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| 2006/1/8-10 [Politics/Domestic/911, Politics/Domestic/Election] UID:41294 Activity:moderate |
1/8 Re: Abramoff. Transcript of Howard Dean on with Wolf Blitzer, CNN.
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0601/08/le.01.html
"There are no Democrats who took money from Jack Abramoff, not one,
not one single Democrat. Every person named in this scandal is a
Republican. Every person under investigation is a Republican. Every
person indicted is a Republican. This is a Republican finance scandal.
There is no evidence that Jack Abramoff ever gave any Democrat any
money. And we've looked through all of those FEC reports to make sure
that's true."
\_ I hope Howard Dean knows what is he talking about. I vaguely
remember Abramoff also paid lavish trips for Democrats as well.
\_ Replubican lies.
\_ How would you know? Do you have special insider info?
Like everything else, this will be investigated, maybe a
few people will resign from one or both parties and nothing
will change because politicians are corrupt.
\_ sheesh. take a chill pill. My point is that Republicans
have been spreading the message that Abramoff paid $$ to
Dems. And that's the reason why he "vaguely remembers"
this.
\_ You didn't have a point if you wrote "Republican lies".
That isn't a point. It is partisan noise.
\_ I expanded it in the pp. make sense now?
\_ Do you think that politicians everywhere are corrupt?
I do not. Why are politicians in some other countries
less corrupt? Could we perhaps figure out why and reform
our system to be more like theirs?
\_ I think all career politicians are corrupt. What county
did you have in mind where they are less so?
\_ I am a democrate. but i just don't think Abramoff is so
stupid that he only oil up Republicans. And Democrats
are not exactly clean neither... just that they are not
nearly as blatant as Republicans under Bush's reign.
\_ I think all career politicians are corrupt. What county
did you have in mind where they are less so?
\_ "Democrats' Travel Costs Linked to Lobbyist" [Washington Post]
http://csua.org/u/ejn
Is this a Republican plant? Reading Dean carefully, do paid
trips show up in FEC reports?
\_ http://msnbc.msn.com/id/7723344/page/2 has a lot more
details.
"Clyburn said in an interview he had never heard of
Abramoff at the time, and provided a copy of a letter
showing he was invited by the nonprofit foundation."
The sum total of both trips was ~$4.5-5k airfare and a
$227 hotel bill per Congressman. This is proof that
Abramoff paid for "lavish trips." It sounds like first
class plane travel, and a nice night in a good hotel, but
"lavish?" And I don't know about you, but I don't think
a $5k first class plane ticket buys much influence in
Washington these days.
Certainly, Dean was careful with his language, and these
were not filed with the FEC. However, "Both Clyburn and
Thompson filed House disclosure reports showing the
[nonprofit] group paid for the travel." Apparently,
these reports are now incorrect, but they were filed b/c
at the time, Clyburn and Thompson "weren't told the
foundation that invited them never put up the money."
Considering the point of lobbying is to direct money to
the congressmen in order to curry favor with them, not
telling the congressman that you gave them money doesn't
curry much favor.
Clyburn and Thompson may turn out to be Democratic
sleazeballs. Who knows? But $5,000 of disclosed money
received doesn't swing the pendulum of corruption from
red to purple.
\_ Hey, my post was only in response to the quick
"Republican lies" claim above. -pp
\_ Direct quotes from the congressmen or staff:
http://www.contrarianreview.com/lobbyist.html
Clyburn:
"The invitation was signed by a chairman of the Joint
Chiefs. What was I supposed to believe?"
- The letter said the Congressional delegations would
"be paid for by the nonprofit N.S.C. Foundation, and
they will not involve any cost to the US government."
Thompson staff:
"He received an invitation from a nonprofit group to go
down and visit the islands. It was a legitimate trip.
And once he returned from the trip, he complied with
House rules and filed the required ethics forms."
