She hides behind her religion, you glimpse the real person once in a while. It's an ugly sight.

<---is not hiding.

Oh please, save the dramatics~~~

BTW, you were asking awhile back but I had to leave before I answered you, so I'll answer you now: I'm from Southeastern Michigan.

Do you suppose his dad is proud of him?

Seems to have a thriving career cycling in this circus.

toadies and other vermin

The acrimony/vendetta between you two is one of the most inexplicable situations on this board.

'Knowing' both of yas, it makes absolutely no sense.

For what it's worth . . .

Since you are the evolution specialist... can you tell me if she is evolving back into a frog?

He's a twisted woman hater with serious mental problems. Ignore is a good feature.

The Daily Muck

By Paul Kiel | bio

From: Auction House
A bastion of corruption in uncertain times, Rep. Doolittle (R-Cal.) has decided to take a stand: he is keeping Abramoff's money. According to his spokeswoman, here is one politician who will not bow to "political expediency."


Jan 06, 2006 -- 07:46:17 AM EST
The Post leads on "the internal battle ... underway among House Republicans to permanently replace Rep. Tom DeLay (Tex.) as majority leader and put in place a new leadership lineup that is better equipped to deal with the growing corruption scandal."

But there's one difficulty there: it's not easy finding a candidate who's untouched by Abramoff. The Post predicts a struggle between Acting Majority Leader Rep. Roy Blunt (Mo.), House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (Ill.), and Rep. John A. Boehner (Ohio), all of whom have Abramoff connections. Because of that, other candidates may come to the fore.

DeLay's deadline for clearing his name seems to be early February. A House Republican retreat is planned for Feb. 9, and the Post reports that Blunt "will ask House Republicans to make his temporary tenure permanent" around that time.

In the wake of Abramoff's plea, there's a general scramble by Democrats and Republicans to pass a lobbying reform package. The Dems already have a number on the table, but yesterday Sen. Lieberman (D-Conn.) signed on as the Democratic cosponsor to Sen. McCain's (R-Ariz.) bill, making it the leading contender. Sen. Conrad Burns (R-Mon.), frequently reported as one of the main possible targets in the Abramoff investigation, is also a cosponsor.

Sen. Frist (R-Tenn.) has tapped Sen. Santorum (R-Penn.) to lead the effort on drawing up the Republican reform package. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington has some issues with that, like the fact that "Sen. Santorum runs the K Street project, created by conservative activist Grover Norquist and former Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX), in which he ensures that all top lobbying and trade association jobs are filled by Republicans." And there's also Santorum's egregious shilling for AccuWeather, Inc.

The Washington Times quotes "a senior House Republican official" as saying: "It is becoming conventional wisdom that a significant lobbying reform package will occur sometime early this year."

In other muck:

DA Ronnie Earle, who is prosecuting DeLay on money laundering charges in Texas, is investigating DeLay's ties to Abramoff. He issued four subpoenas yesterday related to the U.S. Family Network, a GOP slush fund managed by Abramoff and former Delay aide Ed Buckham (read the Post's piece on it from last week). These subpoenas are in addition to ones issued Wednesday to Abramoff's employers and two of his tribal clients.

http://www.tpmcafe.com/story/2006/1/6/24916/96063

Too little too late ya whores.

After Abramoff, a GOP Scramble
DeLay's House Colleagues Anticipate a Leadership Shake-Up

By Jonathan Weisman and Shailagh Murray
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, January 6, 2006; A01

An internal battle is underway among House Republicans to permanently replace Rep. Tom DeLay (Tex.) as majority leader and put in place a new leadership lineup that is better equipped to deal with the growing corruption scandal.

Acting Majority Leader Roy Blunt (Mo.) will ask House Republicans to make his temporary tenure permanent early next month if, as is likely, DeLay is unable to clear his name in the gathering corruption and campaign finance scandals, according to a member of the GOP leadership and several leadership aides.

The move would almost certainly touch off a GOP power struggle between Blunt, whose rise to power was heavily aided by DeLay and House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (Ill.), and House Education and the Workforce Committee Chairman John A. Boehner (Ohio), a former House leader who has been maneuvering for a comeback.

But other potential candidates could add unexpected twists, especially if rank-and-file Republicans decide that neither Blunt nor Boehner would present a fresh response to the corruption scandal triggered by Jack Abramoff, a GOP lobbyist with close ties to DeLay.

Rep. Mike Pence (Ind.), chairman of the conservative Republican Study Committee, recently said in an Internet chat that he had "no present intention of seeking any leadership position at this time" but that circumstances could change.

