Abramoff allies in the White House?

Those Abramoff meetings at the White House aren’t going to be easily swept under the rug. Here’s John Dickerson’s take on the subject:
“Congress may not have a legal right to demand records of meetings, but under the circumstances, Bush should voluntarily relinquish them to the public. Taxpayers may not have a right to sit in on every meeting and read every memo, but they should know whether Abramoff succeeded in putting his interests ahead of theirs inside the White House as well as Congress. The Bush campaign returned Abramoff’s donations to help remove the stink. But it won’t be able to fully fumigate until officials let us know who they met with and why.”
Posted by Melissa Cooley

12 Comments

  1. Ed Friedemann
    Posted January 23, 2006 at 1:39 am | Permalink

    Yes, the public is entitled to hear every meeting, every word uttered by elected officials.

    The Nixon tapes offer proof that that would be a better system.

    We have open trails so why not open government. the closed door is where all the bad things happen.

    Would Bush have suggested bombing Aljazeera if the door wasn’t closed.

    Nothing classified, everything open.

    Lobbies included.

  2. Ed Friedemann
    Posted January 23, 2006 at 4:41 am | Permalink

    Oh, And if a politician takes a bribe, then send them to Iran to have their hands chopped-off.

    Bush thinks things like that are alright, he likes to bomb a houseful of kids, so, why not a few hands for good luck?

    After all, we’re down to the bottom of the moral-barrel with the Israelis, so I’m sure they’d like to sell tickets?

  3. Sum1
    Posted January 23, 2006 at 4:52 am | Permalink

    What I’m still waiting for is the results of the investigation against allegations that the Whitehouse itself stepped in and had U.S. Atty. Frederick A. Black, demoted and the grand jury that was investigating Abramoff dissolved.

    Bush might want to keep saying he’s never met the man, but the facts are there.

    http://www.juiceenewsdaily.com/index.php/2006/01/04/who-is-jack-abramoff/

  4. ksfarmgrrl
    Posted January 23, 2006 at 8:41 am | Permalink

    With all this executive power and secrets in the white house, does anyone smell the sulfur of the ghosts of Nixons past? We can only hope for the same outcome. Except, the republican house will never do the right thing.

  5. ProudLib
    Posted January 23, 2006 at 10:43 am | Permalink

    Woo hoo, good link, Sum1.

    I especially liked this part:

    “Tyco Inc. claimed in August 2005 that Abramoff had been paid $1.7 million for an ‘astroturf campaign’ to create a ‘grass roots’ campaign to oppose proposals to penalize US corporations registered abroad for tax reasons. The work was allegedly never performed.”

    Corrupt AND incompetent. That is the Republican party these days, isn’t it?

  6. ProudLib
    Posted January 23, 2006 at 10:45 am | Permalink

    Eventually, the photos of Bush shaking hands with Abramoff will surface. You know they’re out there.

    Then the world will see again that Bush’s “I never met the man” is another LIE.

  7. ProudLib
    Posted January 23, 2006 at 11:14 am | Permalink

    Yup, here it is, fresh from today’s updated blogs–

    http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,115174...

    White House aides deny the President knew lobbyist Abramoff, but unpublished photos shown to TIME suggest there’s more to the story

    As details poured out about the illegal and unseemly activities of Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff, White House officials sought to portray the scandal as a Capitol Hill affair with little relevance to them. Peppered for days with questions about Abramoff’s visits to the White House, press secretary Scott McClellan said the now disgraced lobbyist had attended two huge holiday receptions and a few “staff-level meetings” that were not worth describing further. “The President does not know him, nor does the President recall ever meeting him,” McClellan said.

    “The President’s memory may soon be unhappily refreshed. TIME has seen five photographs of Abramoff and the President that suggest a level of contact between them that Bush’s aides have downplayed.”

    Time magazine. That’s so sad, Mr. Integrity is caught out again.

    http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,115174...

  8. XXX
    Posted January 23, 2006 at 11:46 am | Permalink

    My question is, is anybody really surprised? Political corruption for the party in power is approaching 3rd world levels. Are there any honest republicans left, or do they all support thuggery?

    That’s the thing about this administration…If it’s not one damn thing, it’s another.

  9. Ian Santiago
    Posted January 23, 2006 at 1:40 pm | Permalink

    Henry Adams (Descendant of President John Adams), in a letter to John Hay, October 1895: “The Jewish question is really the most serious of our problems.”

    V.L.R.B!!

  10. CF
    Posted January 23, 2006 at 2:02 pm | Permalink

    See Ian throw out of context poopie!

  11. Sum1
    Posted January 24, 2006 at 5:07 am | Permalink

    An interesting point about the pictures that the whitehouse don’t want to exist.

    On may 9, 2001 there was a meeting with 21 legislators and two indian tribes. At least it is the whitehouse official version.

    Unfortunately for the whitehouse one of the photos was taken at the meeting on that particular day showing Bush with Abramoff and his indian clients.

    Wait, didn’t the whitehouse say they weren’t there? then why are their pictures?

  12. ksfarmgrrl
    Posted January 24, 2006 at 9:34 am | Permalink

    That’s called voodoo photography Sum1. It is done in the dept of voodoo economics.