\_ Man, the spin is coming hard and fast now. Do you
\_ point A
even read your *own* source? The letter was signed
by Thomas Moorer, who was the *former* Chairman of
the Joint Chiefs. Hello, "former", as in 1970 to
1974? Meaning Moorer was a private citizen at the
time of the invitation. Since the writers of the
article knew Moorer was only the former Chairman,
and they didn't call Clyburn on it, you have to wonder
why not and where their bias lies. As to point 2,
\_ point B.
as the WaPo article said, "Greg Hilton [the director
of the group] understood at the outset that the
expenses would be covered by 'the private sector'".
Hilton was later told that the government would
cover the costs, but barring more evidence, it's
hard to say if Clyburn was told specifically if the
trip were covered by private or public funds.
\_ You're absolutely right. We should impeach and
fire all politicians who took money from
Abramoff, regardless of political affiliation.
If that ends up being more Dems than Repubs, fine.
\_ A+B: your own biases and paranoia are showing
through. You don't address the points, but rather
attack the news source as being biased. Oh, yes,
and you accuse pp of "spin" when the whole post
is pretty much direct quotes. |
| 4/4 |
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| transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0601/08/le.01.html Return to Transcripts main page CNN LATE EDITION WITH WOLF BLITZER Interview With Shimon Peres; Interview With Benjamin Netanyahu Aired January 8, 2006 - 11:00 ET THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED. WOLF BLITZER, HOST: It's 11:00 am in Washington, 8:00 am in Los Angeles, 6:00 pm here in Jerusalem and 7:00 pm in Baghdad. Wherever you're watching from around the world, thanks very much for joining us for this special "Late Edition." We'll get to the story of how the Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon's massive stroke is affecting politics and peacemaking right here in the Middle East. First, though, let's get a check of what's in the news right now. CNN's Fionnuala Sweeney is outside the Hadassah hospital here in Jerusalem. FIONNUALA SWEENEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, Ariel Sharon remains in intensive care at the Hadassah Medical Center. As you say, though, doctors say that following a further brain scan Sunday morning, he was able to determine that there had been a further improvement, a further slight improvement in the 77-year-old prime minister's condition. Now, the doctors say that they will carry out a further brain scan on Monday morning, and if that is satisfactory, they will then begin the critical process of slowly weaning Ariel Sharon from that deep anesthetic which has kept him in a very deep coma for the past four days. It will be then and only then over a process which will last several hours that they will be able to determine the extent of the damage he may have suffered. Meanwhile, Ehud Olmert, the acting prime minister, who transferred power from Ariel Sharon on Wednesday night, held his first cabinet meeting on Sunday. The Israeli government here doing its best to give the impression of business as usual, sitting beside the empty chair that Ariel Sharon usually holds. But the focus here remaining at the hospital and that critical day, tomorrow, Monday, after that further brain scan. BLITZER: Fionnuala Sweeney at the Hadassah Medical Center, thank you very much. And we'll have much more on the fallout from Ariel Sharon's massive stroke. But let's move on to another developing story we're following, this one in Iraq. Today 12 United States military personnel were killed in a Black Hawk helicopter crash, ending an extremely violent week in Iraq. Yes, a violent week indeed, a deadly one for both Iraqis and for Americans. As you said, this latest news coming in about this Black Hawk going down in the northwest of the country, about 12 kilometers east of Tal-Afah. It carries a crew of four and can carry up to a dozen or so passengers -- on this occasion, eight of them. It crashed shortly before midnight last evening, and that's about 19 or so hours ago. And so we have this situation now in this country where the weather has been bad the last few days, but an investigation is under way. The Black Hawk was flying in support of the 101st Airborne. It was part of a two-ship flight moving between bases in that northwest part of the country when communications were lost. And then, as I said, at noon today, we find out that it indeed had crashed. This comes, Wolf, after news that five US Marines also died, three of them in Ramadi, in separate exchanges of gunfire, killed by small arms, and also two Marines were also -- sorry, that was in Fallujah, not Ramadi. Like Ariel Sharon, Shimon Peres has been a major force in Israeli politics