rabel22 wrote:You guys are fooling yourselves. As long as there is a republican congress Delay can do anything he wants to.
could be...
but i doubt that there's many republicans in congress that are willing to go down with the good ship "hot tub tommy".
Political Groups Paid Two Relatives of House Leader
By PHILIP SHENON
Published: April 6, 2005
WASHINGTON, April 5 -
Most of the payments to his wife, Christine A. DeLay, and his only child, Dani DeLay Ferro, were described in the disclosure forms as "fund-raising fees," "campaign management" or "payroll," with no additional details about how they earned the money. The payments appear to reflect what Mr. DeLay's aides say is the central role played by the majority leader's wife and daughter in his political career.
Mr. DeLay's national political action committee, Americans for a Republican Majority, or Armpac, said in a statement on Tuesday that the two women had provided valuable services to the committee in exchange for the payments: "Mrs. DeLay provides big picture, long-term strategic guidance and helps with personnel decisions. Ms. Ferro is a skilled and experienced professional event planner who assists Armpac in arranging and organizing individual events."
Mrs. Ferro has managed several of her father's re-election campaigns for his House seat.
His spokesman said that Mr. DeLay had no additional comment. Although several members of Congress employ family members as campaign managers or on their political action committees, advocacy groups seeking an overhaul of federal campaign-finance and ethics laws say that the payments to Mr. DeLay's family members were unusually generous, and should be the focus of new scrutiny of the Texas congressman.
Mr. DeLay, whose position as majority leader makes him the second-most-powerful House member, has offered a vigorous public defense in recent weeks to a flurry of ethics accusations from Democratic lawmakers and campaign watchdog groups, including charges that he violated House rules on travel. The executive director of Americans for a Republican Majority and a major fund-raiser for the committee were indicted in Texas last year on charges of illegal fund-raising, and prosecutors there have refused to rule out the possibility of charges against Mr. DeLay in the continuing inquiry.
In recent weeks, public interest groups have called on the House ethics committee and the Justice Department to review lavish, privately financed overseas trips for Mr. DeLay and his aides, including a 1997 trip to Russia that was underwritten by a conservative education group closely linked to a powerful Republican lobbyist who often boasted of his influence with the majority leader.
The payments to Mr. DeLay's family have continued into 2005; the latest monthly disclosure filed by Americans for a Republican Majority shows Mrs. DeLay was paid was paid $4,028 last month, while Mrs. Ferro received $3,681. Earlier statements show that the two women received similar monthly fees from the political action committee throughout 2003 and 2004.
Mrs. DeLay has been involved in her husband's political career and his fund-raising operations in Washington and Texas. In an interview in 2003 with Roll Call, a newspaper on Capitol Hill, a spokesman for Mr. DeLay explained Mrs. DeLay's role as "the final signoff of Tom's travel schedule, what events he attends and what his name appears on."
Mrs. Ferro has also helped manage Mr. DeLay's charity operations. Financial disclosure statements filed by Mr. DeLay's House campaign committees, which are separate from Americans for a Republican Majority, show that Mrs. Ferro and her political consulting firm, Coastal Consulting of Sugar Land, Tex., received $222,000 from 2001 through last year, reflecting her role in the re-election campaigns.
Although there has been no suggestion from prosecutors that Mrs. Ferro is under investigation by the grand jury in Austin, her records were subpoenaed in the inquiry, which is focused on the fund-raising activities of Texans for a Republican Majority, a state political action committee modeled on Americans for a Republican Majority. Mrs. Ferro received about $30,000 in fund-raising and consulting fees from Texans for a Republican Majority, the committee's records show.
"It's DeLay Inc. " said Melanie Sloan, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a research group that has closely monitored Mr. DeLay and his campaign fund-raising and expenditures. "If it's not illegal, it certainly is inappropriate for members of Congress to use their positions to enrich their families."
Larry Noble, executive director of the Center for Responsive Politics and a former general counsel of the Federal Election Commission, said that "questions are raised anytime a politician puts close family members on the payroll."
Republican lawmakers can point to prominent Democrats whose campaign and political action committees have provided lucrative jobs or consulting contracts to family members. Representative Howard L. Berman of California, the ranking Democrat on the House ethics committee from 1997 to 2003, paid $50,000 from his campaign accounts last year to a consulting firm owned by his brother, according to disclosure forms. Disclosure statements also show that Senator Barbara Boxer, another California Democrat, directed $15,000 from her political action committee in 2003 to a consulting firm run by her son.
Several public interest groups have called in recent weeks for the House ethics committee or another body that may be examining his finances to open an investigation of Mr. DeLay, focused in part on his privately financed overseas travels, including the 1997 trip to Moscow and a 2000 trip to Britain. Questions about the trips' financing were first raised in March in an article in the National Journal.
Mr. DeLay has denied that he violated House rules in accepting the 2000 trip from a conservative education group associated with one of the city's most powerful Republican lobbyists, Jack Abramoff.
The nonprofit education group, the National Center for Public Policy Research, has said it received large contributions from Mr. Abramoff's clients about the time of the trips, although it has denied that the donations were redirected to finance Mr. DeLay's travels.
The trip to Moscow, according to the American Foreign Policy Council report, was backed by the energy companies that had ties to the Russian government and that were trying to build support in Washington for Russian privatization efforts and trade policies.
Mr. DeLay met with Russian business and political leaders. House financial disclosure statements show that Mr. DeLay's travel costs totaled $9,029 and that the costs for five members of his staff totaled $55,033. It listed the sponsor as the National Center for Public Policy Research.
Bobby R. Burchfield, a lawyer for Mr. DeLay, declined to comment, as did the National Center for Public Policy Research. Jonathan Blank, managing partner at Preston Gates & Ellis in Washington, said the firm had represented Chelsea but would not discuss whether the organization had helped pay for Mr. DeLay's trip.
Dan Allen, a spokesman for Mr. DeLay, said the congressman had filed forms stating that the Moscow and Britain trips were paid by the National Center for Public Policy Research.
Eric Lipton and Monica Borkowski contributed reporting for this article.
A 3rd DeLay Trip Under Scrutiny
1997 Russia Visit Reportedly Backed by Business Interests
By R. Jeffrey Smith and James V. Grimaldi
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, April 6, 2005; Page A01
A six-day trip to Moscow in 1997 by then-House Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) was underwritten by business interests lobbying in support of the Russian government, according to four people with firsthand knowledge of the trip arrangements.
DeLay reported that the trip was sponsored by a Washington-based nonprofit organization. But interviews with those involved in planning DeLay's trip say the expenses were covered by a mysterious company registered in the Bahamas that also paid for an intensive $440,000 lobbying campaign.
It is unclear precisely how the money was transferred from the Bahamian-registered company to the nonprofit.
The expense-paid trip by DeLay and four of his staff members cost $57,238, according to records filed by his office. During his six days in Moscow, he played golf, met with Russian church leaders and talked to Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin, a friend of Russian oil and gas executives associated with the lobbying effort.