A potential bid by Pence, who has angered some members with what they consider grandstanding on a host of issues, has prompted some conservatives to reach out to the low-key Rep. John Shadegg (Ariz.) as an alternative. Rep. Zach Wamp (Tenn.) has announced his intention to run for a leadership post, saying yesterday that "the leadership of Congress needs to be above reproach." Other dark horses could emerge as members scramble for a consensus candidate.

Hastert appears secure in the speakership, despite his own ties to Abramoff-related fundraising and other activities. Abramoff's guilty pleas have renewed scrutiny of a letter the speaker sent to Interior Secretary Gale A. Norton in June 2003 urging her to block a casino opposed by Abramoff's Indian tribe clients. The letter was sent just days after Abramoff's tribal clients contributed more than $20,000 to Hastert's political action committee at a fundraiser at Signatures, the swank restaurant the lobbyist owned at the time.

Abramoff's guilty pleas this week and pledge to cooperate with federal prosecutors in investigating members of Congress could significantly add to DeLay's legal problems. But the more immediate threat is the legal battle in Texas over his indictments on campaign finance violations. DeLay had hoped that the court battle with Travis County Prosecutor Ronnie Earle over the money-laundering charges would be well underway by now, if not over. Instead, the case is dragging on over multiple appeals and pretrial motions.

"I would have told you a month ago we'd be in trial by now, but that was before Ronnie Earle pulled his shenanigans with his frivolous appeals," said Dick DeGuerin, DeLay's lead attorney in the case.

Now, the Justice Department's bribery and corruption investigation has forced one former DeLay aide, Michael Scanlon, to plead guilty to corruption charges, while another, Tony C. Rudy, has been implicated in Abramoff's plea agreement.

Leadership aides and DeLay allies said that, in light of the Texas case and Abramoff's plea agreements, they now expect DeLay to soon renounce claims to the leadership post he was forced to relinquish under GOP House rules when he was indicted in September -- and certainly before a planned House Republican retreat on Feb. 9.

"The environment has changed. I don't even need to qualify that," said the GOP leadership member, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he does not want to be seen as pressuring DeLay to step aside.

DeLay remains determined to reclaim his leadership position, and he is confident that he will be exonerated in Texas before early February, DeLay spokesman Kevin Madden said yesterday. But there are few others who share that optimism, even among leadership members and aides who only weeks ago expressed the same confidence.

Since DeLay's indictment, Blunt has served as both House majority whip and acting majority leader.

The Missourian would enter a leadership election as the favorite to take DeLay's place as majority leader. And he has said his position in the Republican conference was significantly strengthened last month when he successfully steered through the House a $50 billion budget-cutting measure, legislation cracking down on illegal immigration and a provision forcing a 1 percent across-the-board cut in all discretionary spending outside of veterans programs.

But other members, particularly committee chairmen, are stressing the leadership's blunders, including the embarrassing defeat of a spending bill funding labor, health and education programs, and the initial pulling of the budget measure from House consideration for lack of votes.

Boehner has been angling for a top job for most of his eight terms in the House. In the early 1990s, he belonged to a group of young Republican crusaders who sought to publicize the names of more than 350 members with overdrafts at the House bank -- setting off a major political scandal. He rode on Newt Gingrich's coattails to rise in the Republican leadership, but he lost his job as conference chairman when the Gingrich era ended, after GOP losses in the 1998 midterm elections.

Rather than retreat, however, Boehner moved into a new realm, rising in 2000 to become chairman of the Committee on Education and the Workforce, where he earned praise from Republicans and Democrats alike for his handling of the No Child Left Behind education legislation.

But Boehner's record has some blemishes that could be used against him by his opponents. In 1995, Boehner raised eyebrows by distributing campaign checks from tobacco lobbyists on the House floor. Since 2000, his political action committee, the Freedom Project, has raised $31,500 from four of Abramoff's tribal clients.

Such concerns could provide an opening for supporters of Pence or Shadegg. Alternatively, some leadership sources say discontented GOP members could draft a more experienced lawmaker, such as House Appropriations Committee Chairman Jerry Lewis (Calif.), who would have the weight of his powerful panel and his big state delegation behind him. Appropriations Committee spokesman John Scofield dismissed such speculation, saying Lewis "likes the job he has."

Blunt's move for the position of majority leader would leave Chief Deputy Whip Eric I. Cantor (Va.) with a chance to claim the whip's post. But Cantor, too, would likely draw opposition.

One leadership source close to DeLay said some members hope to draft Rep. Mike Rogers (Mich.), a former FBI agent who specialized in public corruption cases, for that post to signal that the party is taking the Abramoff scandal seriously.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...0502449_pf.html

The Republicans want to become the party of reform.