for as long as there has been a state of Israel. A leader of the Labour Party, he served twice as this nation's prime minister. Until recently, he was Ariel Sharon's deputy prime minister. He's a supporter of Sharon's new centrist party called Kadima. You've worked so closely with Ariel Sharon over these many years. But your thoughts right now on what this country is going through? SHIMON PERES, FORMER ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: Well, the country is in pain. That was a great respect, I would say even love, for Ariel Sharon over the last three years, three, four years, when he took the cause of peace determinedly, as he usually does, with great talent, with great determination. And people are very much concerned what will be the future like. BLITZER: Well, what do you hope unfolds between now and the scheduled elections at the end of March? I assume if the doctors say Ariel Sharon can no longer serve as prime minister, he then becomes prime minister. It's right legally because Sharon has nominated Ehud Olmert when he was in full strength to serve as an acting prime minister if the need going forward. And I think as far as policies are concerned, he will clearly continue the policies of Mr Ariel Sharon. BLITZER: What will be your role between now and the elections at the end of March? PERES: I shall help to win the elections, but also to prepare a platform for peace. My real interest is not the post of minister or not even a member of the government. All my life I fought for peace, and I'm looking for the right opportunity to serve peace further. In spite of all the pessimistic views about what's taking place in the Palestinian camp, about the problems inside Israel, I remain a believer in the continuation of peace. On the contrary, maybe that out of those crises that have assembled together right now, there may emerge a great opportunity to go further after Gaza and try to look for a perfect or a perfectly possible solution in the West Bank in accordance with the road map. BLITZER: Between now and the elections scheduled for March 28th, will you urge your supporters to vote for Sharon's new centrist party, called the Kadima Party, or will you urge them to vote for your old Labour Party with which you were so synonymous over these decades of Israel's existence? PERES: What really happened is that the Kadima Party came very close to the Labour platform. And today Sharon really is almost identical in his views to our own. And I think in order to have peace, you need the majority, not just an idea. And I think the Kadima Party may represent a real backbone for the peacemaking. And that's the major problem (inaudible) national call to supporters, my supporters, to vote for peace, to vote for a majority for peace and, as a consequence, to vote for Kadima. BLITZER: And will you serve as -- on the list that will be put before the voters in Israel for the next Knesset, the next parliament, will you serve as one of those on the Kadima list? You know, again and again, it's not the list and not the position that took me Kadima. It's really the occasion and the hope for peace that I am there. But not to avoid your questions, I would say probably yes, I shall be on the list. BLITZER: And there is no doubt, is there, at this point, that Ehud Olmert will be number one on that list, as far as you're concerned? Even though there was a poll that was published in Haaretz, one of the leading newspapers here in Israel, on Friday which showed that you would even do better atop that Kadima list than he would do, you're willing to let him take that leadership and you're not going to challenge him for the leadership of Kadima. PERES: I have had a discussion with myself, asked myself what do I want to do? And the answer is not to be a prime minister, but really concerned about peace. When you're a prime minister, you have to spend so much time on issues that are not necessarily connected to peace -- personal frictions, dilemmas, economy. I want to devote whatever time and energy I have for the peace process. And I've learned a second lesson: Don't fight too much for the credit. Because if you fight for the credit, you have an endless fight within the party. If you don't fight for credit, you have the credit to do the right things. BLITZER: As you know, the Palestinians have their own elections scheduled for January 25th. If they take place, by almost all accounts, Hamas will do very well. What should Israel's policy be in dealing with Hamas if they get elected to their assembly in significant numbers, as is widely expected? PERES: If Hamas will not change its ideology and practice, there will be an armed group, and if they will come to the negotiating table with bombs and rifles, we... |