DeLay also dined with the Russian executives and two Washington-based registered lobbyists for the Bahamian-registered company, sources say. One of those lobbyists was Jack Abramoff, who is now at the center of a federal influence-peddling and corruption probe related to his representation of Indian tribes.
House members bear some responsibility to ensure that the sponsors for their travel are not masquerading for registered lobbyists or foreign government interests, legal experts say. House ethics rules bar the acceptance of travel reimbursement from registered lobbyists and foreign agents.
In this case, travel funds did not come directly from lobbyists; the money came from a firm, Chelsea Commercial Enterprises Ltd., that funded the lobbying campaign, according to the sources. Chelsea was coordinating the effort with a Russian oil and gas company -- Naftasib -- that has business ties with Russian security institutions, the sources said.
Aides to DeLay, who is now the House majority leader, said that despite the presence during the trip of the two registered lobbyists, DeLay thought the nonprofit organization -- the National Center for Public Policy Research -- was funding the trip on its own. Suggestions to the contrary have come to light in media reports only in the past few weeks, an aide said.
"The trip was initiated by the National Center," spokesman Dan Allen said, "and they were the ones who organized it, planned it and paid for it." Sources connected to the trip say, however, that Abramoff, acting at the behest of his Russian-connected client, Chelsea, brought the idea to the center.
Questions on Three Trips
The 1997 Moscow trip is the third foreign trip by DeLay to be scrutinized in recent weeks because of new statements by those involved that his travel was directly or indirectly financed by registered lobbyists or a foreign agent.
Media attention focused on DeLay's travel last month after The Washington Post reported on DeLay's participation in a $70,000 expense-paid trip to London and Scotland in 2000 that sources said was indirectly financed in part by an Indian tribe and a gambling services company. A few days earlier, media attention had focused on a $106,921 trip DeLay took to South Korea in 2001 that was financed by a tax-exempt group created by a lobbyist on behalf of a Korean businessman.
DeLay on March 18 portrayed criticism of his trips and close ties to lobbyists as the product of a conspiracy to "destroy the conservative movement" by attacking its leaders, such as himself. "This is a huge, nationwide, concerted effort to destroy everything we believe in," DeLay told supporters at the Family Research Council, a conservative Christian group.
The three foreign trips at issue share common elements. The sponsor of the Moscow trip, the Capitol Hill-based National Center for Public Policy Research, also sponsored the later London trip. The center is a conservative group that solicits corporate, foundation and individual donations.
Also, Abramoff not only joined DeLay in Moscow but also helped organize DeLay's subsequent London trip. Abramoff also filed expense reports indicating he paid for some of DeLay's hotel bill in London, according to a copy obtained by The Post.
Edwin A. Buckham, who was DeLay's chief of staff in 1997 and then became a Washington lobbyist for major corporations, participated in two of the three trips. In 1997, he visited Moscow twice -- once with DeLay -- and on one of these trips he returned via Paris aboard a Concorde jet with a ticket he told the Associated Press in 1998 had been financed by the National Center.
Buckham also joined DeLay on the Korea trip. Buckham did not respond to messages left by The Post.
Untangling the origin of the Moscow trip's financing is complicated by questions about the ownership and origins of Chelsea, the obscure Bahamian-registered company that financed the lobbying effort in favor of the Russian government that targeted Republicans in Washington in 1997 and 1998. Those involved in this effort also prepared and coordinated the DeLay visit, individuals with direct knowledge about it said.
In that period, prominent Russian businessmen, as well as the Russian government, depended heavily on a flow of billions of dollars in annual Western aid and so had good reason to build bridges to Congress. House Republicans were becoming increasingly critical of U.S. and international lending institutions, such as the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) and the International Monetary Fund, which were then investing heavily in Russia's fragile economy.
Unlike some House conservatives who scorn such support as "corporate welfare," DeLay proved to be a "yes" vote for institutions bolstering Russia in this period. For example, DeLay voted for a bill that included the replenishment of billions of dollars in IMF funds used to bail out the Russian economy in 1998.
A DeLay aide said he tried to reform these institutions through the legislative process. DeLay voted to fund these agencies because their financing was usually included in appropriation bills that he generally supported, the aide said. They also noted that OPIC had the strong backing of the energy industry, including companies from Texas that received OPIC financing.
Meetings in Moscow
The Russian campaign is detailed in disclosures filed with the House by lobbyists. Those records state that Chelsea, with an address listed variously as a post office box on the British island of Jersey -- a tax haven off the French coast -- or a law firm in the Bahamas, paid at least $440,000 to fund lobbying aimed at building "support for policies of the Russian government for progressive market reforms and trade with the United States," according to lobbying registration documents.
The Washington offices of two lobbying and law firms collected the fees. Preston Gates Ellis and Rouvelas Meeds LLP -- where Abramoff then worked -- received $260,000 in 1997 and less than $10,000 in 1998; Cadwalader Wickersham and Taft LLP was paid $180,000 in 1997 and less than $10,000 annually for the next three years, according to the registrations. Their listed lobbying targets included members of the House and Senate and officials of the State Department and the Agency for International Development.
"One of the functions of the lobbying effort was to encourage U.S. policymakers to visit Russia and to learn more about Russia," Ellen S. Levinson, a lobbyist then working on the Chelsea account at Cadwalader, said in an e-mailed response to questions.
She said Preston Gates used its "contacts with policy institutes and congressional offices" to arrange these trips. Preston Gates said in a written statement that it does not comment on its work for clients.
In a Cadwalader memo dated May 6, 1997, and obtained by The Post from another source, Levinson depicted the DeLay trip as one of six organized that year as part of the lobbying effort. Others included an "advance team" that visited Moscow later that month and a visit by "think tank" experts in June. A copy of the memo was sent to Abramoff.
A total of six members of the two lobbying firms participated in these trips, according to those involved. Levinson and two Preston Gates lobbyists were members of the "advance team."
During the third visit, Cadwalader lobbyist Julius "Jay" Kaplan joined DeLay and Abramoff at a "fancy dinner" in Moscow, according to one of those present -- a circumstance first reported last month in an article about the trip in National Journal's Congress Daily.
Breaking with traditional practice for congressmen traveling overseas, DeLay did not contact the State Department in advance or meet with officials at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow regarding his meeting with Chernomyrdin, according to a department spokeswoman who said she checked with 10 people at the embassy then or responsible for facilitating congressional trips.
Allen, DeLay's spokesman, said the State Department was not contacted because "the National Center was responsible for the arrangements on the trip, including setting up the meetings. Beyond that, members of Congress aren't required to have the State Department present at meetings with leaders from other countries."
Last month, Amy Ridenour, director of the National Center, posted a statement on her organization's Web site in response to questions about DeLay's trip to Russia stating that the center itself had "sponsored and paid" for all the expenses associated with it. Ridenour and her husband also took part in the visit.
