From Shelley Lewis’ blog in the USA:
We’ll always have Freedom Fries
Once Bob [Robert] Ney was the Mayor of Capitol Hill, wielding his influence as chairman of the House Administration committee to assign parking spaces and order French fries to be renamed “freedom fries” in the House cafeteria.
Now, he’ll be trading cigarettes for extra cans of Pringles in prison. It’s an American tragedy, don’t you think?
I don’t mean to be melodramatic, it’s just that I’m reeling from the stunning news of Ney’s guilty plea to fraud and conspiracy in the Abramoff scandal.
Next thing you know, we’ll find out he wears a toupee. He’s admitting to taking about 170 thousand dollars worth of goodies from Abramoff and his associates.
Who could have seen that coming? After all, for more than a year he denied any wrongdoing. “I was duped,” he said, and we believed him, didn’t we?
More Abramoff scandal: here.
Dear Kitty. Some blog 
Maybe Ken “Liver Lips” Mehlman will be able to
“paper” his cell with those newspaper articles about his dear
friend, JACK ABRAMOFF.]
Read this at: http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/001635.php
Washington Post: article at:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/28/AR2006092801918.html
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*Mark Foley opines about Clinton’s “sex addiction”* Hah!
Posted by: “hapi22” hapi22@earthlink.net robinsegg
Sat Sep 30, 2006 9:07 pm (PST)
In case you think I overstate the case about Republican HYPOCRISY …
———————————————————-
— from Talking Points Memo
September 30, 2006
“It’s vile. It’s more sad than anything else, to see someone
with such potential throw it all down the drain because of a
sexual addiction.”
–Rep. Mark Foley (R-FL), commenting on President Clinton,
following release of the Starr Report, September 12, 1998.
..
Read this at: http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/010069.php
AND A WHOLE LOT MORE about Mr. Foley, Speaker Hastert (who is lying to
cover his butt) and the whole lot of stinking Republicans in Congress
at: http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/
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They really knew Jack*
by Tim Grieve
Salon.com
Sept. 29, 2006
When a reporter asked Republican National Committee chairman Ken
Mehlman about Jack Abramoff earlier this year, Mehlman said Abramoff was
“someone who we don’t know a lot about.”
It was a good story while it lasted.
As the New York Times reports this morning, a new report from the House
Government Reform Committee finds evidence of 485 contacts between
Abramoff’s lobbying team and White House officials from 2001 to 2004.
And as Roll Call reports, the report “single[s] out two of President
Bush’s top lieutenants, Karl Rove and Ken Mehlman, as having been
offered expensive meals and exclusive tickets to premier sporting events
and concerts by Abramoff and his associates.”
RNC spokeswoman Tracey Schmitt says that her boss naturally would have
had contacts with Abramoff during Mehlman’s tenure at the White House.
“In his capacity as political director of the White House, it is not
unusual that Mr. Mehlman would be in contact with supporters who had
interest in administration policy,” Schmitt says.
[NOTE FROM ME: That’s NOT the point … the point is that
until now, the White House has been denying that Abramoff was
at the white House more than a very few times, and those times
were mostly big social events where there were a lot of
people. Now, it turns out, as we all knew it would, Abramoff
was at the White House often and had almost complete access.
For gosh sakes, Abramoff was part of the 2000 transition team
that helped in the hiring for the Interior Dept., where he
continued to hold sway and exert influence for the next five
years.]
She’s right about that, of course: There’s no surprise that a White
House political director would have substantial contacts with someone
interested in White House policy, especially when that person happens to
be a Bush-Cheney “Pioneer.” What’s a little harder to explain is why
Mehlman and other Republicans thought they could get away with claiming
that they didn’t really know Jack at all.
The committee report says Abramoff’s team had at least six direct
contacts with Mehlman, including an instance in 2001 in which Abramoff
offered him a pair of tickets for a U2 concert. But when it comes to
White House officials with Abramoff connections, Rove was plainly the
biggest of the fish. Rove has dismissed Abramoff as nothing more than a
“casual acquaintance,” but the committee identified 82 contacts between
Abramoff’s team and Rove’s office. In one e-mail exchange, Abramoff told
Rove’s secretary that he’d just talked with Rove about hooking him up
with tickets to watch the NCAA basketball tournament from his skybox at
the MCI Center. Abramoff worked out the details with Rove’s secretary —
the same secretary who on at least one occasion informed Abramoff that
the White House had come around to his way of thinking on a political
issue.
All told, the Times says, Abramoff’s team poured about $25,000 into
wining and dining White House officials while also providing them
numerous tickets to sports and entertainment events. We don’t have
friends who treat us that well, let alone any strangers who do.
Read this at:
http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/2006/09/29/abramoff/index.html
The New York Times story is at:
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Who are the eighteen members of Congress that signed the Abramoff
Posted by: “Compañero” companyero@mindspring.com chocoano05
Sat Oct 28, 2006 10:14 pm (PST)
Citizens for Legitimate Government Exclusive:
Who are the eighteen members
of Congress that signed
the Abramoff letter to the
Customs Trademark division?
By Lori R. Price
28 October 2006
Bob Ney (R-Ohio) and seventeen other members of Congress signed a letter to Customs in 2002 advocating special consideration to allow Stolichnaya (Stoli) Vodka to import vodka that was illegally labeled “Made in Russia” when in fact, it was made in Latvia.
In an unprecedented move, Customs gave dispensation authority to Stoli to import the improperly labeled vodka less than a month after the request by Abramoff and the Eighteen.
Who pushed the extra-judicial action which appears completely outside the normal review procedure for such requests?
http://www.legitgov.org/18_reps_sign_abramoff_letter_281006.html
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