Cunningscam: Much More Than Meets The Eye


Abramoff isn’t the only mega-scandal that could rock Washington this year. Two powerful committee chairmen in the House could soon find themselves ensarled in the scandal that has already taken down former Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham.

Cunningham pled guilty “to taking more than $2 million in bribes in a criminal conspiracy involving at least three defense contractors.” Cunningham resigned from Congress but this mess is far from over.

Cunningham received $630,000 from a military contractor named Brent Wilkes, who is referred to as “co-conspirator No. 1″ in Justice Department documents. Wilkes worked for Audre Inc., a job he took in 1992 when the company was near bankruptcy and desperate for federal contracts. That’s where Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA), the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, comes in. The San Diego Union Tribune is on the case:

Cunningham and House Armed Services Committee Chairman Duncan Hunter, R-El Cajon, worked closely with two local companies – ADCS Inc. of Poway and Audre Inc. of Rancho Bernardo – to make the Pentagon pay for converting printed documents to computer files. They and a few other lawmakers got Congress to allocate $190 million for “automated data conversion” projects from 1993 to 2001.

Did the Pentagon want this “help”? No. As a 1994 General Accounting Office report noted, it already had the tools for such work.

But Cunningham, Hunter and their House allies didn’t care. Audre and ADCS were generous with contributions – and ADCS executive Brent Wilkes allegedly was bribing Cunningham…This led to such absurdities as a $9.7 million contract for ADCS to digitize historical documents from the Panama Canal Zone that the Pentagon considered insignificant. This isn’t governance. This is looting.

But Hunter isn’t the only committee chairman with problems.

Wilkes employed a lobbyist named Bill Lowery who is unusually close with House Appropriations Committee Chairman Rep. Jerry Lewis. Copley News Service conducted a three month investigation of their relationship:

From powerful positions on the House Appropriations Committee, California Rep. Jerry Lewis has greenlighted hundreds of millions of dollars in federal projects for clients of one of his closest friends, lobbyist and former state Congressman Bill Lowery.

Meanwhile, Lowery, the partners at his firm and their clients have donated 37 percent of the $1.3 million that Lewis’ political action committee received in the past six years…

The Lewis-Lowery relationship, however, is remarkable for the closeness and mutual dependence…They’ve even exchanged two key staff members, making their offices so intermingled that they seem to be extensions of each other.

Remember, the Department of Justice made a plea deal with Jack Abramoff to get incriminating information on members of Congress. Why did they make a deal with a member of Congress, Duke Cunningham? It’s likely that there are bigger fish to fry.

http://thinkprogress.org/?tag=Ethics

He has a tendency to say things that I think he wouldn't have the guts to say to peoples' face.
Sometimes, when I think he's doing it too much, I extend the invitation, so that he might reconsider his tack.

For instance.

Hoo-boy.

He's not a woman hater to the best of my knowledge.

No serious mental problems that I've observed.

And, you're not the way you appear to HI.

Oh well . . .

Medicare Officials' Attendance at Lavish Contractor Meetings Probed

By Gilbert M. Gaul
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, January 6, 2006; Page A07

Medicare officials responsible for overseeing $300 million awarded annually to private contractors regularly attended conferences sponsored by the groups at lavish beach and mountain resorts, according to a Senate panel reviewing the contractors.


In a letter sent Wednesday to the head of the agency that runs Medicare, the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee wrote that one such Florida conference "appeared to be more of a party than a diligent working meeting."


Photos of the conference site at the Don CeSar Beach Resort near St. Petersburg "suggest a cruise ship atmosphere," wrote Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa). "The pictures depict a luxurious resort, lavish dinners, dessert buffets, and Hawaiian dance parties -- all in a tropical beach locale."


Grassley asked Medicare Administrator Mark B. McClellan to provide a detailed accounting of travel and expenditures for employees who have attended conferences since 2003, including who covered the costs. The request singles out two physicians -- Steven Jencks and William Rollow -- who oversee the contractors, known as Quality Improvement Organizations.


Barry M. Straube, acting chief medical officer for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which administers the huge government insurance program, said the agency is "taking the concerns raised very seriously" and will respond promptly.


The Finance Committee began investigating the contractors last summer after The Washington Post reported that the groups rarely looked into patient complaints and that some executives received lavish pay and perks.

Medicare pays 53 state-based QIOs to investigate complaints about poor quality and to improve care provided by doctors, hospitals and nursing homes. The groups receive little scrutiny and are prohibited by statute from sharing most of their findings with patients. Medicare audits the performance of the QIOs but has declined to make that information public.