But a person familiar with planning for the trip said Abramoff -- who has long been close to DeLay -- approached the National Center with the idea for the trip on behalf of Kaplan and his client, Chelsea. That person said the expenses by the center were in turn replenished by "an American trust account affiliated with a law firm" that the person declined to name.
Kaplan declined to be quoted for this article, citing what he called "lawyer-client privilege." But another person with direct knowledge about the trip arrangements said that it was Chelsea -- which had the registered Washington lobbyists in its employ -- that "gave the money to NCPPR to pay for the trip."
This person, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to protect his business interests, added: "I didn't see anything wrong there. All these foundations get money from somewhere, and they give it out." Moreover, the source said, "this was the Russians' way of doing business then -- moving money from one firm to another."
Who Financed Travel?
The question is: Who stood behind Chelsea, and thus ultimately financed the trip? A regular office for the firm could not be located by The Post, in Moscow or at its two listed addresses; its Bahamian registration ended in 2000, officials there said. Efforts by The Post to find the three men -- one Belgian, one British, one Russian -- named in lobbying registrations as Chelsea investors or owners in lobbying disclosures were unsuccessful.
A spokeswoman for Cadwalader, Paula Zirinsky, said the firm had no contact information for anyone from Chelsea, because "persons that worked on that matter have not been with the firm since 1997." Jonathan Blank, managing partner of the Washington office for Preston Gates, similarly said his firm had no current contact information for Chelsea.
In interviews, however, five individuals with direct knowledge of the lobbying effort separately described executives of a diversified Russian energy firm known as Naftasib as being intimately involved in the lobbying.
Naftasib, which oversees interests in mining, oil and gas, construction and other enterprises from a four-story unmarked building in downtown Moscow, says it is a separate company from Chelsea but acknowledges seeking to cultivate friends in Washington in 1997.
In a written statement issued Friday in response to questions from The Post, Marina Nevskaya, Naftasib's deputy general manager, explained that her firm "wanted to foster better understanding between our country and the United States, and felt that if these trips were successful they would foster a better overall climate that could ultimately benefit Naftasib as well as other Russian enterprises."
Nevskaya said her company "did not finance in any manner" the DeLay trip or the others described in Levinson's memo. But she said Naftasib "did host and pay for some dinners for participants in some of the trips, organized a few other special events . . . and may have provided minor courtesies, such as some auto pickups and dropoffs for some visitors during one or more of the trips."
She also acknowledged providing "advice about trip logistics" before they occurred and meeting trip participants. Nevskaya did not offer details, but those involved in organizing DeLay's trip said he met with Nevskaya and was escorted around Moscow by the general manager of Naftasib, Alexander Koulakovsky. DeLay has also met with Nevskaya and Koulakovsky in Washington since then, according to several sources with direct knowledge of the contact.
During the June 1997 trip to Moscow by "think tank" experts -- one of the scheduled visits listed in Levinson's memo -- several participants said they got the impression that Preston Gates was the organizer, Naftasib was the ultimate financier and that the trip was a dry run for DeLay's visit.
"It was done through or under the auspices of NCPPR," said Bart Adams, a North Carolina journalist who joined the expense-paid trip. But he said he recalls hearing that "the money was coming from a Russian oil company."
David Lowe, an official at the National Endowment for Democracy, said he was recruited to join the trip by the Preston Gates firm; former Senate aide James P. Lucier, who also was on the trip, said Naftasib's executives played such a large role that they "seemed to be the clients of Preston Gates," a claim the firm denies. "Some American investment or tie was the end goal," said a third participant, "and the plan was to bring over some congressmen" later.
A publicist who works for Abramoff attorney Abbe David Lowell said Abramoff did lobby for Chelsea but not for Naftasib. The publicist said Abramoff thought "bringing a greater understanding of Russia to American decision makers was and is good for America."
The efforts by Naftasib's executives to curry favor among Republicans -- including DeLay -- sowed controversy at the time among conservatives. A journal published by a Washington think tank, the American Foreign Policy Council, claimed within a few days after DeLay's trip ended that it was actually "sponsored" by Naftasib. The journal -- the Russian Reform Monitor -- also highlighted what it characterized as Naftasib's tight connections to the Russian security establishment.
The journal quoted promotional literature for Naftasib that described the firm as a major shareholder in Gazprom, the state-controlled oil and gas giant. The literature also said Natfasib's largest clients were the ministries of defense and internal affairs. The literature also states that Nevskaya was an instructor at a school for Russian military intelligence officers. She declined to address those claims in response to questions from The Post.
Steve Biegun, who was then a senior Russia expert for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and later served as executive secretary to the National Security Council during President Bush's first term, said he deliberately blocked a meeting that Nevskaya sought with Jesse Helms (R-N.C.), then the committee chairman.
"They were a client of the lobbying firm Preston Gates," said Biegun, who is now a Ford Motor Co. vice president for international governmental affairs. "I made some calls . . . and got enough warning signs" to ensure that Helms avoided dealing with the firm. Biegun said the information he obtained from his sources was "nothing that would stand up in court" but he worried that in this period, "a lot of unsavory figures from Russia were buying their way into meetings and getting their pictures taken, to put on the wall back in Moscow."
"I just had my doubts, and nobody did anything to allay them," Biegun said. "I did not know who either of them really were."
Asked to comment, Blank, Preston Gates's Washington managing partner, said in a written statement: "Chelsea was our only client. Naftasib was not our client. We did work with Naftasib representatives when their interests coincided with our client's." Blank added that "we are confident that the individuals still with the firm who were involved at the time acted ethically, appropriately, and in service of the client."
Abramoff left Preston Gates at the end of 2000.
Staff writer Susan Schmidt, research editor Lucy Shackelford, and researchers Alice Crites and Madonna Lebling contributed to this report.
DeLay's Ex-Aides Building Washington Lobbying Empires (Update1)
April 6 (Bloomberg) -- One of the surest paths to riches in Washington is to have these five words on a resume: ``Office of Representative Tom DeLay.''
Eleven lobbyists who once worked for the Texas Republican and House majority leader helped bring in at least $45 million in fees for their firms in the past two years. By comparison, former aides of House Speaker Dennis Hastert lobbying during that period helped bring in about $2.1 million.
Along the way, Delay's former assistants have aided clients such as ChevronTexaco Corp., Wyeth and Reynolds American Inc. in achieving legislative victories. They have also given DeLay the kind of Washington-insider clout he once criticized when Democrats were in power.
Like the Democrats of the late 1980s and early 1990s, DeLay is under fire now. Lobbyists with ties to the House majority leader have sparked investigations by two Senate committees.
``This is very damaging for the political system,'' said Amo Houghton, a Republican who represented a congressional district in upstate New York for 18 years before retiring in January. ``It doesn't help the Republican Party. It doesn't help anybody in politics.''
`Strongly Held Beliefs'
Many of the more than 200 companies, coalitions and trade groups that have hired former DeLay employees as lobbyists since he became House Republican leader in January 2003 have gained from those ties as he championed their causes.
