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High-stakes players who gambled at the table with Casino Jack [Abramoff]
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| Contributor | ArmyDem |
| Last Edited | ArmyDem Dec 06, 2005 09:31pm |
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| Category | News |
| News Date | Wednesday, December 7, 2005 03:30:00 AM UTC0:0 |
| Description | By Josephine Hearn
In the fall of 2003, a butterfly in Louisiana flapped its wings. The American Press in Lake Charles reported that members of the gambling-rich Louisiana Coushatta Indian tribe were questioning lavish fees their leaders had paid to two Washington political insiders, lobbyist Jack Abramoff and public relations consultant Michael Scanlon.
Since then, the scandal surrounding Abramoff has metastasized into one of Washington’s most widespread corruption investigations, spreading to members of Congress, administration officials, lobbyists and activists. One longtime congressional observer has said the imbroglio “has the potential to be the biggest scandal in Congress in over a century.’’
Federal investigators signaled recently that their probe could implicate as many as six members of Congress and upwards of a dozen former congressional aides and lobbyists.
Four people have already been charged — Abramoff, Scanlon, his Florida business associate Adam Kidan and David Safavian, the former top procurement official for the Bush administration — and one member of the House, Rep. Bob Ney (R-Ohio), has been subpoenaed and dubbed “Representative #1” in court documents describing his alleged misdeeds. Rumors abound that Abramoff is close to making a plea deal with prosecutors, a development that could speed future indictments.
Democrats hope the thickening miasma of corruption hanging over Republican-controlled Washington will translate to Democratic gains in the 2006 midterm elections, as long as none of their own becomes ensnared.
Republicans are bracing for the worst. |
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