The conferences in question were sponsored by the American Health Quality Association, a QIO trade group. David G. Schulke, the association's chief executive, said the Florida meeting consisted of substantive sessions. "It is inappropriate to draw conclusions and insinuate impropriety based purely on the meeting location or pictures of a networking reception held after meeting hours," he said.

A review of the organization's Web site shows that the trade group sponsors a range of conferences and meetings annually, often at popular and expensive resorts. According to agendas for those sessions, as well as interviews with current and former QIO executives, Medicare officials regularly attend the gatherings.

Sarah A. Grimm, a former top executive for the Missouri QIO, wrote in an e-mail to The Post that there appeared to be "a great deal of competition" within Medicare's regional offices to attend the Florida conference. Grimm said she stopped going to the sessions because she found many "lacking in substance" or too expensive.

According to the trade group's Web site, a leadership retreat last July was held at the 1,200-acre Silverado Country Club and Resort in Napa, Calif., which received a four-diamond rating from AAA. The resort features two 18-hole golf courses, a spa and the largest tennis complex in Northern California. A single room costs $250 per night.

Other conferences have been held at the Broadmoor Hotel and Resort in Colorado Springs and at the 400-acre Ocean Edge Resort and Golf Club on Cape Cod. The latter featured a murder-mystery dinner and championship golf, according to the Web site.


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...6010502055.html


It seems just about everyone in government is being bought.

We have the BEST GOVERNMENT MONEY CAN BUY.

Rich people just can't seem to get enough MONEY. Already raking in big bucks, he steals more.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) - Former Wal-Mart Stores Inc. vice chairman, Thomas Coughlin, agreed to plead guilty to federal wire-fraud and tax-evasion charges later this month, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Coughlin, formerly the retailer's No. 2 executive, left the company early last year amid accusations that he misappropriated as much as $500,000 from Wal-Mart through fraudulent reimbursements and improper use of gift cards, the paper said.

Coughlin will plead guilty to five counts of wire fraud and one count of tax evasion, the Journal said citing people familiar with the matter. A court hearing on the plea deal is set for later in January.

Coughlin could face more than two years in prison as part of his settlement.

Coughlin is expected claim that he was reimbursing himself for a secret scheme to fund an anti-union spy operation. But Federal prosecutors found no significant evidence that he was part of any undercover operation, the paper said.


According to the report, Coughlin was caught after requesting over $5,000 in company gift cards allegedly to reward performance by employees.

Instead, Wal-Mart (Research) claimed Coughlin used the gift cards himself at Wal-Mart stores and Sam's Club outlets, buying three 12-gauge shotguns, a Celine Dion compact disc, Stolichnaya vodka, wine and Polish sausage among other things, the paper said.


"The allegations have not yet been proven true or false but the allegations speak volumes of the managerial culture at Wal-Mart," Tracy Sefl with Washington-based advocacy group Wal-Mart Watch told CNNMoney.

Wal-Mart declined to give CNNMoney any comment for this story. Attorneys for Coughlin also declined to comment.


http://money.cnn.com/2006/01/06/news/compa...candal_walmart/
------------------------

Abramoff and His Vanishing Friends

By E. J. Dionne Jr.

Friday, January 6, 2006; Page A19

It almost makes you feel sorry for Jack Abramoff.

Republicans once fell all over themselves to get his "moolah," the term used famously by the disgraced superlobbyist, and to get his advice on dealing with that warm and cuddly entity known as "the lobbying community."


Suddenly, Abramoff enters two plea bargains, and these former friends ask, in puzzled tones, "Jack Who ?"

Over the past few days, politicians -- from President Bush and House Speaker Dennis Hastert on down -- raced to return Abramoff contributions, or compassionately sent the moolah off to charity. There's a scramble to treat him as a wildly defective gene in an otherwise healthy body politic, and to erase the past. But seeing the record of the past clearly is essential to fixing the future.

Abramoff, who used to pall around with close Bush allies Grover Norquist and Ralph Reed in the College Republicans and who has been a central figure in the rise of Republican dominance in Washington, is not a lone wolf. He is a particularly egregious example of how the GOP's political-corporate-lobbying complex has overwhelmed the idealistic wing of the Republican Party.

Scott McClellan, the White House press secretary, insisted on Wednesday that Bush does not know Abramoff personally. But the record makes clear that Abramoff was a loyal and serious player in Bush's circles.

