Occasionally, very occasionally, real life serves up a Shakespearean plot where the fatal flaw, the dirty deed, the MacBeth murder, comes back to doom the main players. Such is the case with the GOP and the Abramoff scandal. Although, I think by the end of this, it'll start to look more like the final scene of Hamlet, with dead political careers littering the stage.
With all the details coming out (there are multiple diaries and front page stories of various aspects of it at any time), it's hard to keep the story straight.
So, here it is, in all its dark grandeur, your one-stop narrative of the Abramoff scandal, its roots in the K Street Project, why it's only a GOP scandal, and how it spreads throughout the whole structure of the "conservative movement." Clip it, save it, use it as a Viewer's Guide as all the other details come out. Use it to amaze your friends with your understanding. Or just send it to a journalist who seems to have no clue.
Let's get one thing straight: this scandal doesn't involve Democrats. You see, the question is not, "How many Democrats took political contributions from Jack Abramoff's clients?" The political contributions were the small change of this scandal. The question really is, "How many families of Democrats were enriched by Abramoff's activities?" And, "How many Democratic political machines were funded by millions from Abramoff's clients and Abramoff himself?" And, more prosaically, "How many Democrats took golf trips to Scotland?"
All the efforts to paint this as a bipartisan scandal are done in by one salient fact: the GOP has set up the game to systematically exclude the Democrats. Right there is the fatal flaw in the whole thing. The GOP set up an updated version of the old-fashioned political machine, and, like all machines, it needs to press the boundaries of legality and propriety to fund the large apparatus it needs to perpetuate itself. Plus, the people who set up and run these machines are invariably corrupt and arrogant, and we all know what happens to folks like that when you give them power. Basically, this all has roots in the K Street Project.
The best rundown of the K Street Project can still be found here, in a 2003 article by Nicholas Confessore. He describes weekly meetings in Rick Santorum's office of top GOP apparatchiks like Ed Gillespie, Grover Norquist and handpicked lobbyists.
The chief purpose of these gatherings is to discuss jobs--specifically, the top one or two positions at the biggest and most important industry trade associations and corporate offices centered around Washington's K Street, a canyon of nondescript office buildings a few blocks north of the White House that is to influence-peddling what Wall Street is to finance. In the past, those people were about as likely to be Democrats as Republicans, a practice that ensured K Street firms would have clout no matter which party was in power. But beginning with the Republican takeover of Congress in 1994, and accelerating in 2001, when George W. Bush became president, the GOP has made a determined effort to undermine the bipartisan complexion of K Street. And Santorum's Tuesday meetings are a crucial part of that effort. Every week, the lobbyists present pass around a list of the jobs available and discuss whom to support. Santorum's responsibility is to make sure each one is filled by a loyal Republican--a senator's chief of staff, for instance, or a top White House aide, or another lobbyist whose reliability has been demonstrated. After Santorum settles on a candidate, the lobbyists present make sure it is known whom the Republican leadership favors. "The underlying theme was [to] place Republicans in key positions on K Street. Everybody taking part was a Republican and understood that that was the purpose of what we were doing," says Rod Chandler, a retired congressman and lobbyist who has participated in the Santorum meetings. "It's been a very successful effort."
If today's GOP leaders put as much energy into shaping K Street as their predecessors did into selecting judges and executive-branch nominees, it's because lobbying jobs have become the foundation of a powerful new force in Washington politics: a Republican political machine. Like the urban Democratic machines of yore, this one is built upon patronage, contracts, and one-party rule. But unlike legendary Chicago mayor Richard J. Daley, who rewarded party functionaries with jobs in the municipal bureaucracy, the GOP is building its machine outside government, among Washington's thousands of trade associations and corporate offices, their tens of thousands of employees, and the hundreds of millions of dollars in political money at their disposal.
Now, that last sentence is a key one in understanding L'Affaire Abramoff. This is a machine that is primarily outside of government--but connected to it--and funded with millions of dollars. And it's all GOP. Oh, clients of the machine may give a few bucks to Democrats (like Harry Reid's and Byron Dorgan's contributions from Abramoff's Indian tribes), but the real money is outside these contributions. And it all goes to fund the GOP.