| csua.org/u/ejn -> www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/03/AR2005050301792.html All RSS Feeds Democrats' Travel Costs Linked to Lobbyist By R Jeffrey Smith Washington Post Staff Writer Wednesday, May 4, 2005; The payments represent two new instances in which lawmakers and staff members on overseas trips had their expenses initially covered by a registered lobbyist despite a blanket ban in congressional ethics rules on direct payments by lobbyists for travel-related expenses. The aides to DeLay were Edwin A Buckham, now a lobbyist for the Alexander Strategy Group, and Tony Rudy, now a member of Buckham's lobbying firm. In these instances, Abramoff was reimbursed by his law firm, Preston Gates Ellis. The island government, which had hired the law firm, eventually paid it back for the expenses incurred by Abramoff, according to a source close to the incidents, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. House ethics rules contain no exemption for payments by lobbyists that are later reimbursed by others. Abramoff's credit card was also used to pay travel expenses related to a trip to London and Scotland by DeLay in late May and early June of 2000, according to a separate set of records disclosed by The Washington Post last month. Sources have said he was reimbursed in that instance by a nonprofit organization, which in turn had some of its expenses for that trip covered by gambling interests. All three lawmakers have said in response to the disclosures that they had no way of knowing that Abramoff's credit card was being used to pay for the trips. They said they believed that the charges were being incurred by nonprofit groups, as House rules permit. Andrew Blum, Abramoff's spokesman, declined to comment yesterday but has said that lobbyists traditionally travel with lawmakers on educational trips and that Abramoff is being singled out for actions that he called proper and common in Washington. The travel receipts for the trips to the Marianas -- obtained by the Associated Press and published on its Web site -- and interviews tell a more complicated story. They suggest that the nonprofit organization listed by the two congressmen as their sponsor did not pay for the trip. Abramoff is now at the center of a federal criminal and tax investigation. In 1997, he was the chief Washington lobbyist for the islands, a US protectorate in the Pacific Ocean west of Hawaii. In 2001, he also registered as a lobbyist for the Saipan Garment Manufacturers Association, a major trade group based on one of the islands. The island groups had several interests before Congress in 1997: They wanted to thwart a bill restricting the flow of Asian immigrants to the islands, where some lawmakers said they were mistreated in sweatshops. Business interests also wanted to ensure that they continued to be exempt from paying minimum wages. Clyburn and Thompson were invited to the islands by the National Security Caucus Foundation, a nonprofit group, in a letter dated Dec. The letter said the trip would "not involve any cost to the US government." Greg Hilton, who directed the group at the time, said he understood at the outset that the expenses would be covered by "the private sector" -- meaning island businesses. "As we came closer to the trip, a check had not arrived," he said in a written statement. But Hilton said he received a call from Preston Gates, which depicted itself as legal counsel for the island government. |
| msnbc.msn.com/id/7723344/page/2 DeLay was then majority whip, the third-ranking House Republican. The documents show Abramoff used his credit card to pay for at least some congressional travel to the islands, and then sent urgent e-mails because the territorial government was slow in paying, leaving the travelers possibly in violation of House rules. "Per instructions from Preston, we have been using Jack Abramoff's credit card for past tickets," a travel agent e-mailed the island government on Dec. "I have been asked to contact you regarding direct payment . DeLay spokesman Dan Allen said his office believes the trip expenses for the two aides were paid by the government of the Northern Marianas, not Abramoff. "The office's understanding is both traveled to CNMI (Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands) in 1996 at the invitation of the Northern Marianas, a territory of the United States," Allen said. "Under House ethics rules, House employees may accept travel paid for by a governmental entity with no restrictions on the staff's ability to accept travel by such a governmental entity - whether in terms of trip duration, accompanying individuals or otherwise." DeLay's office did not report the trip in House disclosure records. Allen said disclosure wasn't necessary since a US territorial government was paying for the trip. Mr Abramoff once again is being singled for actions that are commonplace in