DeLay spokesman Dan Allen said his boss took those positions because of his ideological convictions, which he said are common knowledge among lobbyists.
``They all know, as do people around him, that Congressman DeLay's legislative activities are based on strongly held beliefs and the corresponding merits of the legislation,'' Allen said in an interview. ``Everybody knows Congressman DeLay has built a strong record of advocating for lower taxes, open trade and a strong and free market.''
Susan Hirschmann, who served as DeLay's chief of staff until 2002, helped her Washington-based firm, Williams & Jensen PLLC, earn at least $1.4 million in fees from Madison, New Jersey-based drugmaker Wyeth in the past two years. That's the second-highest total among the 216 or so clients of DeLay alumni.
Drug Benefit
Hirschmann lobbied Congress to add a prescription-drug benefit to Medicare that would prevent the government from negotiating lower prices, according to disclosure records compiled by PoliticalMoneyLine, a nonpartisan group that tracks money in politics. She also worked to curb class-action lawsuits; Wyeth has set aside more than $21 billion to pay claims that its diet drugs caused heart and lung complications in patients.
Both measures, which were strongly backed by DeLay, are now law. Hirschmann declined to comment on her activities on behalf of the company; Wyeth had no immediate comment.
DeLay, 57, an 11-term congressman, also sought over Senate opposition legislation to protect oil companies from being sued for using MTBE, a gasoline additive that was found to contaminate groundwater.
The provision, which has held up passage of a bill setting U.S. energy policy, was backed by the Washington-based American Petroleum Institute, a trade group for companies such as San Ramon, California-based ChevronTexaco.
The institute paid $400,000 and ChevronTexaco paid $60,000 to the Federalist Group, a lobbying firm that employed former DeLay legislative director Drew Maloney to help press for the energy bill. Another DeLay alumnus, former legislative assistant Chris Lynch, also worked at the Federalist Group.
Essential Provision
Edward Murphy, group director for refining and marketing at API, said it's ``absolutely necessary'' that the MTBE provision be in the energy bill. ``We would not support an energy bill that did not include it,'' he said. ChevronTexaco had no immediate comment.
Maloney organized an energy-industry fund-raiser in June 2002 for two DeLay-affiliated political-action committees that featured DeLay and lobbyists from Reliant Energy Inc. and El Paso Corp., both of Houston; Tulsa, Oklahoma-based Williams Cos.; Atlanta- based Mirant Corp.; and Topeka, Kansas-based Westar Energy Inc. Maloney didn't return two phone calls seeking comment.
DeLay's involvement in the fund-raiser drew a rebuke from the House Ethics Committee in October 2004. It ``created the appearance that donors were being provided with special access,'' Chairman Joel Hefley, a Colorado Republican, and ranking Democrat Alan Mollohan of West Virginia said in a statement.
Altria and Reynolds
When the Senate voted in 2004 to link a multimillion-dollar buyout of tobacco farmers with a provision allowing the Food and Drug Administration to regulate the industry, DeLay objected, saying it was an attempt to ban tobacco through a ``back-door regulatory process.'' The Senate agreed to drop the FDA provision.
The Senate bill had the backing of the U.S.'s biggest tobacco company, New York-based Altria Group Inc., which didn't employ DeLay alumni. Winston-Salem, North Carolina-based Reynolds American, the No. 2 company, opposed FDA regulation; it has paid at least $90,000 in lobbying fees since 2003 to the Alexander Strategy Group, whose chairman, Ed Buckham, preceded Hirschmann as DeLay's chief of staff.
Former Deputy Chief of Staff Tony Rudy and Karl Gallant, the former executive director of DeLay's Americans for a Republican Majority political-action committee, also work at the firm. Gallant lobbied for Reynolds on tobacco regulation, according to federal disclosures.
``You try to identify those firms which you think will have the resources and the contacts, the access, to get your point of view across to elected officials,'' Reynolds spokesman John Singleton said. Buckham didn't return two telephone calls and an e- mail seeking comment.
Remaking K Street
The track record of DeLay's alumni underlines the success he and fellow Republicans have had in reshaping the ranks of Washington lobbyists over the last decade with what they call the ``K Street Project,'' after the Washington street that houses many lobbying firms. The campaign encourages businesses and trade groups to hire Republicans.
``There are just a lot of people down on K Street who gained their prominence by being Democrat and supporting the Democrat cause, and they can't regain their prominence unless they get us out of here,'' DeLay said in the Washington Post in 1995. ``We're just following the old adage of, `Punish your enemies and reward your friends.'''
In January of that year, the Republicans took control of Congress for the first time in 40 years, pledging to end what their election manifesto, the ``Contract With America,'' called the Democrats' ``cycle of scandal and disgrace.''
$66 Million
Former DeLay press secretary Michael Scanlon's public- relations firm, Capitol Campaign Strategies, has taken in $66 million since 2001, according to the Senate Indian Affairs Committee. And Hirschmann helped bill at least $4.8 million for her lobby firm last year, according to disclosure reports.
Companies employed by former DeLay staffers and their executives gave more than $420,000 to DeLay's fund-raising committees after he became majority leader, according to Federal Election Commission filings.
That doesn't include the money that clients, including Reliant Energy and Reynolds American, contributed to a legal- defense fund set up for DeLay. Each company donated $5,000 in 2003, with Reynolds giving another $5,000 in 2004.
Alexander Strategy Group, the lobby firm run by Buckham, employed Christine DeLay, the congressman's wife, from 1998 to 2002, according to DeLay's personal financial-disclosure forms. Christine DeLay is also paid more than $4,000 a month by the Americans for a Republican Majority PAC for her fund-raising work, according to Federal Election Commission records.
$500,000 to Wife
Since 2001, Tom DeLay's political action and campaign committees have paid his wife and daughter more than $500,000, the New York Times reported today, citing Federal Election Commission documents and Texas fund-raising records. Christine DeLay couldn't immediately be reached for comment.
In addition to the 11 DeLay alumni who work at lobby firms, at least six others have worked as Washington lobbyists for companies and trade groups. Among them is former DeLay chief of staff Kenneth Carroll of New Orleans-based Entergy Corp. Carroll declined to comment.
Scanlon and his colleague, Jack Abramoff, are the subject of probes by the Senate Indian Affairs and Finance committees over the fees paid by six Indian tribes from 2001 to 2004.
Overseas Trips
Buckham has been the focus of media attention since a March report in the Washington Post linked him to the Korea-U.S. Exchange Council. DeLay took a trip to South Korea in August 2001, which was paid for by the council and was set up by Alexander Strategy Group for South Korea's Hanwha Group, according to the report. Justice Department records show the council had registered days before the trip as a foreign agent, and House rules bar members from taking trips paid for by such groups.
DeLay took a 1997 trip to Moscow that was paid for by business interests lobbying in support of the Russian government, the Washington Post reported today, citing four unidentified people with firsthand knowledge of the travel.
