Talk:Jack Abramoff

Doug Bandow, who wrote a column for the Copley News Service in addition to serving as a Cato Institute fellow, acknowledged to executives at the organization that he had taken money from Mr. Abramoff in exchange for writing columns favorable to his clients. -- http://mediachannel.org/blog/node/2418

This information is in the Bandow article, but maybe not in the Abramoff article.

Also Peter Ferrara, a senior policy adviser at the Institute for Policy Innovation -- http://mediachannel.org/blog/node/2415

re User:70.170.74.93 comment:


 * "Of course, as a Democratic Party Hack, we won't mention how much money was given to Sen. Harry Reed (D-NV) by this person."

This AP story shows that Harry Reid has indeed received political contributions from some of Abramoff's clients (although Reid says he never took money from Abramoff directly).

Given Abramoff's political history, I imagine the money he has channeled to Democrats is a fraction of what he channeled to conservatives, but obviously we should try to provide the full scope of facts about his dealings, including the facts about contributions from his clients to Harry Reid. --Sheldon Rampton 11:13, 4 Jan 2006 (EST)


 * Open Secrets: Harry Reid: Campaign Finance Top Contributors: Cassidy & Associates $23,662 and Greenberg Traurig $19,941.
 * Jeffrey H. Birnbaum and Derek Willis, "Democrats Also Got Tribal Donations. Abramoff Issue's Fallout May Extend Beyond the GOP," Washington Post, June 3, 2005.
 * Tony Batt, "Reid won't be returning lobbyist contributions. Spokeswoman says senator sees no reason to return funds," Las Vegas Review-Journal, June 4, 2005.

Reid answers to Nevada Gaming Corps, not tribal
Reid isn't stupid, and Nevada politics are all about being annointed by the gaming corporations. If he falls into disfavor with them, he will not be reelected.

It's hard to understand how this becomes an issue given that Bush only returned the $6 grand directly attributable to Abramoff, and not his $100k + ranger bundle.

Bush & Delay connections
I've read some about this Abramoff issue lately and personally consider having the "best friend" quote from Delay, especially so close to the beginning of the article, is misleading. That Delay comment was really just typical politician banter where everybody is your best friend to make you look good. Maybe you guys could add something about how commonly Abramoff worked with Delay's staff, or the frequent trips they took on the same planes. Having his participation in the Bush campaign in the same paragraph also seems to over-simplify and exaggerate the situation. Here's a recent NPR article that's pretty length people can listen to to learn more about the whole Abramoff thing. It's an excellent summary of the Washington Post's reporting on the story. I believe one of the Washington Post journalist in the clip actually broke the story.

=Dump of Abramoff contributions= This is a dump for an under-construction article on Jack Abramoff's campaign contributions. Please do not erase. --Conor Kenny 18:27, 26 Sep 2006 (EDT)

The raw data: Jack Abramoff-related campaign contributions to members of Congress
Source: Center for Responsive Politics report, Apr. 7, 2006 update.