According to an Oct. 15, 2003, story in Roll Call, Abramoff was one of a half-dozen lobbyists who raised $100,000 for Bush's 2000 campaign. When Bush was battling Al Gore's efforts to recount Florida's votes, Abramoff was there with the maximum $5,000 contribution Bush was taking for the effort. A September 2003 National Journal story noted that Abramoff was so confident he would meet his fundraising goals for the president's 2004 campaign that he was planning, as the lobbyist generously put it, "to try to help some other lobbyists meet their goals."

The administration, in turn, was open to Abramoff. As National Journal reported in its April 20, 2002, issue, "Last summer, in an effort to raise the visibility of his Indian clients, Abramoff helped arrange a White House get-together on tax issues with President Bush for top Indian leaders, including Lovelin Poncho, the chairman of the Coushattas," one of the tribes Abramoff represented.

When journalists would raise questions about Abramoff's role as a lobbyist-fundraiser just a couple of years ago, Bush's lieutenants played down his influence peddling and proudly claimed Abramoff as one of their own.

On an Oct. 15, 2003, CNBC broadcast, journalist Alan Murray asked Ed Gillespie, then chairman of the Republican National Committee, about fundraising by "people like Jack Abramoff, who represents Indian tribes here," and another lobbyist whose name I'll leave out because he has not been implicated in any scandals. "Are you going to sit here and tell us that their contributions to your party have nothing to do with their lobbying efforts in Washington?"

"I know Jack Abramoff," Gillespie replied. He mentioned the other lobbyist and insisted: "They are Republicans; they were Republicans before they were lobbyists. . . . I think they want to see a Republican reelected in the White House in 2004 more than anything."

Roll Call reported on March 12, 2001, that "GOP leaders on and off Capitol Hill are organizing a new drive to lean on major corporations and trade associations to hire Republicans for their top lobbying jobs." The article spoke of a "Who's Who of Republican lobbyists" who had held a meeting on the subject the week before. At the top of the list was Jack Abramoff.

Abramoff was always there for his party, with sound bites as well as money. In a May 2, 2001, article in the Hill newspaper (it ran under a wonderful headline: "Lobbyists Approve of Bush's Businesslike Style"), reporter Melanie Fonder noted that "Abramoff said the Bush team's careful and deliberate approach to leadership is the exact opposite of the Clinton team."

She quoted Abramoff directly: "The feeding frenzy which started even before Clinton was inaugurated, and continued to the final pardon, was perhaps best exemplified by the reckless and unprofessional handling of his responsibility to appoint honorable public servants."

This careful judge of what it means to be an "honorable public servant" had reason to prefer the Bush administration's taste in appointees. After the 2000 election, Abramoff was named to the Bush transition team for the Interior Department, which regulates the Indian casinos that paid Abramoff his inflated fees.

"What the Republicans need is 50 Jack Abramoffs," his friend Grover Norquist told National Journal in 1995. "Then this becomes a different town." Norquist got his different town. It's why the place so badly needs cleaning up.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...6010501903.html

Good column from Mr. Dionne. He usually puts me to sleep, but that one's got a bit of bite.

On McLaughlin Group tonight, Tony Blankely said Republicans may as well forget trying (their damnedest) to make this a bipartisan scandal; it is a Republican scandal. Pat Buchanan cracked me up when he said there's gonna be so much stink when Abramoff starts singing it's gonna be like dynamite hitting the outhouse.

Can Seattle firm Preston Gates avoid lobbying-scandal fallout?

By Alicia Mundy



WASHINGTON — As the scandal surrounding high-flying lobbyist Jack Abramoff spreads, it's uncertain whether Preston Gates, the Seattle-based law and lobbying firm that employed him in the 1990s, will avoid the fallout.

Most of the attention from Abramoff's guilty pleas this week to charges of fraud and conspiracy to bribe public officials focuses on his clients among Indian tribes and on another former employer in Washington, D.C., the lobbying firm of Greenberg Traurig.

Neither Preston Gates nor anyone currently at the firm has been implicated in any wrongdoing by the government. The firm is saying very little publicly about its former employee.

But with Abramoff's cooperation in an ongoing Justice Department investigation, several issues involving his lobbying at what formally was called Preston Gates Ellis & Rouvelas Meeds could pose a problem for the firm.

Abramoff worked at Preston Gates' Washington office from 1994 to 2000.

Prosecutors say Abramoff's conspiracy to defraud clients and improperly influence public officials began at least as early as 1997 — when he was working at Preston Gates.

And the charging documents also say Abramoff's efforts to bribe a congressman began in 1999.

Questions about Abramoff's work while at Preston Gates don't end there.

A House committee asked the Justice Department last year to review Abramoff's representation of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands while working at the firm.