DeLay denied allegations he violated ethics rules by accepting two trips funded by interest groups, and said he is ``anxious'' to be cleared by the House ethics committee.
`Baseless' Allegations
``We want to work with the ethics committee to prove how baseless these and other allegations are,'' DeLay told reporters in Washington on March 15.
A Texas grand jury last year indicted three DeLay associates in connection with an investigation into illegal political fund- raising. The charges relate to their work for Texans for a Republican Majority, a group DeLay help start in 2001 that aided Republicans in taking control of the state legislature.
Clients of Alexander Strategy Group and the Federalist Group gave $145,000 to the group for the 2002 elections, according to Texans for Public Justice, an Austin-based watchdog group. DeLay's Americans for a Republican Majority PAC paid Alexander Strategy more than $114,000 during the 2002 election in consulting fees, according to Internal Revenue Service records. DeLay last year called the probe by Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle ``vindictive and partisan.''
Close to the Line?
``DeLay has always played it close to the legal and ethical line when he deals with money and politics,'' said Craig McDonald, director of Texans for Public Justice, which has called on the House to appoint a special counsel to consider the ethics complaints. ``DeLay has privatized his former staff members to create an army for special interests.''
DeLay's office said his aides' post-Congress careers just prove that he attracts some of the best people to work for him. ``Over the years, Congressman DeLay has been privileged to have many talented and dedicated staffers,'' said Allen, his spokesman. ``They've gone on to a wide range of careers after departing the office.''
DeLay's Ex-Aides Building Washington Lobbying Empires (Update1)
April 6 (Bloomberg) -- One of the surest paths to riches in Washington is to have these five words on a resume: ``Office of Representative Tom DeLay.''
Eleven lobbyists who once worked for the Texas Republican and House majority leader helped bring in at least $45 million in fees for their firms in the past two years. By comparison, former aides of House Speaker Dennis Hastert lobbying during that period helped bring in about $2.1 million.
Along the way, Delay's former assistants have aided clients such as ChevronTexaco Corp., Wyeth and Reynolds American Inc. in achieving legislative victories. They have also given DeLay the kind of Washington-insider clout he once criticized when Democrats were in power.
Like the Democrats of the late 1980s and early 1990s, DeLay is under fire now. Lobbyists with ties to the House majority leader have sparked investigations by two Senate committees.
``This is very damaging for the political system,'' said Amo Houghton, a Republican who represented a congressional district in upstate New York for 18 years before retiring in January. ``It doesn't help the Republican Party. It doesn't help anybody in politics.''
`Strongly Held Beliefs'
Many of the more than 200 companies, coalitions and trade groups that have hired former DeLay employees as lobbyists since he became House Republican leader in January 2003 have gained from those ties as he championed their causes.
DeLay spokesman Dan Allen said his boss took those positions because of his ideological convictions, which he said are common knowledge among lobbyists.
``They all know, as do people around him, that Congressman DeLay's legislative activities are based on strongly held beliefs and the corresponding merits of the legislation,'' Allen said in an interview. ``Everybody knows Congressman DeLay has built a strong record of advocating for lower taxes, open trade and a strong and free market.''
Susan Hirschmann, who served as DeLay's chief of staff until 2002, helped her Washington-based firm, Williams & Jensen PLLC, earn at least $1.4 million in fees from Madison, New Jersey-based drugmaker Wyeth in the past two years. That's the second-highest total among the 216 or so clients of DeLay alumni.
Drug Benefit
Hirschmann lobbied Congress to add a prescription-drug benefit to Medicare that would prevent the government from negotiating lower prices, according to disclosure records compiled by PoliticalMoneyLine, a nonpartisan group that tracks money in politics. She also worked to curb class-action lawsuits; Wyeth has set aside more than $21 billion to pay claims that its diet drugs caused heart and lung complications in patients.
Both measures, which were strongly backed by DeLay, are now law. Hirschmann declined to comment on her activities on behalf of the company; Wyeth had no immediate comment.
DeLay, 57, an 11-term congressman, also sought over Senate opposition legislation to protect oil companies from being sued for using MTBE, a gasoline additive that was found to contaminate groundwater.
The provision, which has held up passage of a bill setting U.S. energy policy, was backed by the Washington-based American Petroleum Institute, a trade group for companies such as San Ramon, California-based ChevronTexaco.
The institute paid $400,000 and ChevronTexaco paid $60,000 to the Federalist Group, a lobbying firm that employed former DeLay legislative director Drew Maloney to help press for the energy bill. Another DeLay alumnus, former legislative assistant Chris Lynch, also worked at the Federalist Group.
Essential Provision
Edward Murphy, group director for refining and marketing at API, said it's ``absolutely necessary'' that the MTBE provision be in the energy bill. ``We would not support an energy bill that did not include it,'' he said. ChevronTexaco had no immediate comment.
Maloney organized an energy-industry fund-raiser in June 2002 for two DeLay-affiliated political-action committees that featured DeLay and lobbyists from Reliant Energy Inc. and El Paso Corp., both of Houston; Tulsa, Oklahoma-based Williams Cos.; Atlanta- based Mirant Corp.; and Topeka, Kansas-based Westar Energy Inc. Maloney didn't return two phone calls seeking comment.
DeLay's involvement in the fund-raiser drew a rebuke from the House Ethics Committee in October 2004. It ``created the appearance that donors were being provided with special access,'' Chairman Joel Hefley, a Colorado Republican, and ranking Democrat Alan Mollohan of West Virginia said in a statement.
Altria and Reynolds
When the Senate voted in 2004 to link a multimillion-dollar buyout of tobacco farmers with a provision allowing the Food and Drug Administration to regulate the industry, DeLay objected, saying it was an attempt to ban tobacco through a ``back-door regulatory process.'' The Senate agreed to drop the FDA provision.
The Senate bill had the backing of the U.S.'s biggest tobacco company, New York-based Altria Group Inc., which didn't employ DeLay alumni. Winston-Salem, North Carolina-based Reynolds American, the No. 2 company, opposed FDA regulation; it has paid at least $90,000 in lobbying fees since 2003 to the Alexander Strategy Group, whose chairman, Ed Buckham, preceded Hirschmann as DeLay's chief of staff.
Former Deputy Chief of Staff Tony Rudy and Karl Gallant, the former executive director of DeLay's Americans for a Republican Majority political-action committee, also work at the firm. Gallant lobbied for Reynolds on tobacco regulation, according to federal disclosures.
``You try to identify those firms which you think will have the resources and the contacts, the access, to get your point of view across to elected officials,'' Reynolds spokesman John Singleton said. Buckham didn't return two telephone calls and an e- mail seeking comment.
Remaking K Street
The track record of DeLay's alumni underlines the success he and fellow Republicans have had in reshaping the ranks of Washington lobbyists over the last decade with what they call the ``K Street Project,'' after the Washington street that houses many lobbying firms. The campaign encourages businesses and trade groups to hire Republicans.