Washington, DC, and are totally proper." Jan Baran, a Washington lawyer who specializes in ethics rules and campaign finance, said lawmakers and their aides probably would avoid any findings of wrongdoing by demonstrating they had no knowledge of the lobbyist payments. "If a member generally doesn't know what's going on, it's hard to see how the member would be held to violate ethics rules," he said. Questions also have been raised about whether DeLay's airfare to London and Scotland in 2000 was charged to an Abramoff credit card, and whether other expenses on the same trip were billed to a credit card used by Buckham, who had become a lobbyist by that time. The documents show that the following payments were made for the trip involving the DeLay aides in December 1996 and the travel by Clyburn and Thompson a month later: * $2,028 in hotel expenses for Buckham, then DeLay's chief of staff. Ex-foundation director denies paying The lawmakers were invited to the Marianas by a nonprofit organization, the National Security Caucus Foundation. Clyburn said he understood the foundation would be paying the expenses. But Gregg Hilton, who ran the now-defunct foundation, said the group never paid for the trip. He said the lawmakers weren't told the foundation that invited them never put up the money. Both Clyburn and Thompson filed House disclosure reports showing the group paid for the travel, and Clyburn provided the invitation letter. Hilton, who was on the trip himself, said the National Security Caucus Foundation was a project of the American Security Council Foundation, an organization he ran and now serves as a director. The foundations promoted a strong national defense, democracy and human rights. Hilton said he arranged the trip with the island government and was led to believe by Preston Gates officials that the territory would pay the expenses and be reimbursed by the private sector. He said he was not aware that Abramoff or Preston Gates paid for the trip until the AP showed him the documents. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. |
| www.contrarianreview.com/lobbyist.html PHILIP SHENON WASHINGTON, May 3 - Newly disclosed documents from an American territory in the Pacific show that the powerful Washington lobbyist at the center of federal corruption investigations here paid directly for travel to the islands by several members of Congress, Democrat and Republican, as well as two senior aides to Tom DeLay, the House majority leader, despite House rules that bar such payments. The lobbyist, Jack Abramoff, submitted bills to his law firm for more than $350,000 in expenses for several trips to the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands in 1996 and 1997 on behalf of the congressmen, as well as several others including Edwin Buckham, Mr DeLay's former chief of staff, and Tony Rudy, his former deputy chief of staff. In letters and e-mail messages to the Marianas, Mr Abramoff acknowledged that he had paid for the trips and asked the island government, which had hired him to lobby against proposed labor measures that would have affected the islands, to send him checks. House travel rules bar lobbyists from paying for Congressional travel, even if the lobbyist is reimbursed by a group or government agency that is allowed to pay for travel. Mr DeLay also visited the Marianas in late 1997 on a trip arranged by Mr Abramoff. The documents, obtained by The New York Times under a Freedom of Information request, do not include information about how Mr DeLay's expenses were covered. Mr DeLay, his aides and two Democrats all said they believed that the Marianas government had paid for the travel or, in one case, that a conservative educational group, the National Security Caucus Foundation, had paid, an action that would have been in accordance with House ethics rules. The former director of that group, Gregg Hilton, said in an interview on Tuesday that the foundation, now defunct, did not pay and that he believed that the Marianas government was paying for the trips. According to the records, Mr Abramoff paid for Mr Hilton's own travel to the Marianas. The group's Web site identified Mr Abramoff as having been a member of its board in 2003. The site said Mr Abramoff led a Congressional delegation on a trip to Pakistan in 1997. Mr Abramoff, under scrutiny by a federal grand jury in Washington and two Senate committees, also had a role in arranging and paying for a trip to Britain for Mr DeLay, his wife and members of his staff in May 2000. In that case, as in this one, Mr Abramoff used his personal credit card to pay for the travel and then sought reimbursement from the groups that he was representing. Ethics lawyers, and his former law firm, say that was a clear violation of House rules. In a statement, the firm, Preston Gates & Ellis, said: "If Jack