Let's connect the dots....Abramoff....Norquist....Reed

A photograph of a 2002 golf trip to St. Andrews in Scotland shows, from left in the front row, the lobbyist Jack Abramoff, Ralph Reed, David H. Safavian and Representative Bob Ney, Republican of Ohio. U.S. District Court, via Associated Press

I'd say it is time for an astoundingly exciting episode of The Jack Abramoff Show! This one might just knock your socks off! From CNN.Com:

WASHINGTON (AP) -- In Jack Abramoff's world, prominent Washington tax-cut advocate Grover Norquist was a godsend.

Moving money from a casino-operating Indian tribe to Ralph Reed, the Christian Coalition founder and professed gambling opponent, was a problem. Lobbyist Abramoff turned to his longtime friend Norquist, apparently to provide a buffer for Reed.

The result, according to evidence gathered by the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, was that Norquist's Americans for Tax Relief became a conduit for more than a million dollars from the Mississippi Choctaw to Reed's operation, while Norquist, a close White House ally, took a cut.

Without citing any specific group, the Senate panel found numerous instances of nonprofit organizations that appeared to be involved in activities unrelated to their mission as described to the Internal Revenue Service.

Thursday's 373-page Senate report on Abramoff's influence-peddling said some nonprofits channeled money from one entity to another in an effort to obscure the source of funds, the eventual use of funds and to evade tax liability.

The report said some tax-exempt organizations apparently were used as extensions of for-profit lobbying operations. The committee forwarded 108 documents to the Senate Finance Committee in February about nonprofits, 28 of them dealing with Norquist's group.

Talk about a Republican money-making machine here! Abramoff takes the lobbying money from the Indian casinos, and then transfers it to Norquist's non-profit organization Americans for Tax Relief--Norquist gets his cut, of course. Then the money is transferred out of Norquist's organization and into Ralph Reed's non-profit Christian Coalition. This is the equivalent of political money-laundering here!

But it gets better. Continuing with the story:

Nell Rogers, a planner for the Choctaws, told the Senate that the arrangement was never intended as a contribution to support ATR's general anti-tax work.

Rogers said she understood from Abramoff that ATR was willing to serve as a conduit, provided it received a fee.

In an e-mail obtained by the committee, Abramoff told Reed that "I need to give Grover something for helping, so the first transfer will be a bit lighter."

Relying on an e-mail by Abramoff, the Senate report said "Norquist kept" $25,000 from each of two transfers from the Choctaw to Reed. The report provided evidence about four transfers for about $1.2 million in all.

First the email letter clearly shows the involvement of Abramoff, Reed, and Norquist on the scam. What is more, Norquist's non-profit ATR was willing to serve in this money laundering for a profit! Norquist kept $25,000 from each of the two money transfers between the Choctaw tribe and Reed's Christian Coalition. Norquist profited handsomely from these money transfers. So if $1.2 million was transferred from the Choctaw Indians to the Christian Coalition through Norquist's ATR, then how much did Norquist make total on this $1.2 million transfer? And how many other Indian casinos were involved in this money laundering scam?

This story really shows the corruption of money within the Republican Party establishment, and the hypocrisy of the Republican political elites. First, there is the desire to use non-profit organizations as Norquist's ATR for-profit operations, such as wiring money into Reed's non-profit Christian Coalition for $25,000--tax free, of course. These Republican political elites, and their organizations, will do whatever they can to gain money through legal and illegal means--ethics be damned! Money has become their new God, and they will worship their new God through the accumulation of its religious coin. Then there is the hypocrisy of Ralph Reed and the Christian Coalition. Here's an Evangelical Christian lobbying group that is suppose to be against the sins of gambling, but is taking money in from the Indian casinos through this circumventing route.

There is a madness involved within this story. There is the madness of arrogance that these characters--Abramoff, Reed, and Norquist--may feel that they can do anything they wish, and are not accountable to anyone. There is the madness of our political system, and how money corrupts this system. But there is also the madness of the American voter--the disconnect between the voter and the political process, the feeling that voting will not change the political process, or even provide the change necessary to improve this country's well being. So the madness continues on, it cancerous tentacles reaching into all facets of American society--feeding upon American society and upon itself.

How deep will it go?