``There are just a lot of people down on K Street who gained their prominence by being Democrat and supporting the Democrat cause, and they can't regain their prominence unless they get us out of here,'' DeLay said in the Washington Post in 1995. ``We're just following the old adage of, `Punish your enemies and reward your friends.'''
In January of that year, the Republicans took control of Congress for the first time in 40 years, pledging to end what their election manifesto, the ``Contract With America,'' called the Democrats' ``cycle of scandal and disgrace.''
$66 Million
Former DeLay press secretary Michael Scanlon's public- relations firm, Capitol Campaign Strategies, has taken in $66 million since 2001, according to the Senate Indian Affairs Committee. And Hirschmann helped bill at least $4.8 million for her lobby firm last year, according to disclosure reports.
Companies employed by former DeLay staffers and their executives gave more than $420,000 to DeLay's fund-raising committees after he became majority leader, according to Federal Election Commission filings.
That doesn't include the money that clients, including Reliant Energy and Reynolds American, contributed to a legal- defense fund set up for DeLay. Each company donated $5,000 in 2003, with Reynolds giving another $5,000 in 2004.
Alexander Strategy Group, the lobby firm run by Buckham, employed Christine DeLay, the congressman's wife, from 1998 to 2002, according to DeLay's personal financial-disclosure forms. Christine DeLay is also paid more than $4,000 a month by the Americans for a Republican Majority PAC for her fund-raising work, according to Federal Election Commission records.
$500,000 to Wife
Since 2001, Tom DeLay's political action and campaign committees have paid his wife and daughter more than $500,000, the New York Times reported today, citing Federal Election Commission documents and Texas fund-raising records. Christine DeLay couldn't immediately be reached for comment.
In addition to the 11 DeLay alumni who work at lobby firms, at least six others have worked as Washington lobbyists for companies and trade groups. Among them is former DeLay chief of staff Kenneth Carroll of New Orleans-based Entergy Corp. Carroll declined to comment.
Scanlon and his colleague, Jack Abramoff, are the subject of probes by the Senate Indian Affairs and Finance committees over the fees paid by six Indian tribes from 2001 to 2004.
Overseas Trips
Buckham has been the focus of media attention since a March report in the Washington Post linked him to the Korea-U.S. Exchange Council. DeLay took a trip to South Korea in August 2001, which was paid for by the council and was set up by Alexander Strategy Group for South Korea's Hanwha Group, according to the report. Justice Department records show the council had registered days before the trip as a foreign agent, and House rules bar members from taking trips paid for by such groups.
DeLay took a 1997 trip to Moscow that was paid for by business interests lobbying in support of the Russian government, the Washington Post reported today, citing four unidentified people with firsthand knowledge of the travel.
DeLay denied allegations he violated ethics rules by accepting two trips funded by interest groups, and said he is ``anxious'' to be cleared by the House ethics committee.
`Baseless' Allegations
``We want to work with the ethics committee to prove how baseless these and other allegations are,'' DeLay told reporters in Washington on March 15.
A Texas grand jury last year indicted three DeLay associates in connection with an investigation into illegal political fund- raising. The charges relate to their work for Texans for a Republican Majority, a group DeLay help start in 2001 that aided Republicans in taking control of the state legislature.
Clients of Alexander Strategy Group and the Federalist Group gave $145,000 to the group for the 2002 elections, according to Texans for Public Justice, an Austin-based watchdog group. DeLay's Americans for a Republican Majority PAC paid Alexander Strategy more than $114,000 during the 2002 election in consulting fees, according to Internal Revenue Service records. DeLay last year called the probe by Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle ``vindictive and partisan.''
Close to the Line?
``DeLay has always played it close to the legal and ethical line when he deals with money and politics,'' said Craig McDonald, director of Texans for Public Justice, which has called on the House to appoint a special counsel to consider the ethics complaints. ``DeLay has privatized his former staff members to create an army for special interests.''
DeLay's office said his aides' post-Congress careers just prove that he attracts some of the best people to work for him. ``Over the years, Congressman DeLay has been privileged to have many talented and dedicated staffers,'' said Allen, his spokesman. ``They've gone on to a wide range of careers after departing the office.''
DontTreadOnMe wrote:rabel22 wrote:You guys are fooling yourselves. As long as there is a republican congress Delay can do anything he wants to.
could be...
but i doubt that there's many republicans in congress that are willing to go down with the good ship "hot tub tommy".
While it is certainly possible that this witch hunt will destroy DeLay, I don't think it's been established yet that any ships are sinking here.
Are Honors for Physicians the New Political Diploma Mill?But to receive the award in person at a special two-day workshop in Washington last month, Mueller found out that he would have to make a $1,250 contribution to the National Republican Congressional Committee. It was a disturbing discovery, he said.
"To actually buy your award and it's not from your peers or from your patients or from the community that you serve, it's really deceptive," said Mueller, author of "As Sick As It Gets: The Shocking Reality of America's Healthcare, A Diagnosis and Treatment Plan." "It's not being honest, it's just not right."
To see what the award process was all about, Mueller sent in his $1,250 contribution and ABC News paid for his travel to Washington for the scheduled events March 14-15, which included a tax-reform workshop as well as appearances by House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, and President Bush.
Mueller soon found he was not the only winner. There were hundreds of Physicians of the Year present, many of whom found the criteria for being selected equally as opaque.
"You know, nobody knows, so don't feel bad about it," Mueller said one attendee told him. "I think that more than likely it's to get us Republicans together under the pretense that maybe you will work a little harder to keep Republicans in office."
Another winner was more blunt. "I don't think it's worth it from the standpoint of your own qualifications, but I think it's worth it to support the party," he said. "Basically it's one big monstrous donation to the party."
"It's like the old diploma mills," said Fred Wertheimer, president of Democracy 21, a government watchdog group. "It's the kind of scam that we've seen congressional investigations look at when they take place in the private sector. But here, since members of Congress are doing it, we're not going to see any investigation."
The Republicans, under the direction of DeLay, came up with the idea for the awards five years ago as a means of helping to raise funds for the congressional campaign efforts for their party.
In fact, signs reading "A Celebration of the House Republican Majority" and "Moving America's Agenda" decorated the hotel ballroom where last month's events were held.
A Republican congressional spokesman said DeLay stopped direct involvement in the program two years ago, but the majority leader was the guest speaker this year at the awards ceremony luncheon, giving a speech that included proposals well-tailored to the doctors' interests.
"We need to reform our legal system so that predatory personal injury lawyers can't clog our courts and drive doctors out of business with abusive lawsuits," he said. "Today in America, a doctor in a small town is trying to determine how he can continue his practice after learning of his new higher malpractice premiums."
Mueller said most of the talk at the sessions was about marketing, lawyers and taxes, and that he was met with silence when trying to raise the issue of the lack of affordable health insurance.
"This is the real crisis," Mueller said he told the congressmen on one panel at the events. "Please, I am begging you."