One example of how it works is the Celebrations for Children story Kos links to on the main page, where a phony charity gets millions of dollars to fund perks. But an even better example of it is the sordid story of the US Family Network, another Delay charity.
The U.S. Family Network, a public advocacy group that operated in the 1990s with close ties to Rep. Tom DeLay and claimed to be a nationwide grass-roots organization, was funded almost entirely by corporations linked to embattled lobbyist Jack Abramoff, according to tax records and former associates of the group.
During its five-year existence, the U.S. Family Network raised $2.5 million but kept its donor list secret. The list, obtained by The Washington Post, shows that $1 million of its revenue came in a single 1998 check from a now-defunct London law firm whose former partners would not identify the money's origins.
Two former associates of Edwin A. Buckham, the congressman's former chief of staff and the organizer of the U.S. Family Network, said Buckham told them the funds came from Russian oil and gas executives. Abramoff had been working closely with two such Russian energy executives on their Washington agenda, and the lobbyist and Buckham had helped organize a 1997 Moscow visit by DeLay (R-Tex.).
--snip--
But the records show that the tiny U.S. Family Network, which never had more than one full-time staff member, spent comparatively little money on public advocacy or education projects. Although established as a nonprofit organization, it paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in fees to Buckham and his lobbying firm, Alexander Strategy Group.
There is no evidence DeLay received a direct financial benefit, but Buckham's firm employed DeLay's wife, Christine, and paid her a salary of at least $3,200 each month for three of the years the group existed. Richard Cullen, DeLay's attorney, has said that the pay was compensation for lists Christine DeLay supplied to Buckham of lawmakers' favorite charities, and that it was appropriate under House rules and election law.
Some of the U.S. Family Network's revenue was used to pay for radio ads attacking vulnerable Democratic lawmakers in 1999; other funds were used to finance the cash purchase of a townhouse three blocks from DeLay's congressional office. DeLay's associates at the time called it "the Safe House."
DeLay made his own fundraising telephone pitches from the townhouse's second-floor master suite every few weeks, according to two former associates. Other rooms in the townhouse were used by Alexander Strategy Group, Buckham's newly formed lobbying firm, and Americans for a Republican Majority (ARMPAC), DeLay's leadership committee.
They paid modest rent to the U.S. Family Network, which occupied a single small room in the back.
So, there ya go. Money from all over (in addition to the Russians, money came from the Choctaw tribe and owners of sweatshops in the Northern Marianas, central players in other aspects of this drama ... but I'm sure you know about them), and the money was used to fund a political operation and, tangentially, to enrich the Delay family through the person of Delay's wife. And remember the money involved. This is millions of dollars. Puts the $65,000 of contributions Byron Dorgan received (and returned) into the proper context.
This is the political machine aspect of this, at least how it intersects with Congress. Abramoff ran, basically, a pay-to-play operation, where people who wanted to do business with the GOP would give him millions of dollars in lobbying fees, which he would then spread around. These dollars were used to fund political operations by Congressmen, or they were used to give family members a sweet deal, or they were used to fund lavish trips to Scotland to play golf.
But remember, this is a big machine, primarily living outside of government. It needs a lot of dollars. And this is where folks like Ralph Reed and Grover Norquist come in. And the religious right. Here's a quick description of Ralph Reed's involvement:
E-mails released by federal investigators in June 2005 suggest that Reed secretly accepted payments from Abramoff to lobby against Indian casino gambling and oppose an Alabama education lottery at the same time that Abramoff was being paid to promote Indian casino gambling. Additional e-mails released in November 2005 show that Reed also worked for another Abramoff client seeking to block a congressional ban on Internet gambling. Reed has said he did not know the funds came from pro-gambling sources.
And this happened all over the place. That's really what got Abramoff in trouble in the first place. If he had just kept things at your basic pay-to-play influence peddling, he might have gotten away with it. But the machine needed money. It needed it to run itself, and it needed it to fund the increasingly lavish lifestyles of the main players.