The U.S. Pacific territory, located halfway between Hawaii and the Philippines, paid Preston Gates about $6.7 million from 1994 to 2000 for work largely focused on efforts to defeat a minimum-wage proposal that would have affected its textile industry.

advertising
In October 1997 alone, the firm charged 991 hours to the Marianas, according to its 2001 audit. That's about six lobbyists working 40 hours a week for a month. The late Rep. Lloyd Meeds, a Democrat from Everett, was part of the Preston Gates team, as were several other senior lobbyists.

Marianas leaders ended their contract with Preston Gates in 1999 but reinstated it some months later, after a visit from key House staffers who were contacts of Abramoff.

The outgoing governor of the Northern Marianas said this week that he believes the Justice Department probe is extending to Abramoff's work on behalf of the islands, according to a Saipan newspaper.

Also this week, a Texas prosecutor subpoenaed records from Preston Gates related to contributions the firm, its employees or its political committee made to former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas. DeLay faces trial in that state on money-laundering charges involving one of his political action committees.

"The firm considers the contribution to have been a lawful and proper contribution," Preston Gates senior partner Michael O'Neil said Friday. "There's no connection with Jack Abramoff, who had left the firm two years previously."

Finally, one of Abramoff's former clients, the Mississippi band of Choctaw Indians, has asked Preston Gates to review some of the fees the tribe paid the firm several years ago. Tribal leaders last year said they were pleased with Preston Gates' lobbying because it helped their casino revenues and saved millions in taxes. But now they are discussing their payments in light of Abramoff's misconduct at Greenberg Traurig.

Preston Gates traces its Seattle roots back to 1883. Its clients include powerful corporations such as Microsoft and Dell Computer as well as the Seattle Art Museum and Sound Transit.

The firm hired Abramoff after Republicans took control of the House and Senate in 1994. A former head of the College Republicans and friend of DeLay and then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich, Abramoff boasted deep connections in the new conservative majority.

Lobbying firms, which work to influence policy and legislation on behalf of their clients, rely on those kinds of connections to prosper. And that's what Preston Gates did.

In 2000, Preston Gates was the sixth-largest lobbying firm in Washington with $10.5 million in fees.

"There is this enormous pressure to have your firm listed in top-20-grossing firms" in D.C. political magazines, said Mark Corallo, a D.C. public-relations consultant who specializes in crisis management.

"It's prestige, it's what you show to clients and how you gain access on Capitol Hill," he added. "So when a guy like Jack comes along, a firm might say, 'It's clients we didn't use to have,' but it bumps up your bottom line."

Preston Gates lobbying revenues fell by half once Abramoff left for Greenberg Traurig at the end of 2000, according to Roll Call newspaper. Last year, the firm reported $7.7 million in lobbying fees.

So how can a firm like Preston Gates avoid losing clients and credibility when a former employee is headline news around the globe?

First, "Cooperate fully with any government investigation, and tell the public and Congress that you are doing so," said Stan Brand, a corporate attorney in D.C. and a former Watergate investigator. Preston Gates says it is indeed cooperating.

Next, Preston Gates should follow a standard D.C. formula among companies that find themselves on the spot, and hire an outside law firm to do an internal investigation, said Corallo.

"They need to vet every e-mail, memo, letter, document involving Abramoff or clients he brought into the firm, and then interview every employee about any issue directly or tangentially related to this," said Corallo, who also was Attorney General John Ashcroft's spokesman.

The firm has hired outside attorneys, though senior partner O'Neil declined to name them.

Corallo also said Preston Gates should portray itself as another victim of Abramoff's schemes. "You want to claim victim status, and I think they are [victims] to some extent," he said.

Despite the potential black eye, Victoria Toensing, a former Justice Department official and now a corporate defense lawyer, doubts the firm will face criminal liability for Abramoff's dealings. "The company is not going to be indicted," she said. "The firm did what they were supposed to do — represent its clients."


http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/loca...ongates07m.html

Maybe they should call an exterminator... like DeLay.

there are so many ....but this one is priceless.

The cartoonists really like the coat and hat.

makes for a memorable image.

Report Rebuts Bush on Spying
Domestic Action's Legality Challenged

By Carol D. Leonnig
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, January 7, 2006; Page A01

A report by Congress's research arm concluded yesterday that the administration's justification for the warrantless eavesdropping authorized by President Bush conflicts with existing law and hinges on weak legal arguments.

The Congressional Research Service's report rebuts the central assertions made recently by Bush and Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales about the president's authority to order secret intercepts of telephone and e-mail exchanges between people inside the United States and their contacts abroad.

The findings, the first nonpartisan assessment of the program's legality to date, prompted Democratic lawmakers and civil liberties advocates to repeat calls yesterday for Congress to conduct hearings on the monitoring program and attempt to halt it.