The congressmen said nothing and quickly called for a question from another Physician of the Year, Mueller said .
Later that day, Bush spoke at the NRCC dinner, thanking the attendees for their "investment" in the party. "You're making a wise investment about the future of this country, an investment made upon principle, an investment made upon freedom, an investment that will help us stay a prosperous nation, and an investment that will allow each and every American to rise to his or her own God-given talents," he said. A Republican spokesman said there were thousands of doctors around the country content with their Physicians of the Year awards, and that there was nothing about the program to apologize for.
ABC News' Rhonda Schwartz, Simon Surowicz and Jessica Wang contributed to this story.
April 06, 2005
KEYWORD SEARCH: RUSSIA & TOM DELAY. Rereading The Washington Post's masterful reconstruction of the cash flow behind House Majority Leader Tom DeLay's 1997 Moscow junket -- "underwritten by business interests lobbying in support of the Russian government" -- what jumped out at me was the final section about the ultimate source of the cash that paid for the trip. In case you just scanned it, reread it and consider the highlighted portions below. They suggest that more is at play here than simply another lobbying scandal:
The question is: Who stood behind Chelsea [Commercial Enterprises], and thus ultimately financed the trip? A regular office for the firm could not be located by The Post, in Moscow or at its two listed addresses; its Bahamian registration ended in 2000, officials there said. Efforts by The Post to find the three men -- one Belgian, one British, one Russian -- named in lobbying registrations as Chelsea investors or owners in lobbying disclosures were unsuccessful.
A spokeswoman for Cadwalader, Paula Zirinsky, said the firm had no contact information for anyone from Chelsea, because "persons that worked on that matter have not been with the firm since 1997." Jonathan Blank, managing partner of the Washington office for Preston Gates, similarly said his firm had no current contact information for Chelsea.
In interviews, however, five individuals with direct knowledge of the lobbying effort separately described executives of a diversified Russian energy firm known as Naftasib as being intimately involved in the lobbying.
Naftasib, which oversees interests in mining, oil and gas, construction and other enterprises from a four-story unmarked building in downtown Moscow, says it is a separate company from Chelsea but acknowledges seeking to cultivate friends in Washington in 1997.
In a written statement issued Friday in response to questions from The Post, Marina Nevskaya, Naftasib's deputy general manager, explained that her firm "wanted to foster better understanding between our country and the United States, and felt that if these trips were successful they would foster a better overall climate that could ultimately benefit Naftasib as well as other Russian enterprises."
...those involved in organizing DeLay's trip said he met with Nevskaya and was escorted around Moscow by the general manager of Naftasib, Alexander Koulakovsky. DeLay has also met with Nevskaya and Koulakovsky in Washington since then, according to several sources with direct knowledge of the contact....
The efforts by Naftasib's executives to curry favor among Republicans -- including DeLay -- sowed controversy at the time among conservatives. A journal published by a Washington think tank, the American Foreign Policy Council, claimed within a few days after DeLay's trip ended that it was actually "sponsored" by Naftasib. The journal -- the Russian Reform Monitor -- also highlighted what it characterized as Naftasib's tight connections to the Russian security establishment.
The journal quoted promotional literature for Naftasib that described the firm as a major shareholder in Gazprom, the state-controlled oil and gas giant. The literature also said Natfasib's largest clients were the ministries of defense and internal affairs. The literature also states that Nevskaya was an instructor at a school for Russian military intelligence officers. She declined to address those claims in response to questions from The Post. (emphasis added)
The United States of America cannot have one of its top congressional leaders taking money from people advocating for Russian military-intelligence and defense interests as part of a lobbying deal. It simply cannot. It is unacceptable for a critical leader in the U.S. government to be taken on a junket by groups working for foreign military interests or lobbying on their behalf, even if indirectly and without his knowledge. He should have known: 1997 was a banner year for stories on congressional junkets, and many members of Congress were stepping back their overseas travel at that time or had begun to more closely scrutinize foreign trip offers out of concern for adverse publicity.
This is what the Russia Reform Monitor had to say about Naftasib in 1999:
The Russian oil company that has supplied fuel to the [Russian spy ship] Liman, the [Russian naval reconnasaince vessel] Kildin, and the rest of the Black Sea Fleet [in the Adriatic], has been bankrolling a political influence operation in Washington. Working through a cutout in the Bahamas, NaftaSib is paying a prominent D.C. law and public relations firm, Preston Gates Ellis & Rouvelas Meeds, to influence congressional staff, lawmakers, editorial writers and journalists. A NaftaSib executive involved in the influence effort is tied to GRU military intelligence. Most of the targets are conservative Republicans. In 1995, the same lobbyists were paid to represent the then Milosevic-controlled government of Montenegro, Yugoslavia. (emphasis added)
Naftasib was also "a major donor" to the National Security Caucus Foundation, according to a February 1997 report in the Tennessee Knoxville News-Sentinel (Nexis.com only). According to the paper, that foundation had a fictional board of directors, unbeknownst to members of Congress who traveled on trips it organized:
U.S. Rep. John J. Duncan Jr., who has refused to take foreign trips at taxpayers' cost, accepted an invitation last month to go to Bosnia and Serbia at the expense of a private foundation boasting of backing from the nation's top leaders, including all four living former presidents -- Jimmy Carter, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan and George Bush.
Duncan said he did not check out the foundation because he and other House members were impressed by the number of prominent Americans listed as board members on the group's letterhead....But after Duncan, a Knoxville Republican, returned from the seven-day trip, he learned that his sponsor, the National Security Caucus Foundation, had never contacted any of the 35 political and business superstars on its letterhead to see if they wanted to associate with the organization. According to the foundation, 11 other members of Congress have traveled overseas with the organization.
In addition to deceiving members of Congress, the foundation, which began operations last September, is being run on a meager budget out of its director's home. With a three-employee staff, it has an operating deficit of $ 45,000 covered by the director's savings.
"It's wrong on my part," said Gregg Hilton, the foundation's executive director, when he was asked why his group used the false letterhead when inviting congressmen on trips. "There's no fraudulent intention or anything like that."...
....Hilton conceded he had not contacted any of the 35 dignitaries. The 35 had been associated with a previous organization, the American Security Council Foundation, with which Hilton worked for about 15 years. When that group became inactive, Hilton started the new foundation and printed the same dignitaries' names on the new group's letterhead. He said he had planned eventually to seek permission for use of the names. (emphasis added)
The National Security Caucus Foundation also funded a trip to Bosnia for troubled Ohio Rep. Bob Ney in 1996, according to a 1997 story in The Hill (Nexis.com only). Ney has also come under scrutiny by ethics watchdogs for his connections to disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff.
The National Security Caucus Foundation appears to no longer exist, or, if it does, it lacks a Web site. The Wayback Machine has the goods on their old Web site, including the press page, which consists of a link to a single article: "Bring Back the Junkets!" from a 1997 issue of U.S. News & World Report.