Abramoff charged Congressional travel to his personal credit card for subsequent reimbursement - even from an entity that could have paid for the travel to begin with - that would have been contrary to firm policy that firm lobbyists were responsible for seeing that any Congressional travel in connection with a representation should be in accordance with Congressional ethics rules." The firm said that Mr Abramoff had been advised of the rules when he started working there but that any violations were not caught at the time because his records were not reviewed. The investigations into Mr Abramoff have centered on whether he defrauded Indian tribes he represented. In recent weeks, Democratic House members have urged that the inquiry be expanded to include his activities in the Marianas. The islands, under scrutiny for sweatshoplike garment factories, hired Mr Abramoff in 1995 to help them fend off measures aimed at establishing American workplace and wage standards. The trips appear to start in 1995 and continue through at least 2000. In December 1996, Mr Abramoff sent an e-mail message to a Marianas official urging reimbursement, saying the House Ethics Committee was "watching the trips very closely." He signed off saying, "I leave for Saipan, with the chief of staff for the majority whip, on Wednesday morning my time." Ten days later, a travel agent for Preston Gates wrote to the same official, saying, "Per instructions from Preston, we have been using Jack Abramoff's credit card for past tickets," and asked that the Marians pay directly for future tickets. When Mr DeLay returned home in 1998, he declared the workplace measure dead. The documents refer to trips taken by several members of Congress but give detailed expense breakdowns for just two Democrats. One of them, Representative James E Clyburn of South Carolina, said in an interview on Tuesday that he had been assured that his trip was in full accordance with House travel rules and that the National Security Caucus Foundation had paid for it. "I've never heard of Abramoff, or whatever his name is, until all this stuff hit a few weeks ago," Mr Clyburn said, noting that the invitation from the caucus was signed by Adm. Thomas H Moorer, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, as the group's representative. "The invitation was signed by a chairman of the Joint Chiefs. Admiral Moorer's letter says trips to the Marianas and Guam, home to American military installations, were among "fact-finding missions" sponsored by the caucus to "develop a new and comprehensive international security strategy for the post-cold-war world." The letter said the Congressional delegations would "be paid for by the nonprofit NSC Foundation, and they will not involve any cost to the US government." Lanier Avant, a spokesman for Representative Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, said Mr Thompson had understood that the caucus had paid for the trip. "The Congressman has never had any association with Jack Abramoff," Mr Avant said. He received an invitation from a nonprofit group to go down and visit the islands. And once he returned from the trip, he complied with House rules and filed the required ethics forms." A spokesman for Mr DeLay, Dan Allen, said the congressman and his aides had been assured that the islands' government was paying for their Marianas trips and that there was therefore no need to complete a travel disclosure form, because the islands are an American territory. I at the invitation of the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas, a territory of the United States," Mr Allen said. "Under House rules, House employees may accept travel paid for by a governmental entity with no restrictions on staff's ability to accept travel by such a governmental entity, whether in terms of trip duration, accompany individuals or otherwise." Mr Allen said he did not know the exact payment details of Mr DeLay's hotel and airline bills. A spokesman for Mr Abramoff, Andrew Blum, declined to answer questions except to issue a statement, saying: "The tradition of lobbyists' traveling with members of Congress to visit various jurisdictions so that they could learn about issues that impact the Congress and government policy is well known. Mr Abramoff once again is being singled out for actions that are commonplace in Washington, DC, and are totally proper." The invitation to the 1997 trip also refers to trips that the security group organized for members of Congress to the Balkans, Guam, India, Mexico, Pakistan and South Korea. Mr Abramoff and his associates have represented those countries. Despite the ties indicated on the Web site, Mr Hilton, the group's former director, said Mr Abramoff had nothing to do with any other travel. James Brooke contributed reporting from Saipan for this article. |