The 44-page report said that Bush probably cannot claim the broad presidential powers he has relied upon as authority to order the secret monitoring of calls made by U.S. citizens since the fall of 2001. Congress expressly intended for the government to seek warrants from a special Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court before engaging in such surveillance when it passed legislation creating the court in 1978, the CRS report said.

The report also concluded that Bush's assertion that Congress authorized such eavesdropping to detect and fight terrorists does not appear to be supported by the special resolution that Congress approved after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, which focused on authorizing the president to use military force.

"It appears unlikely that a court would hold that Congress has expressly or impliedly authorized the NSA electronic surveillance operations here," the authors of the CRS report wrote. The administration's legal justification "does not seem to be . . . well-grounded," they said.

"This report contradicts the president's claim that his spying on Americans was legal"

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...6010601772.html

imagine a jumpsuit embroidered "The President"

Cellblock one.

DeLay Will Quit Leadership Post in House

By DAVID ESPO, AP Special Correspondent 1 minute ago

WASHINGTON - Embattled Rep.
Tom DeLay decided Saturday to give up his post as House majority leader, clearing the way for new leadership elections among House Republicans eager to shed the taint of scandal, two officials said.


These officials said DeLay, R-Texas, was preparing a letter informing fellow House Republicans of his decision. These officials spoke on condition of anonymity, saying they did not want to pre-empt the formal announcement.

DeLay is battling campaign finance charges in Texas and was forced to step aside temporarily as majority leader last fall after he was charged in his home state. He has consistently maintained his innocence and said he intended to resume his leadership post once cleared.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060107/ap_on_...zkxBHNlYwN0bQ--

Party at davey's tonight.

Will you bring the cake?

DeLay abandoning bid to return as House majority leader

By David Espo
ASSOCIATED PRESS

10:56 a.m. January 7, 2006

WASHINGTON – Embattled Rep. Tom DeLay on Saturday abandoned his bid to remain as House majority leader, clearing the way for leadership elections among Republicans eager to shed the taint of scandal.



In a letter to rank-and-file Republicans, DeLay said, "During my time in Congress, I have always acted in an ethical manner within the rules of our body and the laws of our land. I am fully confident time will bear this out."

At the same time, "I cannot allow our adversaries to divide and distract our attention," the Texas Republican wrote.

DeLay is battling campaign finance charges in Texas and was forced to step aside temporarily as majority leader last fall after he was charged in his home state. He has been trying to clear his name and, until Saturday, resume his leadership role.

In a separate letter to Speaker Dennis Hastert, DeLay said he intends to seek re-election to his House seat in November "while I work to clear my name of the baseless charges leveled against me." Urging a new leadership election as soon as possible, DeLay said the majority leader's job and "the mandate of the Republican majority are too important to be hamstrung, even for a few months, by personal distractions."

DeLay's about-face came amid growing pressure from fellow Republicans who were concerned about their own political futures in the wake of this past week's guilty pleas by lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

DeLay's defiant, take-no-prisoners style had won him the admiration and respect of fellow Republicans, but his mounting problems cast a shadow over the entire House.

After repeatedly maintaining that President Bush continued to support DeLay, the White House pivoted abruptly on Saturday, issuing a statement that endorsed DeLay's move. "We respect Congressman DeLay's decision to put the interests of the American people, the House of Representatives and the Republican Party first," said Erin Healy, a spokeswoman for Bush.

The House Democratic leader, Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California, contended DeLay had engineered a "culture of corruption" among majority Republicans "that a single person stepping down is not nearly enough to clean up the Republican Congress."

Missouri Rep. Roy Blunt, the GOP whip who temporarily has filled in for DeLay, was expected to run for majority leader. Rep. John Boehner of Ohio, a former member of the leadership, is also likely to seek the job.

Elections are likely the week of Jan. 30, when lawmakers return to the Capitol.

DeLay acted hours after a small vanguard of Republicans circulated a petition calling for leadership elections and citing DeLay's legal problems as well as his long ties to Abramoff.

Republican rules permit an election to fill the vacancy, and aides to Reps. Jeff Flake of Arizona and Charles Bass of New Hampshire said on Friday that the lawmakers' petition would allow the rank and file to pick new leadership quickly.

"The developments with Abramoff have "brought home the fact that we need not just new leaders but a course correction," Flake said.

Rep. Heather Wilson of New Mexico, a perennial election-year target of Democrats, said she did not want DeLay to return as majority leader.

And GOP Rep. Jim Ramstad of Minnesota said, "It's clear that we need to elect a new majority leader to restore the trust and confidence of the American people."

