DeLay associate tied to Abramoff probe(Ed Buckham)

[maddezmom]

Source: AP

By MICHAEL HEDGES
Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle Washington Bureau

Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The federal probe into corruption related to disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff could be inching closer to former U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay of Sugar Land as investigators focus on a former DeLay chief of staff who later employed the Republican leader's wife.

DeLay has not been charged with any crime in the Abramoff case. And his lawyer, Richard Cullen, said federal investigators have given DeLay no indication that he is a target of the ongoing grand jury probe, such as subpoenaing documents.

But prosecutors could decide within weeks whether to bring charges against former DeLay staff chief Edwin Buckham, according to sources close to the investigation who spoke on the condition that they not be identified. The decision should give a clear signal on whether DeLay remains in legal jeopardy, the sources said.

In recent days federal prosecutors have served notice that their sprawling Abramoff case has remained very much alive.



Read more: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/politics/4746052.html

[salin]

1. About time

This set up by Buckham/DeLay was so corrupt. Set up a nonprofit with the mission to promote family values. Get bucks from those hoping for access to DeLay (like millions, Irrc, from some Russion oil interests, and another cool large amount from the govt of the Marianas) - interests (and respective activities of DeLay) have NOTHING to do with the stated mission of the organization. It was a slush fund - pure and simple.

[maddezmom]

3. lots of these crooks in the news lately

Doolittle crossed path of Abramoff conspirator
Edited on Wed Apr-25-07 06:55 AM by maddezmom
Man who pleaded guilty was a Marianas witness at 1999 House hearing.

WASHINGTON -- They both were in their ascendancy, blind to the troubles ahead. And both were involved in an issue that helped a mutual friend, superlobbyist Jack Abramoff, and one of his lucrative clients, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.

Tuesday, Mark D. Zachares pleaded guilty to conspiracy in federal court in connection with his association with Abramoff, while Rep. John Doolittle, R-Roseville, awaited the next move from the Department of Justice after agents raided his Virginia home on April 13.

~snip~

The hearing ostensibly was to look into reports of worker abuse in garment factories in the commonwealth. Critics, including the Clinton administration, said lax federal immigration policies had permitted Asian-owned companies to open low-wage plants there using immigrant labor and to sell their goods in the United States under a "Made in the USA" label.

The critics said fundamental immigration and labor reforms were necessary because the plants had become prison-like sweatshops. Reports of worker abuses alarmed human rights organizations.

But Republican leaders believed what was going on in the commonwealth was, as former Rep. Tom DeLay, R-Texas, said in its defense, a Petri dish for capitalism.


http://www.sacbee.com/111/story/160605.html

Romney's Deputy Campaign Manager Resigns
Ex-MA Gov. Mitt Romney's deputy campaign manager has resigned, a Romney aide confirmed to the Hotline Tuesday.

Jason Roe, who functioned as the campaign's top daily operating officer, told campaign officials today that he planned to leave.

"Jason informed the campaign on Tuesday that he decided to resign, citing familial obligations," said Matt Rhoades, Romney's communications director, in a prepared statement. "We understood and accepted what must have been a hard decision."

Roe, like several top Romney aides, commutes between Boston and Washington. Roe's wife lives in the D.C. area.

Roe was hired by the campaign after serving as chief of staff to Rep. Tom Feeney since 2003. He has also managed several congressional races. On Monday, the St. Petersburg Times reported that FBI agents had asked Feeney about a 2003 golfing trip with convicted ex-lobbyist Jack Abramoff. The Times also reported that the FBI asked the newspaper to turn over an e-mail Roe sent to the paper. The e-mail's contents, according to the paper, included the sentence: "Any assertion that this office knew Abramoff paid for the Scotland trip is a g--d----- lie."

more:http://hotlineblog.nationaljournal.com/archives/2007/04/romneys_deputy.html

[salin]

5. I missed the Roe story.

Wow - I would bet there are a lot of people sweating on this Hill today.

[gratuitous]

6. Every last one of them a Republican!

What kind of long-shot odds are we talking about, here? Remember all the palaver about how Abramoff was an equal opportunity corrupter, spreading his filthy lucre to Democrats and Republicans alike? Even Katie Couric repeated the story, and when her Today show guest challenged her on whether Democrats had been on the Abramoff Gravy Train, she said she'd check into that and get back to us. And yet every target of this investigation turns out to be a Republican, a Republican aide, a Republican campaign worker, or some other Republican apparatchik. My goodness, we know that Ms. Couric wouldn't just irresponsibly repeat some baseless canard made up by the delusional right, so I'm looking forward to all the Democrats to fall out of the Abramoff Tree o' Corruption. But doggone it, where are all of them???

[salin]

2. self delete

got caught a little buggie and duped my own post.

[formercia]

4. One little fish closer to the Big Fish

Time to use a DuPont Spinner.

[babylonsister]

7. I SO want to see da bugman eat dirt! Getting closer, and I'll bet he

knows it!

[Lone_Star_Dem]

8. Sure he knows it

He's just hoping beyond all hope the defense walls he's erected hold strong. Just as we're hoping beyond all hope that they crumble from all the chunks that have been taken out of them since this investigation began.