ABAMOFF'S TAINTED TENTACLES REACH DEEP INTO DELAY, INC.

Last night while having dinner with friends, we opened a rather fine bottle of champagne to toast the political demise of the man who masterminded the illegal gerrymandering of our state. DeLay not only drove the redistricting of the state of Texas, but he used his office to amass personal wealth and power at the expense of not only his constituents, but the American people, as a whole, to establish a political hegemony that puts corporate and GOP political interests above all else. He is one mean and really bad dude. The guy used to exterminate bugs. Now he annihilates all that doesn't match his interpretation of his party's ideology. Where DeLay is concerned, the GOP political ideology is a mere means for him to achieve personal wealth. Whether a Congressmen or bug man, neither salary can support a DeLay lifestyle: golf outings to Scotland, frequent vacations at 5 star and or resort hotels, travel by private jet, $115K “consulting’ jobs for one’s wife, sky box attendance at sporting events (hell, a ticket to a pro football game runs about $70.00 for seats just below the nose bleed section) and generous financial perks and cushy jobs for buddies. As more on the Abramoff scandal erupts in the traditional media, the real DeLay will emerge for all to see. It won't be a pretty picture.

MORE ON DELAY, INC., OR, THE ALEXANDER STRATEGY GROUP

You might recall that one of the main players for the Alexander Strategy Group, Brent Wilkes, had bribed Rep. Cunningham of California. What a lovely DeLay, Inc. firm.

By Anne Kornblut and Glenn Justice of the NYT

FOCUS ON 2ND FIRM TIED TO DELAY

HOWARD DEAN ON CNN THIS MORNING

I saw Howard Dean this morning on CNN. Dean stated in no uncertain terms to the thinly veiled right wing Wolf Blitzer that no Democrat is tied to Abramoff's palm greasings, as much as the RNC is working overtime to fabricate a scandal of "equal opportunity." Dean as usual held no punches, and in his traditionally blunt and hard-edged style he left ol' Wolfie boy spluttering and stuttering. LS

Below are partial transcripts of the interview with Dean sent tonight by Ken:

BLITZER: Should Democrats who took money from Jack Abramoff, who's now pleaded guilty to bribery charges among other charges, a Republican lobbyist in Washington ˜ should the Democrats who took money from him give that money to charity or give it back?

DEAN: There are no Democrats who took money from Jack Abramoff. Not one. Not one single Democrat. Every person named in this scandal is a Republican, every person under investigation is a Republican, every person indicted is a Republican. This is a Republican finance scandal. There is no evidence that Jack Abramoff ever gave any Democrat any money, and we've looked through all those FEC reports to make sure that's true.

BLITZER: [Stammering] But through various Abramoff-related organizations, and outfits, a bunch of Democrats did take money that presumably originated with Jack Abramoff.  (Presumably originated? Has Blitzer completely forgotten his job is to report facts? -K)

DEAN: That's not true either. There's no evidence for that either, there's no evidence...

BLITZER: What about Senator, what about, what about, what about Senator Byron Dorgan?

DEAN: Senator Byron Dorgan and some others took money from Indian tribes. They're not agents of Jack Abramoff. There's no evidence that I've seen that Jack Abramoff directed any contributions to Democrats. I know the Republican National Committee would like to get the Democrats involved in this. They're scared. They should be scared. They haven't told the truth, and they have misled the American people, and now it appears they're stealing from Indian tribes. The Democrats are not involved in this.

BLITZER: [Long pause, apparently getting direction in his earpiece] [Sigh] Unfortunately, we, uh, Mr. Chairman, we've got to leave it right there.

IF THE GOP HOPE THAT THE ABRAMOFF SCANDAL WILL FADE AWAY, THEY ARE DEAD WRONG

Abramoff is now referred to as the middle guy by the FBI, because there are bigger fish to fry, according to the piece below by Raw Story.com

Excerpt:

Another official involved with the probe told TIME that investigators are viewing Abramoff as “the middle guy”—suggesting there are bigger targets in their sights. The FBI has 13 field offices across the country working on the case, with two dozen agents assigned to it full time and roughly the same number working it part time. “We are going to chase down every lead,” Chris Swecker, head of the FBI’s Criminal Division, told TIME.

ABRAMOFF CASE FAR FROM OVER

ON BUSH WIRETAPPING.

It's hard to stay on top of all of the scandals for there are so many within the GOP. Mr. Frank Rich of the New York Times wrote a thought provoking and powerful piece on Bush/Cheney wiretapping today. When Bush and Cheney start venting and verbally killling the messenger, you know they are trying to cover something up. And it is usually something quite big and bad.

Excerpts:

That the White House's over-the-top outrage about the Times scoop is a smokescreen contrived to cover up something else is only confirmed by Dick Cheney's disingenuousness. In last week's oration at a right-wing think tank, he defended warrant-free wiretapping by saying it could have prevented the 9/11 attacks. Really? Not with this administration in charge. On 9/10 the N.S.A. (lawfully) intercepted messages in Arabic saying, "The match is about to begin," and, "Tomorrow is zero hour." You know the rest. Like all the chatter our government picked up during the president's excellent brush-clearing Crawford vacation of 2001, it was relegated to mañana; the N.S.A. didn't rouse itself to translate those warnings until 9/12.

Given that the reporters on the Times story, James Risen and Eric Lichtblau, wrote that nearly a dozen current and former officials had served as their sources, there may be more leaks to come, and not just to The Times. Sooner or later we'll find out what the White House is really so defensive about.

"THE WIRETAPPERS THAT COULDN'T SHOOT STRAIGHT"