And guess who was on the NSCF's real board of directors, according to its Web site? None other than Jack Abramoff, of Preston Gates Ellis & Rouvelas Meeds!
Gregg Hilton, the head of the NSCF, now works with other defense lobbying and educational groups, including a revived American Security Council Foundation. Who is Hilton? According to his own Web site:
Defense Daily called him "the eyes and ears of the defense lobby." ...Hilton serves as Executive Director of three non-profit and bipartisan organizations. In this capacity, he has had an active legislative role on practically every major foreign policy issue on Capitol Hill. The groups include the American Security Council (which was established in 1955), the Institute for American Strategy, and the American Security Council Foundation (which were both established in 1958). ASC is an advocacy organization, while the ASC Foundation and its Institute for American Strategy are tax exempt 501 (c)(3) educational organizations....
Hilton also served as Editor of the National Republican Congressional Committee's monthly magazine Congress Today, and ASC's newsletter, National Security Report....For five years Hilton had a full page column in the weekly conservative newspaper Human Events....
Hilton has appeared or his work has been discussed in such publications as Thunder on the Right by Alan Crawford; The Conservative Decade by James C. Roberts; The New Right: We're Ready to Lead by Richard Viguerie; The New Right Network by the Americans for Democratic Action; and The Fear Brokers by former U.S. Senator Thomas J. McIntyre (D-N.H.).
In short, Hilton is a movement conservative who takes members of Congress on overseas trips -- and used to do so through a foundation that used a fake list of supporters, deceived Congress, and had Jack Abramoff on its board.
There is doubtless a lot more here to be uncovered as this story about the nexus between movement conservatives, lush overseas junkets, and foreign interests moves forward. But this is clearly no longer just a story about DeLay's relationship with a couple of American lobbyists; it's about the relationship of a cadre of movement conservative lobbyists with foreign business and government interests.
--Garance Franke-Ruta
Posted by jdubner at 06:10 PM
DeLay's Lavish Island Getaway
Embattled Lobbyist Arranged DeLay Trip
R
Rep. Tom DeLay, his wife, daughter and several aides stayed for free at a beachfront resort in Saipan, in a trip arranged by lobbyist Jack Abramoff. (ABCNEWS.com)
By BRIAN ROSS
Abramoff, who was working for the law firm Preston Gates Ellis and Rouvelas Meeds LLP at the time, was paid $l.36 million by Saipan officials and wrote in a memo obtained by ABC News that such congressional trips were "one of the most effective ways to build permanent friends on the Hill."
Abramhoff is now under federal investigation for his lobbying activities, including Saipan, according to a source familiar with the investigation.
Andrew Blum, a spokesman for Jack Abramoff's attorney, said on behalf of Abramoff that they did not comment on pending grand jury investigations.
Also, Blum defended Abramoff's lobbying efforts in Saipan, including DeLay's trip. "Any money paid to Preston Gates from the CNMI was for work that Mr. Abramoff and his team did on behalf of the CNMI during the course of their six year representation," he said. "Rep. Delay was one of over 100 members of Congress and their staff to visit the CNMI during that time.
After touring one garment plant, DeLay praised Saipan at the New Year's Eve party attended by top factory owners.
"You represent everything that is good about what we are trying to do in America," DeLay said at the time to his audience, which included Saipan officials and factory owners.
Later, according to a recording made by a human rights investigator posing as a potential customer, one of the prominent factory owners said that DeLay had promised to stop the reform laws.
Do you know what Tom told me?" Willie Tan said. "He said, 'Willie, if they elect me Majority Whip, I make the schedule of the Congress, and I'm not going to put it on the schedule.' So Tom told me, 'Forget it, Willie. No chance.' "
At least three other DeLay free trips connected to Abramoff and other lobbyists have been coming under intense scrutiny. A 1997 trip to Moscow cost roughly $57,000, a trip to London and Scotland in the year 2000 cost $70,000, and a trip in 2001 to South Korea came to nearly $107,000.
Government watchdog groups found DeLay's trips to be troubling.
"There appears to be a pattern here of foreign travel being improperly paid for and that needs to be investigated by the House ethics committee," said Fred Wertheimer, president of Democracy 21.
Blum said it was a worthwhile, common practice in Washington for lobbyists to accompany the congressmen on such trips.
"The tradition of lobbyists traveling with members of Congress to visit various jurisdictions so that they could learn about issues that impact the Congress and government policy is well known," he said. "Mr. Abramoff once again is being singled out by the media for actions that are commonplace in Washington, D.C., and are totally proper," he said.
A representative for Delay said that under disclosure rules, because the Saipan government funded his trip, Delay did not have to include it on his financial disclosure statements.
With Friends Like These...
A lunchtime chat with a lobbyist close to Tom DeLay suggests he may be headed for hotter water.
From 1989:
H.R. 3660, the Government Ethics Reform Act, will strengthen and clarify existing House rules. Issues such as the ban on congressional honoraria, limits on gifts and travel, increased financial disclosure, restrictions on outside income, and conflict of interest rules will all be tightened to reflect the growing and changing role of Government service...
I am especially pleased to support this comprehensive overhaul of House ethics rules and conflict of interest laws because it is an important first step in enhancing the ethical standards throughout Government and adjusting compensation for individuals whose skills are essential to the quality of service Government provides to the American people. It is my hope that honor will be restored to elected offices so that we can continue to work for the values that we have fought for in the past with quality representation in the future.
From 1992:
Now, the House needs new management, and that is Republican management. In my opinion, it will not do any good to get rid of the present Speaker or the present leadership, because what will happen is more will come in and it is the arrogance of power that we are talking about here. What is going on here is arrogance of power. We need a change in management...
The Democrats could offer us another candidate, but it just will not change the system. Only when the public and Republican pressure becomes so great does the Democrat leadership act. We need new leadership which will act because it is right, not because they have been caught in coverups and scandals.
And 1994:
Mr. Speaker, I just am saddened by these kinds of issues. I believe very deeply in this institution, and I would hope that others do, too, and understand that, No. 1, the Justice Department is another branch of our Government, that we are empowered and mandated to clean our own house. Yet some in this body do not seem to understand that and would rather see mud thrown at this institution than to get to the bottom of problems in this institution.
Boy, the audacity and arrogance certainly seems to have no bounds with these rabid neocons...
"Only when a majority of the committee completes a draft is a bill brought to the full committee for a formal vote that usually divides along party lines. Gone are the floor debate and the long days of making law in the House chamber. Most Americans don't know that the House now meets only two days a week, doesn't debate, and disposes of legislation in rolling votes, in which long lines of unrelated bills are rolled for up and down votes with an efficiency rarely achieved by O'Hare Airport air traffic controllers. Bills are brought to the floor under closed rules, or amended closed rules, which allow no amendments and only an up or down vote. The committee system, floor debate, bipartisan collaboration, social relations across party lines--all are as dated as the brass spittoons that once graced the members' lounges."
