying firms, and political action committees. Eliminate all fundraising by both the Democratic and Republican parties. And have all political campaigns financed through the state, regardless of whatever political affiliation the candidates have.
Of course, that will never happen.