Until Saturday, there had been no public indication that DeLay, whose fierce devotion to conservative causes has helped nurture the Republican majority, was willing to abandon his quest to take back the majority leader's job.

But Hastert, his longtime friend, signaled he would not try to block the rank and file from acting.

His spokesman, Ron Bonjean, said the petition drive "is consistent with the speaker's announcement ... that House Republicans would revisit this matter at the beginning of this year."

Hastert's hold on power appears secure. Several officials said he has been involved in discussions in recent days on ethics overhaul measures to be announced next week, part of a broader GOP attempt to minimize any election-year taint of scandal.

The maneuvering to succeed DeLay occurred near the end of a week in which Abramoff, the central figure in a growing public corruption investigation and a man with close ties to Republicans, pleaded guilty to conspiracy and several other charges in two federal courtrooms.

An Associated Press-Ipsos poll found that 49 percent of those surveyed said they would prefer to see Democrats in control of Congress, and 36 percent said Republicans.

Hastert and other Republicans had accepted the arrangement by which DeLay temporarily stepped aside last year, and DeLay maneuvered to win the dismissal of charges or gain an acquittal by early February.

But Abramoff's guilty pleas appear to have changed the political environment for Republicans 11 months before the midterm elections.

"The situation is that Tom's legal situation doesn't seem to be reaching clarity," Rep. John Kline of Minnesota said in an interview.

DeLay spokesman Kevin Madden said Friday that his boss "appreciates that a majority of his colleagues recognizes that he remains committed to fulfilling his responsibilities as majority leader and that he'll be quickly exonerated in Texas."

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/politic...1056-delay.html

are you bringing brewskies?

brew skies

nothing but brew skies

brew skies

from now on...

(hic!)

freak

Even further.

This is a web page offering us a glance at ex-House majority leader Tom Delay...what I found interesting were the advertisements at the bottom of the page.

Do they charge? Those are priceless.

These are sweet words: "ex-House majority leader Tom Delay."

Correction:

Incorrect:

[center]NAME - Thomas Dale "Tom" DeLay.[/center]

Correct:

[center]NAME - Thomas Dale "The Hammer" DeLay.[/center]

So maybe now that all they have isn't a hammer, everything won't look like a nail.

GOP ADVISES LEADER TO CUT & RUN...

http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/01/08/news/cong.php

"right to abandon his fight"

"too high a price for Republicans to pay to support even one of their most potent leaders"

when is the price too high for the public?

Before You Go



The elderly parking lot attendant wasn't in a good mood.

Neither was Sam Bierstock. It was around 1 a.m., and Bierstock, a Delray Beach , Fla., eye doctor, business consultant, corporate speaker and musician, was bone tired after appearing at an event.

He pulled up in his car, and the parking attendant began to speak. "I took two bullets for this country and look what I'm doing," he said bitterly.

At first, Bierstock didn't know what to say to the World War II veteran. But he rolled down his window and told the man, "Really, from the bottom of my heart, I want to thank you."

Then the old soldier began to cry.

"That really got to me," Bierstock says.

Cut to today.

Bierstock, 58, and John Melnick, 54, of Pompano Beach - a member of Bierstock's band, Dr. Sam and the Managed Care Band - have written a song inspired by that old soldier in the airport parking lot. The mournful "Before You Go" does more than salute those who fought in WWII. It encourages people to go out of their way to thank the aging warriors before they die.

"If we had lost that particular war, our whole way of life would have been shot," says Bierstock, who plays harmonica. "Every ethnic minority would be dead. And the soldiers are now dying at the rate of about 2,000 every day. I thought we needed to thank them."

The song is striking a chord. Within four days of Bierstock placing it on the Web, the song and accompanying photo essay have bounced around nine countries, producing tears and heartfelt thanks from veterans, their sons and daughters and grandchildren.

"It made me cry," wrote one veteran's son. Another sent an e-mail saying that only after his father consumed several glasses of wine would he discuss "the unspeakable horrors" he and other soldiers had witnessed in places such as Anzio, Iwo Jima, Bataan and Omaha Beach. "I can never thank them enough," the son wrote. "Thank you for thinking about them."

Bierstock and Melnick thought about shipping it off to a professional singer, maybe a Lee Greenwood type, but because time was running out for so many veterans, they decided it was best to release it quickly, for free, on the Web. They've sent the song to Sen. John McCain and others in Washington. Already they have been invited to perform it in Houston for a Veterans Day tribute - this after just a few days on the Web. They hope every veteran in America gets a chance to hear it.

Turn up your volume and please visit Before You Go