How this all works, how the money gets pushed around, can be seen in the story of Tyco Industries and Tim Flanigan, who withdrew his name from consideration for the Deputy AG job over this scandal. From Newsweek:
Tyco, based in Bermuda, paid $1.7 million to Abramoff's firm in 2003 and 2004--plus $1.5 million for a "grass roots" campaign to gin up opposition to the effort among Tyco's domestic suppliers. The Tyco official who hired Abramoff is the firm's general counsel, Tim Flanigan, a former White House lawyer nominated by President Bush for deputy attorney general. Tyco lawyer George Terwilliger says the firm "was a victim of a rip-off." Abramoff, he says, recommended the $1.5 million be paid to Grassroots Interactive, a group that allegedly did little work and later diverted funds for other purposes. Grassroots is "controlled" by Abramoff, says Nathan Lewin, a lawyer for Tyco's registered agent.
"Diverted funds for other purposes ..." Riiight. By this point, we can all guess what those other purposes were. You can also see this game at work in all the details of the Indian gaming scandal. Money going to fake astro-turf organizations, funding lobbying at cross-purposes to the original client ... it's an ugly tale.
A point to note in the Tyco story, though, is the entrance into our little story here of a big player: the Bush Administration. You see, if you're gonna run a pay-to-play system, a modern political machine, you've got to have the biggest playa on board. The WaPo on the Tyco fleecing:
Abramoff later said "he had contact with Mr. Karl Rove" about the issue, according to the statement by Flanigan, who oversaw Tyco's dealings with Abramoff and his firm and received reports from Abramoff about progress in the lobbying campaign. Flanigan's statement is the latest indication that Abramoff promoted himself as having ready access to senior officials in the Bush administration.
A White House spokeswoman, Erin Healy, said Rove "has no recollection" of being contacted by Abramoff about Tyco's concerns.
Karl, bubbie, I'm startin' to worry about you, guy. What with forgetting about this, and not remembering all those Plame conversations ... have you been getting lost on your way to work lately? Forgetting family members' names? You better get that checked out.
Now, one salient point in all this: Karl Rove's trusted assistant, one Susan Ralston, used to work for Abramoff. Now isn't that a coincidence? Every machine needs its loyal workers.
You notice something though ... Flanigan works for the White House, goes to work for Tyco, then gets nominated to be Deputy AG. Susan Ralston works for Abramoff, then goes to work for the White House ... for the first time in modern political history, one party controls the levers of power. And the revolving door of private work/government work/influence peddling that is such a prevalent part of our political system is now all flowing among the workers of one party.
Like David Safavian. It's here that the corruption reaches possibly its uttermost simplicity. Safavian, a former worker for Grover Norquist, got hired by the White House to be their procurement chief, in charge of purchasing decisions for the executive branch. You can imagine the power that holds to reward friends and punish enemies. Of course, he was arrested for taking bribes from Abramoff. At this point in the story, Safavian seems inevitable. The bribes, the connection to Norquist ... it's all so predictable. When you set up a machine like this, this is what happens. It's the fatal flaw, the insularity making the corruption inevitable and focused.
The GOP systematically excludes Democrats from this Iron Triangle of corporations/lobbying firms/government, but now they are looking for those connections to save them. They rigged the game to serve themselves, and, drunk with that power, feeling unfettered by opposition, they went too far. They turned official and unofficial Washington into their private playground, piggy-bank, and job fair. They moved millions and millions around with impunity, getting paid to lobby both sides of an issue, shaking down corporations, tribes, anyone, all to fund their machine. And themselves. The political donations don't matter; they probably don't add up to a tenth of the real money involved.
So, next time you see any Abramoff-related news ... remember the context. Remember the greater story that this is a part of. It all fits together. Abramoff was a GOP bag-man, collecting funds, distributing them to the big players, and getting favors in return. There is not a single major GOP figure that is not involved here, from George Bush to Tom Delay to Ralph Reed. The only question is: how far do the prosecutors take this?